UFC Retrospective Series Part 1: The Pioneer

In anticipation of July's landmark UFC 100 event, CBSSports.com will be running a weekly, eight-part UFC retrospective series, looking back at some of the pivotal moments, events and figures that shaped the sport. This is Part 1. Next week will focus on the dark days of the UFC.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship as an organization and mixed martial arts as a sport have principally been driven by larger-than-life personalities. From Mohawk-sporting Chuck Liddell to brash Tito Ortiz to monstrous Brock Lesnar, the public faces of the sport stand out from the crowd in appearance, speech and action.

After his final UFC fight in 2006, Gracie greets Matt Hughes. (UFC)

Of course, not all fighters fit that mold. Take for example, a gentlemanly, 180-pound Brazilian-American with a soft smile and a swimmer's physique. Royce Gracie doesn't look like the most important figure in the history of mixed martial arts, but that's precisely who he is.

In early 1993, Royce's brother Rorion and entrepreneur Art Davie approached Royce about a project they were planning to put on pay-per-view. It would take place in November and feature an eight-man tournament pitting martial artists from different styles against each other.

"I looked at my brother," Royce remembers, "and said 'OK, who do you want to fight?' He said he was thinking about me, and asked if I was ready. I said 'Of course.' There are so many brothers in my family, and sometimes we miss our chance to show our abilities. I wanted that chance."

Gracie's fear of never having the opportunity to demonstrate his skills came from belonging to the world's most famous martial arts family. The Gracies were synonymous with jiu jitsu for decades in Brazil, and Royce had countless brothers, cousins and extended family members who practiced the craft. Royce's father, Helio, was one of the most legendary figures in jiu jitsu history. A Gracie trying to distinguish himself in fighting is like a Kennedy trying to distinguish himself in politics. But Royce wanted to do just that.

Gracie had trained in jiu jitsu since he was a child, and admired the defensive abilities of the techniques.

"When I hit 14, I can remember sparring with a grown man and the guy could not beat me," Gracie says. "He could not catch me or submit me, and I could defend myself. I may not have been able to catch him, but the power of jiu jitsu is to equalize and defend. It gives a young person enough self-confidence to deal with any kind of situation."

While the Gracie family believed in the power of jiu jitsu as a technique, they also entered into no-holds-barred challenges against fighters from other disciplines. Wrestlers, judokas and tae kwon do practitioners would occasionally issue challenges, and the result would be hybrid fighting in many ways reminiscent of today's MMA.

Before the UFC began, Royce Gracie participated in a number of these challenges. In one, Royce fought Jason DeLucia. Rorion Gracie wanted footage for one of the Gracie jiu jitsu videotapes he was marketing, so he asked Royce to prolong the fight. It lasted for six minutes before Royce won with a choke, and Rorion had the footage. Royce would later rematch with DeLucia in the UFC and won in a little over a minute.

Gracie prepared four months for the first UFC tournament. He taught jiu jitsu, and in his advance classes he would guide the students to train and challenge himself. He focused in particular on getting the clinch, so he could take the fight to the ground and use his submissions.

The first UFC was intended to be a showcase for Gracie Jiu Jitsu, and Royce's approach was perhaps unintuitive for a fighting competition.

"The main thing that my father told me was to not hurt anybody, not cut anybody, not elbow anybody. He wanted me to make it clean and use clean techniques. Get them in a clinch, take them down, and apply a choke or arm bar or other submission hold. I would tell my father, 'I want to smack somebody! You got to punch lots of guys; I want my chance!' He would say no. He didn't want me to hurt my opponent."

At the first two UFC events, Gracie dominated. He defeated all seven of his opponents in under 15 total minutes. UFC became a hit on pay-per-view, and the diminutive Brazilian who quickly defeated the larger men with submission holds was the star of the show.

Beginning with UFC 3, other fighters began to catch on to Gracie's techniques, and Kimo Leopoldo gave Gracie his toughest fight to date. Although Gracie won, he was forced to withdraw from the tournament. Then in the finals of the UFC 4 tournament, Gracie faced amateur wrestling standout Dan "The Beast" Severn. Severn utilized his wrestling and positioning to control Gracie for more than 15 minutes before Gracie finally caught him in a triangle choke for the submission.

"After the fight went on for a while, I could see in his face the expression that he had no idea how he was going to beat me," Gracie recalls. "And he said that afterwards. He said his plan was to take me down and smash me but he couldn't smash me so he had no idea how to win."

At UFC 4, patience delivered victory for Gracie. At UFC 5, it did not. In a superfight with Ken Shamrock, Gracie was taken down and controlled again. Buy Shamrock was well versed in submission wrestling and wouldn't leave himself open to any submissions.

Shamrock conservatively rode out the 36 minutes of the fight. There were no judges at the time, so the bout was ruled a draw. Shamrock was generally regarded to have gotten the better of Gracie, but Gracie was unimpressed.

