A List of Interesting Roger Gracie Facts

Roger Gracie, ten times World Champion is the greatest fighter of all time. He never gets submitted by anyone in BJJ history. Roger Gracie, the living legend has a fabulous fighting and submission style that is very interesting and attractive. Let’s discuss some interesting facts of Roger Gracie.

1. Grandson of Carlos Gracie Sr.

Roger Gracie is honored to have various legends in his BJJ lineage as well as also in this ancestral lineage. Roger Gracie is the grandson of Carlos Gracie Sr. and the son of Reila Gracie who is the daughter of Carlos Gracie Sr. His father is also an 8th Degree Coral Belt who promoted him to 5th-degree Black Belt. 

Roger Gracie is promoted to Black Belt by a legend of BJJ history, Carlos Gracie Junior. He also got trained by his cousin Renzo Gracie.

2. Known as Goat

Roger Gracie is also known as GOAT (Greatest of All Time). He was defeated only 7 times in his all-Black Belt career and never submitted. He beat all legends of BJJ including Buchecha, Jacare Souza, and Ribeiro by submission and never submitted by them.

So this great work by Roger Gracie proved that he is the greatest BJJ Gi practitioner and everybody can be submitted by him but nobody can beat him.   

3. Never Submitted

Roger Gracie is well known for his defense and his ability to get escape from any difficult position. He is also very good at controlling his opponent and his opponent cannot do anything except give submission.

Roger Gracie was promoted to Black Belt in 2003 and fought his last bout in 2017. In his career of 15 years and 83 fights, nobody submitted him even once. He fought various legends of his time and submitted them all but never get submitted by anyone. 

4. High Submission Ratio

Besides his record of never getting submitted, he also owns a high submission rate. Out of his 83 fights in his Black Belt career, he won 62 fights with submission which is 82% of his all fights. No doubt this is a remarkable achievement which is never been seen in the fight history of any other fighter.  

5. Roger Gracie’s Toughest Submissions

Roger Gracie is famous for his submissions. When he overcomes his opponent, it is very difficult to get escaped. These are the words of Roger Gracie

“Once I have the mount, it is very difficult to escape.”

Top submission by Roger Gracie includes

Year	Event	Opponent	Method
2005	ADCC Championship	Shinya Aoki	Botinha
2005	ADCC Championship	Ronaldo Souza	RNC
2005	ADCC Championship	Xande Ribeiro	RNC
2005	ADCC Championship	Fabricio Werdum	RNC
2006	IBJJF World Championship	Marcelo Gracia	Choke from Back
2007	IBJJF World Championship	Romulo Barral	Choke from Back
2007	IBJJF World Championship	Drysdale Worlds	Submission
2009	IBJJF World Championship	Rafael Lovato	Cross Choke
2010	StrikeForce	Kevin Randleman	RNC
2017	Gracie Pro	Almeida Buchecha	Collar Choke

6. Who Has Beaten Roger Gracie?

Roger Gracie was only defeated 7 times in his Black Belt career. He never tapped and is defeated only due to points. One big name who defeated Roger 3 times on points is Xandre Ribeiro.

Olav Einemo also beat him in ADCC 2003 with points at the start of his Black Belt career. Other names who are able to defeat him are Ronaldo Souza (who defeated him twice) and Marcio Cruz.  

7. The Hall of Famer

Roger Gracie was honored to be the first person who is inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame. The management organization of the ADCC announced that he is the one who won two gold medals in the same year (in weight and open class) with a 100% submission rate. The organization also announced him 2007 Superfight champion.

In 2014, he is also included in the list of the IBJJF hall of fame due to his tremendous performance in IBJJF World Championships.

8. Ten Times World Champion in His Black Belt Career

Roger Gracie is the greatest Jiu-Jitsu fighter of all time. He is 10 times World Champion in his Black Belt Career and 4 times World Champion in colored belts career. He also won three gold and five silver medals in the absolute weight division. 

9. Submitted All his Opponents in ADCC 2005

In the history of the ADCC World Championship, it is never seen someone submit all his opponents in both weight and absolute division. Roger Gracie is honored to have this title in ADCC 2005, he submitted all his opponents with fabulous submission and won two gold medals in weight and absolute division.

10. Remain Stick to Basics of BJJ

Roger Gracie’s BJJ techniques are very basic and simple. He changed most complex positions and conditions into simple ones. Besides sticking to his basics, Roger Gracie is also famous for most completed fights. He overcame his opponents and dominated them till submission. His basic techniques always work.

