Renzo Gracie

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 PRIDE and Rings Career
4 Post-Japan Fight Career
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Renzo Gracie (born March 11, 1967) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist as well as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and mixed martial arts instructor.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. (178 cm) tall and has fought as an open weight competitor but primarily in the middleweight division. He is a veteran of the PRIDE Fighting Championships and last fought in Febrary of 2007 as a part of EliteXC: Destiny against Frank Shamrock.

Gracie has awarded a number of notable mixed martial artists BJJ black belts as well as train them. Some include, Matt Serra, Ricardo Almeida and to a lesser extent, Georges St. Pierre.

Early Career

Renzo Gracie made his professional mixed martial arts debut at the Desafio - Gracie Vale Tudo event which featured three fights, two of which involved members of the Gracie Family. The event took place on January 1, 1992 and Renzo defeated his opponent, Luiz Augusto Alvaraeda via rear naked choke 7.03 into round 1.

In 1995, Gracie defeated three men in a one night 8 man tournament, all via submission as a part of WCC 1 - First Strike.

Gracie's biggest test of his career to date came in November of 1996 against UFC 6 tournament champion, Oleg Taktarov. Gracie landed a vicious upkick a little under a minute into the fight which knocked Taktarov on his ass. He followed up the knockdown with a vicious short right hand to a clearly dazed Taktarov which earned Renzo the knockout victory.

PRIDE and Rings Career

Sporting a 5-0 record, Gracie was invited to fight on the first event held by the Japanese based promotion, PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Gracie fought Japanese fighter, Akira Shoji for thirty minutes, spread over three rounds. Shoji was able to negate Gracie's submissions for the duration, with the bout ruled a draw at the summation in accordance with PRIDE rules at the time.

Renzo returned at PRIDE 2 against another Japanese fighter in the form of Sanae Kikuta. After five, 10 minute rounds with next to no action, Gracie latched onto a guillotine choke at .43 of round 6 to earn himself his first PRIDE victory.

At PRIDE 8, Gracie defeated "The Diet Butcher" Alexander Otsuka via decision. A month after the Otsuka fight Gracie entered into the Rings organization's "King of Kings" tournament. In one night, Gracie defeated Wataru Sakata and former UFC heavyweight champion, Maurice Smith via first round arm bar submissions to move onto the quarter finals.

In February of 2002, at the Rings: King of Kings quarter finals, Gracie was defeated by Japanese fighter, Kiyoshi Timura via decision.

Six months later, Gracie returned to PRIDE against another Japanese legend in Kazushi Sakuraba. The fight with Sakuraba was one in a number of Sakuraba vs. Gracie matches with Sakuraba having already defeated Royce and Royler Gracie. In a gruesome ending to the bout, Sakuraba latched onto a kimura, eventually dislocating Gracie's elbow, who refused to tap. The referee halted the bout and Sakuraba was declared the winner. After the bout, Gracie praised Sakuraba's ground game and has also stated that the reason he did not tap was that he felt he could still have won even with the messed up arm.

At PRIDE 13, Gracie returned to action against Dan Henderson. In another brutal finish, Gracie was stopped by punches from the much larger Henderson, 1.40 into round 1.

Gracie got back on the winning track against Michiyoshi Ohara at PRIDE 17 before dropping decisions to Shungo Oyama at PRIDE 21 and Carlos Newton at PRIDE: Bushido 1.

The Newton loss marked Gracie's last fight for the PRIDE organization but Gracie still featured prominently on broadcasts as a infrequent guest commentator and interview subject.

Post-Japan Fight Career

Having not fought for nearly two years, Gracie signed to face (at the time) former UFC welterweight champion, BJ Penn at the K-1: World Grand Prix Hawaii event. The bout was deemed a grudge match after Penn had called out Gracie following Penn's decision victory over Rodrigo Gracie 8 months prior. Penn defeated Gracie via unanimous decision also.

Currently on a three fight losing streak, Gracie took another year and a bit off from fighting before returning to headline an IFL event against former UFC welterweight champion, Pat Miletich. At 3.37 of round 1, Gracie secured a flying guillotine choke which forced Miletich to tap.

In December of 2006, Gracie avenged his 2003 loss against Carlos Newton at another IFL event. This time, Gracie was on the winning end of the split decision.

In his most recent fight, Renzo Gracie faced former UFC middleweight champion, Frank Shamrock at EliteXC's first ever card, EliteXC: Destiny. Gracie was securing positional dominance for the majority of the fight with successful takedowns and the use of side-mount. However, in the second round while in side mount, Shamrock unloaded with two knees from the bottom which connected to Gracie's head. The fight was called after a dazed Gracie could not continue, awarding Renzo the disqualification victory.

Gracie has vowed to return to MMA, with a possibility of a cut to the lightweight division.