The combat sport of “Vale Tudo” that had developed in Brazil from the 1920s was brought to the United States by the Gracie family in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
If we look back on the history of mixed martial arts, it first started in 1993, when Rorion Gracie, a respected member of the original Gracie family, decided to put a world wide challenge to all the best martial artists to prove which martial art was the best one of all.
Off course he had in mind at the time to prove that Brazilian jiu jitsu was the best one. So he decided to put his brother Royce Gracie to represent the Gracie family and the Jiu Jitsu style in this world tournament with pretty much no rules and no time, this was known as Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Royce Gracie at the time fought many martial artists from many weights and styles in an 8 man tournament all on the same night and showed the entire world how important and effective Brazilian Jiu jitsu was in combat situations.
That event created a fever all around the world and motivated thousands of martial artist to start training BJJ as there was a sudden desire to learn these effective and devastating techniques.
Royce Gracie continued to win and went with out a loss for 3 years (before the limitation of times and rules where introduced), these world tournaments are called today UFC and they are the Biggest Mixed Martial arts organization in the world.
A few years after many others mixed martial arts organizations come up following the UFC and today mixed martial arts has evolved, becoming almost a new style in itself. However as we move forward with MMA it is important to remember that BJJ played and continues to play a big part in the creation and evolution of this new evolving art.
Daniel Lima
Fight Club Jiu Jitsu