"Ken came in to play for the draw," Gracie says. "He got on top of me and held me down. We're talking a man who is 225 pounds on top of someone that is 178. If I fight someone 40 pounds lighter than me and cannot beat them, I consider myself a loser. Ken Shamrock's father was on the sidelines telling him, 'Do something. Did you come here to hug the guy? Go ahead and beat the guy!' He just looked at his father and continued. At least he didn't get beat. I think personally it was a loss for him."

Gracie left the UFC after the fight, but he would go on to make a huge mark across the Pacific for Japan's Pride Fighting Championships. He squared off with Japanese submission wizard Kazushi Sakuraba, and their 90-minute battle remains arguably the most important fight in the history of Japanese MMA. Gracie still expresses great admiration for his opponent.

"Sakuraba knows how to use strategy," Gracie says. "And he's tough. He knows what he's doing. That's a hard opponent to fight right there. It's like my cousin Renzo said. He's like a Gracie the way he fights."

Sakuraba would wear down Gracie with leg kicks, until Gracie could not make it out for a seventh 15-minute round. Sakuraba became a national hero, and Pride Fighting would become the world's most successful MMA promotion for a number of years. Royce is a proud man, and he makes it a point to emphasize that it was his family's decision that he not continue.

"He kicked me on the shin and there was a partial tear of the tendon," Gracie notes. "I couldn't stand up and walk. I told my father and brother that and asked them what I should do. My father and brother decided that I shouldn't confuse being tough with being stupid. 'If you can't walk, you can't fight. You've shown you're tough,' they said."

Following his fight with Sakuraba, Gracie would enter into a controversial rivalry with judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida. In their first fight, Yoshida went for a choke and the referee stopped the fight despite the fact Gracie did not submit and was not unconscious. A furious Gracie immediately protested, and he believes that it was a conspiracy on the part of Pride.

"It was a setup," Gracie says. "He did not have a choke. I had ringside tickets for my family and friends. Somehow there was a mixup and all my team got put on the top of the stadium (the cavernous Tokyo National Stadium). They knew they were going to do something and they didn't want my team there to create a riot. Yoshida looked at the ref and had a conversation with him. The referee said OK and stopped the fight. Since when does a fighter control a referee like that?"

Gracie's frustration led to a rematch, which an angry and motivated Gracie dominated -- the only thing that prevented Gracie from securing a win in the record books was his insistence that there be no judges. Gracie continued to fight in Japan, where there was more money to pay big-name fighters like Gracie. That changed in 2006 with the pay-per-view explosion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and it was time for Gracie to return home.

Matt Hughes was UFC's dominant welterweight champion, and Gracie agreed to take on Hughes at a catch weight. The bout drew a then-record 600,000 pay-per-view buys as fans tuned in to see if the legendary submission wizard could catch the next generation's best.

That question was answered in the negative. The powerful Hughes took down Gracie, advanced position, and hyper-extended Gracie's arm with a kimura. The scene was reminiscent of a famous fight between Masahiko Kimura and Royce's father, Helio, in 1955. Royce, like his father, refused to submit to the hold despite serious damage to his arm. Hughes released it, and forced a referee stoppage via brutal ground and pound.

While Gracie lost, he was warmly received by UFC fans. Gracie was given standing ovations for his UFC appearances and appreciated the reception to his homecoming.

"It made me feel good," Gracie says. "My family is part of the history. You can't talk about MMA in the U.S. or anywhere in the world without mentioning my family's name. It was a very good feeling that even though Hughes was the big champion at the time my welcome was bigger than his."

Gracie has fought once since then, a rematch with Kazushi Sakuraba on a K1 Dynamite USA card that also featured Brock Lesnar's MMA debut. Gracie won the decision, but the California State Athletic Commission announced after the fight that Gracie had tested positive for Nandrolone, an anabolic steroid. Gracie asserts that there must have been a mistake with the test.

"The people that know me know I eat good meals breakfast, lunch and dinner," Gracie says. "I don't gain an ounce, a pound. I've been fighting at 178, 180 for my entire career. I keep the same weight. I'm still 180 today. I have no idea where they got that from."

These days, Gracie travels the world teaching seminars and spreading the word about jiu jitsu. He spends about half the year at home in Southern California and half the year crisscrossing the globe.

Gracie says that he is still a fan of the sport, and makes it a point to watch all the big shows when he can. He cites Lyoto Machida, Demian Maia and Georges St. Pierre as his favorite current fighters.

"They know how to use strategy," Gracie explains. "I'll ask a fighter and he will say, 'My strategy is to use a 1-2 punch combo, take him down, get a mount, and choke him.' That's not a strategy; that's a wish! Strategy is to figure out what your opponent is going to try to do and bring him out of his game."

Gracie is proud to see UFC 100 on the horizon, although he won't be attending. He already has vacation plans with his family for that time on the beaches of Spain. But he doesn't rule out coming back for another fight.

"I'm a fighter. I'm not feeling the itch to fight right now, but I keep my sword stocked and clean. I keep myself in shape: training, biking, swimming. If some day I have that itch, that's easy for me. But right now I'm happy to be a fan."

Todd Martin has covered mixed martial arts for the Los Angeles Times, Wrestling Observer, SI.com and CBSSports.com. He can be reached at toddmartin4l@aol.com.