BJJ Red Belt Carley Gracie: The Lion of Gracie Family

Carley Gracie is the 9th-degree Red Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has given all his life working for the development and promotion of BJJ throughout the world.

Carley Gracie was born in the Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. Like all other his family members, Carley was filled with a passion for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But unlike his family members, he did not start BJJ early in childhood. He started training after some years of his childhood. He spent his childhood mostly with his family stables as he loved horse riding. Born in Rio Grande do Norte. However, Carley spent most of his childhood in Teresópolis, which is a Brazilian Municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ).

Carley Gracie did not start training for BJJ when he was in Teresópolis. Moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he started training BJJ in Gracie’s academy. Carlos had 21 sons, and most of his sons were trained and coached by Carlos Gracie’s brother, Helio Gracie. But Carley has the privilege of getting trained under the founder and ultimate grandmaster of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Carlos Gracie. Maybe this was the reason that Carley Gracie has ruled over BJJ competitions.

Carley Gracie, at first, was coached by his father, Carlos Gracie. Later on, after some time, his father, Carlos, decided to hand over the coaching to his other son and older brother of Carley, Carlson Gracie. Carley did not train under his uncle Helio Gracie who trained many sons of Carlos.

Carlson and Carley were both considered the best pair in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They won many competitions from the Gracie family. People used to call them champions of the Gracie family. Because, at their time, both were winning the BJJ matches against anyone.

Carley Gracie is known as the lion of the Gracie family. This is because Carley is the only member of the Gracie family who is never defeated by anyone. Even in his family, Carley is the one who has won the BJJ matches against all his family members whom he fought against. He is the truly undefeated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion of history. He is still teaching students BJJ.

• The matter between Carley Gracie and Helio Gracie is very famous. Reila Gracie has described the whole matter in detail in her book “The Creator of the Dynasty.” Reila has written that the matter was started when Carley was with his horses. Helio and Rorian were also near Carley. Helio mocked Carley that he was dumb just like his horses. Listening to Helio’s remarks, Rorian started laughing.
• Carley did not take Helio’s remarks seriously, but he reacted angrily to Rorian laughing at him. He turned to Rorian and said that if you ever laughed again and mocked me, then I would punch you in your face. Helio also saw all this banter between Carley and Rorian. He turned to Carley and said, forget that I am your uncle and do what you can do with me. Saying this, Helio punched Carley. Carley responded by taking Helio down on the ground and punching Helio’s face. After the fight, which clearly Carley won against his uncle, Helio said to Carley that you are like a buffalo, which is filled with adrenaline.

All the credit for introducing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to America goes to Carley Gracie because he initiated it. Before him, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was mostly popular and played only in Brazil. Now, it has spread across the world and played globally. It all started with the US Marines. They had an interaction with Carley and asked him to teach BJJ. Carley taught them BJJ at their request. 

When US Marines returned to their base in the United States, the officials there noticed that they had significantly improved in combat skills, and they were impressed a lot. When they became aware that all of this happened because of BJJ taught by Carley Gracie, they invited him to the US and requested to teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In this way, BJJ became popular in the US. Later on, Carley went to many other countries and worked for the development and promotion of BJJ. Following is the complete story behind Carley being invited to United States and promoting BJJ there;

Carley said about the letter he received from America about his invitation. he said Some people want to know how Gracie Jiu Jitsu got to America. The letter came from America. I am invited to go to America. The Vietnam War was going on. They keep telling me to look; they're going to put you in a plane and ship you to Vietnam to go to the war, and you will never come back again. I was so enthusiastic about coming to this country. I decided whatever it took, I was going.

While telling the story of how two Americans came to him to learn BJJ, he said; when I was in Brazil, two American Marines walked into my Academy, and one of them had a very damaged face. I asked him what had happened, and he told me the story of going to a Taekwondo school, where the Korean guy punched him to show off to his students well, then he went to the American Consulate in Rio, where he was working at security with nine others American Marines and one of the lady told them if you want to learn a martial art in Rio it better you look for the Gracie family. They are the best martial art in the country.

Carley said that he started teaching those Americans; I started to train the American Marines. They invited others to come, and eventually, I started to teach in their homes. They made a big ring in the start to teach in their homes in the city of Santa Teresa near the American consulate, so they became very well prepared.

He said that six months later, there was a major tournament in Brazil. They participated in the tournament. So they went to the tournament and did very well. One of them became even Vice Champion. The Brazilian people started to look at me with ugly faces like I shouldn't have trained so well with the American Marines to beat the Brazilians.

The Marine Corps found out. Every Marine that comes from Rio to the consulate they are very powerful, and in martial arts, they overpower everybody that comes from different countries, and the American Marines are asked to come to America.

Carley said that he forgot to answer the letter. Eventually, a month and a half later, two American Marines walked into the academy with a uniform from the consulate. I thought I was going to be arrested. I don't know what was going on. They said look, we want to make sure that you received that letter because you didn't answer us. We are waiting for your answer. So they came officially and handed me the letter from the consulate to make sure I received that letter to come to America. Six months later, I was here in America teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This was the very beginning of Brazilian jiujitsu in America.

Carley Gracie was faced with yet another issue in his family. The issue was the usage of the trademark “Gracie.” Rorian had registered the trademark “Gracie” with his name. He thought that this would solve the issue of using the Gracie name illegally and if anyone in their family develops and promotes their work by using the name; “Gracie.” Carley started his own academy with the name Carley Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, but he could not use the name because of the trademark registered in the name of Rorian Gracie. Carley went to court. He made the reason that he was the first one to come to the USA and promoted, developed, and taught BJJ there. Both cousins fought the case in the court for many years. The result, however, came in the favour of Carley Gracie. The registration of the trademark name of Gracie on the name of Rorian was canceled.

Carley dominated the BJJ, and he was a BJJ champion for four years from 1969 to 1972 in both Vale Tudo and BJJ, after which he went to the United States and started teaching BJJ. He holds the record for getting the BJJ Black belt of seventh degree at the age of only 22.

Carley Gracie, with a passion for Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has been teaching for many years. He has not quit instructing BJJ students, even in his old age. Currently, he teaches BJJ at his academy, Carley Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which is in San Francisco. He also teaches in Europe, Northern California, and across the United States.

• When Carley Gracie was asked about Gracie's family's role in the creation of UFC, he said; After 10 years living here in America, as I was partying with the YMCA guys, I feel how much technique is in here. How much level of technique did this country have? I found out that a lot of people live in a world of fantasy. That is what makes the door open for the Gracie family. I think the Gracie family in Brazil lives in the real world. My father wanted everybody to live in the real world, and I noticed that it was easy to overpower people. They don't know our style here. Then, I started to convince the members of the family to come to America. I mentioned to them we could make the same thing here in America that we make in Brazil. Because similar fights like you call the heroes of the ring were going on in Brazil run by my father and. It was the same thing as today here in America; we call the UFC.
• Furthermore, he said that the UFC is nothing more but a copy of something that happened in Brazil. I convinced them to come to America. At that time, the family in Brazil was very tense from one to the other and was competing against each other because the outsiders couldn't compete against the Gracies. So, Gracies were competing against Gracies in Brazil. I suggested them to come to America. We don't have to compete against ourselves anymore. We put the whole country to compete with us, and you will see our results will be fantastic. You put a new idea in martial arts and revolutionized the martial arts world in America. We can see that today, the presence of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the UFC has actually revolutionized the martial arts not just in America but the rest of the world.

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