John Danaher said about Roger Gracie that

“Mr. Gracie’s game is truly worthy of deep study. Once again we see the idea of a simultaneous proactive and reactive game. Mr. Gracie had a proactive positional game and a reactive submissions game. Very few people could impose a positional game in the manner in which Mr. Gracie did. Once he gained a position on the classic hierarchy, it was rare indeed for him to lose it – if he ever gained some form of positional advantage it was hell to take it back from him. This pressure could not be ignored by his struggling opponents. As they worked harder and harder to resist the positional pressure, their stance, posture, and movement became more vulnerable, and the opportunity for reactive submissions become more frequent and easier.”

11. One of the Tallest Athletes in BJJ

Roger Gracie is one of the tallest athletes in the BJJ world with a height of 6’4’’. His big height might be a factor that helps him to dominate his opponent. Roger Gracie, the Greatest of all time is a highly skilled big guy which cannot let someone stand in front of him. 

12. Roger Gracie’s Net Worth

Roger Gracie is a millionaire who has his own living place in London which is an expensive place to live and settles for a foreigner. It is not a wonder as Roger Gracie is the champion in BJJ and MMA.

He also has several affiliated gyms, his own academy, and online instruction sites. He also does big seminars on BJJ which are overcrowded with his fans. BJJ fights, gyms, and seminars are his sources of income.  

13. Roger Gracie’s Historic Fights

Roger Gracie Vs. Justin Garcia

Roger Gracie faced Justin Garcia in the ADCC 2005. This match is only 3 minutes long in which Roger Gracie changed the situation with his extraordinary fighting style. In this match, an important aspect of Roger Gracie is depicted that Roger can alter the situation at any moment.

Justin Garcia took down Roger at the start of the match and succeeded in full mount him. Roger Gracie tried to escape. But when he did not succeed, he applied full guard and strangled his head with a strong grip. Justin felt uncomfortable and tried to escape from the full guard.

But Roger took him down by using his legs and mount him completely. In the struggle to get an escape from the mount, Roger Gracie took back Justin and Submitted him with RNC.

Roger Gracie Vs. Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida

Roger Gracie faced Buchecha in his last fight which was held in 2017 Gracie Pro Jiu-Jitsu. Buchecha tried to go for a single leg various times but Roger did not let him take down Roger.

After some time, Roger pulled Buchecha and ended up in a position with Buchecha’s knee in Roger’s grip and Buchecha on top of Roger.

Roger actively took back of Buchecha and applied Collar Choke which persuade Buchecha to tap and give submission. Roger took less than a minute to submit Buchecha after pulling him down.

Roger Gracie Vs. Bruno Bastos

Roger Gracie faced Bruno Bastos in World Championship 2009. Both the fighters are executing great sportsmanship in this match.

Roger Gracie was taken down by Bruno Bastos in the beginning of the match. Roger applied full guard. Bruno tried to stand up to get escape from full guard but roger have a very good grip around his groin.

Bruno succeeded to get escaping from full guard but get his leg strangled in the rams of roger. Roger tried to take his back but Bruno moved actively this time also and get escaped.

Roger and Bruno both get two points for taking down each other one after the other. Roger Gracie completely mounts Bruno and submitted him with Cross Choke.

Roger Gracie Vs. Bernardo Faria

Roger Gracie fought with Bernardo Faria, the BJJ coach in the 2009 IBJJF World Championship. Roger Gracie took down Bernardo at the start of the match and completely mount him.

In the whole match, Bernardo tried to get escape but did not succeed. Roger Gracie ended this historic match against a BJJ coach in just 2 minutes by submitting him with Ezekiel.

Roger Gracie Vs. Rafael Lovato

In IBJJF World Championship 2009, Roger Gracie fought a fabulous bout with Rafael Lovato. Roger took down Lovato at the beginning of the match. He did not let him escape from his strong grip. Lovato tried his best to get escaped but Roger fully mounted him and submitted him with Cross Choke.   

14. Takeaways

Roger Gracie, grandson of Carlos Gracie is a big guy with a highly skilled personality. He is the greatest fighter of all time because he never gets submitted and has a high submission rate. He won 82% of fights with submission. Roger Gracie always sticks to the basic techniques of BJJ.

Photo Credit: @graciemagazine