Roger Gracie: Is He The Next Phenomenon?

There has been alot of talk recently about Roger Gracie, grandson of the late Carlos Gracie Sr. and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt. Perhaps the serious rarity is that his lineage actually comes through a Gracie woman (his mother is Reyla Gracie, and Roger took his mother's maiden name to honor the Gracie Jiu-jitsu lineage), but his jiu-jitsu seems unaffected.

At 6'4 and 220 pounds, Roger is also of a strange build for the Gracies, he's big. The Gracies have always been known for being a small, crafty clan and even the thicker, more muscular members of the family, like the legendary Rickson Gracie, have only been around 185 pounds.

While Roger isn't think, being 6'4 puts him four inches taller than his uncle Royce, one of the taller, lankier Gracies. In the modern age of MMA, with the establishment of weight classes, the Gracies' impact on the heavyweight division has been minimal, and their overall impact on the sport has suffered as a result. Roger Gracie and his cousins Ralek and Ryron are going to try and change all of that, by reintroducing the importance of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

While everyone in the sport studies Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in order to develop their submission game, the Gracies still feel that the experience and higher level of training and focus that they put into their submission game should give them the opportunity to overwhelm their opponents.

For the most part, this has worked in submission grappling, and Roger has been very successful, though he has fallen flat in a few of his finals matches in the open weight category.

Roger made him MMA debut last December against Ron Waterman, and though he gave up 50 pounds and a huge amount of experience to the UFC and Pride veteran, Gracie submitted him with an armbar three and a half minutes through the first round.

While Roger took a hiaitus to prepare of competition in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club and the Mundial (world championships for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu), he has expressed some desire in coming back to fight in MMA. While whether he will is questionable, it will be interesting to see how much success he can bring to his family in the years following the Gracie regime in the sport.