RIP: Ryan Gracie

I've been debating whether or not to talk about the death of Ryan Gracie for a while, and while it's not recent, it's significant.

It's important to realize that, when we talk about MMA fighters who die young the way that Ryan did, it's not just about their record, it's about the way that they fought and the way that they competed.

There's something that's weirdly nostalgic when I talk about Ryan Gracie, because even though he was never the best jiu-jitsu fighter, never the most notable brother, never the most dominant in the family, there was something about him that always made me excited when he was going to fight.

Ryan Gracie like to kill people, and when I was younger and wanted to see something visceral, Ryan's fights were on. For those who could not appreciate the technical nature of jiu-jitsu, Ryan was the most interesting Gracie, because he could win with a submission or he could win with a knockout, and he didn't really care which it was.

Perhaps that's what made him one of the most controversial figures in the Gracie family. Perhaps that's what made him the enigma that would often be described as a villain or a bad guy.

It's not strange to talk about a fighter who only had seven fights as a great fighter, as I believe Ryan was, but it is strange to talk about a guy who was only around for a short period of time as a legend. There are those who think that I might be romanticizing Ryan when I say that, but there is something legendary about the way that he fought, there was something about saying his name that reminds even the most traditional, calm jiu-jitsu practitioners of the most visceral practitioner in the martial art.

Ryan Gracie died, and while his death was under very strange circumstances, and his life was, at best, ethically questionable, he never lacked for an exciting performance, and he never neglected to put on a show.

He was not the greatest Gracie, and as an older and (at least I like to think) more mature fighter and fan, I feel strange that I once looked up to his visceral fighting style in my grappling training the same way that I looked up to Mike Tyson as a striker.

They were far from good role models, but they were, beyond a doubt, incredibly exciting for me to watch, and for me to misremember Ryan as anything less than one of my grappling heroes would do him a great disservice.

There are those in the grappling world who didn't much care for him, but Ryan Gracie deserves to be remembered, and I hope he will be.