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When Gracie was 16 years old, he found the opportunity to teach a Judo (at that time Judo was commonly referred to as Kano Jiu-Jitsu or simply Jiu-Jitsu) class, and this experience led him
along with his brother Carlos to develop Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Director of the Bank of Brazil, Dr. Mario arrived for class
as scheduled. The instructor Carlos was running late and was not present. Gracie offered to begin the class with the man.
When the tardy Carlos arrived offering his apologies, the student assured him it was no problem, and actually requested that
he be allowed to continue learning with Helio Gracie instead. Carlos agreed to this and Helio Gracie began as an instructor.
Gracie realized, however, even though he knew the techniques theoretically, in fact, the moves were much harder to execute.
Due to his smaller size, he realized many of the judo moves required brute strength that his diminutive stature did not allow.
He began adapting the moves for his particular physical attributes, and through trial and error learned to maximize leverage,
thus minimizing the force that needed to be exerted to execute the move. From these experiments, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, formally
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was created. Using these new techniques, smaller and weaker opponents gained the capability to defend themselves and
even defeat much larger opponents.
Fight career Gracie had 18 professional
fights in his carreer. He began his fighting career when he submitted professional boxer Antonio Portugal in 30 seconds in 1932. Also in 1932 he fought American professional wrestler Fred Ebert for fourteen 10 minute rounds. The event was stopped because Brazilian law did not allow any public events to continue
after 2 AM. Fred Ebert sustained a severe beating throughout the fight. After the fight Ebert was rushed to the hospital and
Helio went home with black and blue elbows resulting from hitting Ebert's face. In 1934 Gracie fought professional wrestler Wladek Zbyszko, who was a former world champion, for three 10 minute rounds. Even though the wrestler was almost twice Helio's
weight he could not defeat him and the match ended in a draw. After regulation time expired Helio proposed an immediate extra
round to be fought and the bigger wrestler refused. Hélio defeated Taro Miyake, a Japanese professional wrestler and judoka who had an extesive professional fighting record and worked for Ed "Strangler" Lewis in the U.S.
Hélio also fought several Japanese judoka under submission rules. In 1932 he fought Japanese judoka Namiki. Helio defeated Japanese heavyweight judoka and sumo
wrestler via armlock. The fight ended in a draw, but according to the Gracies the bell rang just seconds before Namiki would
have tapped out. Gracie had two fights with Japanese judoka Yasuichi Ono after Ono choked out Hélio's brother George Gracie in a match. Both fights ended in a draw.
Gracie fought another Japanese judoka Kato twice. The first time was at Maracanã stadium and they went to a draw. Afterwards, Gracie asked for a rematch. The rematch was held at Ibirapuera Stadium in São Paulo and Gracie won by front choke from the guard. In May 1955 at the YMCA in Rio de Janeiro, Gracie participated in a 3 hour 42 minute fight against his former student Valdemar Santana, with Gracie losing by technical knockout due to exhaustion. This is fight is the longest uninterrupted MMA fight in
history.
Check out Whats That Move? to learn how Helio Gracie help name the Kimura move
Death Gracie died on the morning of January
29, 2009 in his sleep in Itaipava, Rio de Janeiro. The cause of death, reported by the family, was natural causes. "I
created a flag from the art's dignity. I oversee the name of my family with affection and nerves of blood," were
his last words.
Career Highlights
1932:
Submitted Antonio Portugal by armlock
1932: Draw with Takashi Namiki
1932: Draw with Fred Ebert
1934: Draw
with Wladek Zbyszko
1934: Submitted Taro Miyake by Choke
1935: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
1936: Draw with Takeo
Yano
1936: Submitted Massagoichi by armlock
1936: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
1937: Submitted Ervin Klausner by
armlock
1937: Submitted Espingarda
1950: Submitted Landulfo Caribe by choke
1950: Submitted Azevedo Maia by
choke
1951: Draw with Kato
1951: Submitted Kato by choke
1951: Defeated by Masahiko Kimura by armlock
1955:
Defeated by Valdemar Santana by KO
1967: Submitted Valdomiro dos Santos Ferreira by choke
Check out the Gracie website, and Lets keep his memory
alive
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