The First UFC Champion | Royce Gracie: What He Says About Jiu-Jitsu, Fear and Fighting Smart

Royce Gracie won the first UFC tournament in 1993, and in a long conversation with Georges St-Pierre at his academy he explains what he believes made jiu-jitsu work: technique, control, defense first and a calm mind. St-Pierre opens by saying Royce changed his life. At 16, after his karate teacher died, he was close to quitting martial arts, until a friend rented a VHS tape of the first UFC and he watched Royce win the tournament.

This article walks through that interview, topic by topic. Royce's statements are marked as his own recollections and opinions, and the facts we could confirm independently are marked separately. If you want his biography, see our profile of Royce Gracie, the first UFC Hall of Famer. This piece focuses on what he said.

These facts are confirmed against UFC.com and published biographies.

Royce is a member of the Gracie family, which opened its first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, California in 1989, with Royce and his brothers Rorion, Rickson and Royler. For the family story, read our profile of Rorion Gracie.

Royce says that in 1993, most people believed a real fight was a standing brawl, like boxing or kickboxing. He remembers martial arts magazines such as Inside Karate and Black Belt not treating jiu-jitsu, judo or wrestling as martial arts at all. In his words, the attention went to the standing, striking styles: karate, kung fu, taekwondo.

St-Pierre, who held a karate black belt, says he did not always understand what was happening when he watched Royce fight, because Royce was using techniques he did not know. Royce adds that wrestlers and judo players still come to him and thank the Gracie family for putting grappling on the map as a martial art. He also notes that fight scenes in movies used to show only kicks and punches, and that more grappling appears now.

Royce is modest about it. He says St-Pierre never saw him fighting, he saw a technique, and he describes himself as a vehicle to show his family's technique.

Royce explains that the Gracie family wanted to find out if its jiu-jitsu worked against other styles. After his father and uncles learned the art in Brazil, he says, it became a quest to see whether it worked against a boxer, a karate fighter or a taekwondo or kung fu stylist. The idea was to take away the rules, the time limit, the weight divisions and the gloves, and see what happened in a real fight.

He pushes back on the idea that the family was being arrogant. He says they were not trying to put other styles down. They wanted to see if their own method held up. When the family moved to the United States, he says, the challenge continued, first in a garage and later at the academy. The goal was not to beat up visitors to prove a point. It was to turn them into students, which he describes as an experiment that ended with people becoming students.

He also gives a short definition of the art itself: jiu-jitsu means the art of softness, and it can be soft and nice while also hard and strong. The Gracie challenge is well documented, and Wikipedia describes it as a standing invitation to no-rules matches in the family's gym. For more on the early UFC and its history, see our guide to why BJJ is essential in the UFC.

There are two accounts of why Royce represented the family, and they do not conflict. Royce says his father and his brother Rorion chose him because they knew he would listen. His father's instruction before the fights, he says, was not to hurt his opponents, to win with clean technique and not to make anyone bleed, and he adds that his mother gave him the opposite advice.

Rorion has said elsewhere that he picked Royce because his smaller, thinner frame would show how a small person can beat a bigger one with technique. Royce was the smallest competitor in the tournament.

Royce recalls that the first UFC had no weight classes and almost no rules. When St-Pierre says you could not bite or gouge eyes but could do everything else, Royce agrees. He also recalls no gloves and no time limit. It was also a tournament, which meant multiple fights in a night. He says UFC 2 was four fights in one night.

These are his recollections of a very early event, and the rules changed a great deal in later years. We include them here because they explain why technique and conditioning mattered so much in his era.

Royce says he does not believe in fear. Before his fights, he says, he would put his hands on his father's shoulders and his father would lead him to the octagon, which was a way of taking calm energy from his brothers, father and cousins. He says he would sleep in the locker room for up to an hour before a fight, and then trust his preparation to run on automatic pilot.

His view is that fear is a product of imagination. He points out that small children are not afraid, and that adults teach them fear, though he distinguishes fear from stupidity. He also says he found that the crowd that cheers for you when you win will cheer for your opponent when they win, so he did not fight to entertain people.

This is a personal philosophy, not a training method, but it is a useful way to think about nerves before a competition.

The idea Royce returns to most is defense first. He says his father always taught that you have to learn to play defense, and that if you do not lose, the question becomes how you will win. In his words, he does not decide how he will win, he waits for the opponent to make a mistake. That might lead to an arm, a leg or a choke, or the match might go a long time, which is where endurance matters.

He demonstrates the idea in a drill with St-Pierre: keep the opponent from touching your face, and control their arms. His father's rule, he says, is that a touch to the face counts as a hit. He also describes using the leg, your longest weapon, to keep an opponent at distance, and controlling the head so the opponent cannot hit you.

St-Pierre says he learned from this approach that it is better to avoid being hit than to accept it. For our guide to turning defense and control into submissions, read our list of BJJ submission tips for beginners and our overview of BJJ grappling.

Royce gives a simple order of priorities: know what you are doing, have the endurance to keep going, then add power. He compares it to a car. You need to know how to drive, because the best car in the world is useless otherwise. You also need fuel, since a car with no gas goes nowhere. Power comes last. He says many people switch the order, so they are strong and technical but run out of energy.

If you want to build that endurance on the mats, our tips for avoiding exhaustion in BJJ training are a good place to begin.

Royce says he fought Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 3 the wrong way. He had heard Kimo weighed about 250 pounds and was very strong, so he tried to match strength, at 178 pounds himself. He won, but says he was exhausted and had only 10 to 15 minutes before his next fight.

He recalls being put in a cold shower, having his gi put back on, and asking his brother for watermelon juice, which he says shows how dehydrated he was. When he walked back into the cage, he says his vision went dark and he told his brothers and father he could not see. This is his own account of a long-ago night, but the lesson is clear: against a bigger, stronger opponent, trading strength for strength can cost you everything you need later.

Royce calls Ken Shamrock his biggest rival, and says they fought three times. In the first fight, he says Shamrock weighed about 220 pounds to his 178, and he choked him in under a minute. He notes that Shamrock was known for the heel hook and had won many fights with it.

St-Pierre asks how he prepared. Royce says there was very little information on opponents back then, perhaps a photo or a highlight from Japan, so he knew Shamrock was a shoot fighter and that those fighters use lower leg locks. In his view, jiu-jitsu prepares you for all aspects of a fight, so he had an idea of what to expect.

He also explains why he used palm strikes. Without gloves, he says, hitting the head with a fist risks breaking your hand, and his father had asked him not to draw blood.

The second fight, at UFC 5 in 1995, went about 36 minutes and ended in a draw. Royce says the third fight, which was his last, ended in a knockout, his first. He explains that the plan was based on how Shamrock behaved: stay away, make the fight dull and wait until he lost patience before moving in. That is his account, and we have not verified the details, but it shows how much he valued studying a rival's temperament.

St-Pierre says he used a similar idea against Johny Hendricks, baiting a big swing and ducking under for a takedown, and Royce praises how hard St-Pierre was to prepare for because opponents could not tell whether he would stand or shoot.

Royce argues that rounds and time limits changed the sport, and he is not a fan of them. His position is that if you give a heavier opponent a weight advantage, you should give the smaller fighter time, because in a short match the heavier athlete usually wins. As an example he cites a fight with Dan Severn, whom he says was on top of him for about 16 minutes, and he says a 15-minute fight decided by judges would have gone to Severn.

He thinks adding rounds copied the boxing model while the sport was fighting for legitimacy. If you want to find the best fighter, he says, let them fight for 15 to 25 minutes, or even one long round with no break. This is his opinion, and many people prefer rounds and weight classes because they make competition fairer and safer. Our guide to weight classes in combat sports explains that side of the argument.

Royce says the original quest was to find which martial art is best, and the answer changed the sport. Once jiu-jitsu showed it could beat other styles, he says, everyone had to learn it. The question then shifted from which style is best to who is the best fighter. Today, he says, kids grow up learning jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, kickboxing and karate, which is mixed martial arts.

St-Pierre and Royce agree that jiu-jitsu is a mandatory part of an MMA fighter's toolbox, and that without it, a fight becomes one style against another. Both men are jiu-jitsu advocates, so treat that as their shared view.

Royce says you have to know when to stop, because the body does not recover as fast and one extra punch can do damage. He still travels about eight months of the year teaching seminars. He says training in the Gracie way is intense and makes you sweat but does not involve damage, and he says he stays at the same weight, around 178 to 180 pounds, by not pushing his body to the limit every time and by not drinking or smoking.

St-Pierre compares an athlete's body to a knife you sharpen for war but should not wear down in practice. For BJJ players, the practical takeaway is to match intensity to the purpose of the session. This is general training advice, not medical advice.

Royce describes the Gracie diet as eating habits, not a weight-loss plan. He says the family eats everything, but combines foods for easy digestion, and he believes heavy meals can lower your energy and immune system. This is his personal view and we cannot verify it. Talk to a qualified professional before changing your diet.

When asked for his favorites, Royce names his father first. He says his uncle Carlos was the first to learn the art, but his father developed the defensive style and the use of leverage that make it work, and he credits him with developing the whole idea of MMA and the challenge. He says he enjoys watching Charles Oliveira because of his attitude. On who is the best pound-for-pound fighter today, he says it is hard to name one, because many fighters play the rules, and he would want the time limit removed to judge.

Royce's interview leaves BJJ students with five practical lessons.

1. Do not rush the finish. Defend first and wait for a mistake.
2. Control the head and arms. It limits what your partner can do.
3. Do not trade strength for strength with a bigger opponent. Use technique and pace yourself.
4. Build endurance on purpose. Technique runs out when you do.
5. Train smart. Intensity matters, but so does staying healthy.

Royce also wore a gi in the UFC, and the gi remains the foundation of Gracie jiu-jitsu. If you train in it, a well-fitting BJJ gi helps you practice the grips and control he describes, and our guide to how to choose a BJJ gi covers size, weave and shrinkage. If you are new to the name itself, our explainer on what BJJ stands for is a good start, and our list of the best Gracie fighters of all time continues the story.