Renzo Gracie
Renzo Gracie With My Instructor, Josh Madama
The biggest grappling tournament in the world is the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Championships. It collects the best grapplers — Brazilian jiu-jitsu players, wrestlers, sambo players, judoka — from around the world and has them compete in one grand tournament.
This weekend I went to the East Coast trials for the ADCC Championships to watch my instructor, Josh Madama, compete and attempt to qualify for the finals. He didn’t win and lost his first match to a kneebar after fending off a blitz of leg attacks. But that’s not what this story is about. This story is about my brief conversation with Renzo (pronounce: HEN-zoe) Gracie. Renzo, a grandson of one of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu’s founders, is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, combat grappling, and mixed martial arts legend.
I first met Renzo almost 20 years ago when he first came to the United States from Brazil. He was friends with my then Brazilian Jiu-jitsu instructor, Craig Kukuk.
A friend of mine told me, “Renzo Gracie is here. He’s sitting on the same level bench as us.” My friend pointed and, sure enough, Renzo was watching the matches a mere 30-feet from us.
“I’m going to introduce myself,” I said.
“I’m not. That’s Renzo Gracie. I’ll wait for Josh (our instructor) to introduce me.”
“I met him 20 years ago, I’m not afraid to talk to him.” And I wasn’t nervous. I didn’t hesitate. I walked the 30-feet.
“Mr. Gracie,” I held out my hand. “I’m Jim McCormick. I met you 20 years ago when you first came to the United States. I was training. You came to my school.”
He shook my hand and smiled, “Hello, my friend. Do me a favor,” he looked around and whispered. “Tell everyone 10 years! Tell them you knew me 10 years ago!” He laughed and then continued, “You training in Red Bank, right? At Dave …”
“… Lentz. Dave Lentz’s place.”
“Right! Are you still training?”
“Just started again. Took about 18 years off.”
“It’s great that you are training again. What school are you going to?”
“Madama Jiu-jitsu in Toms River.”
“Josh Madama! Oh, he’s good. You’ll learn good jiu-jitsu from him. I brought him to Japan with me once. He’s a good guy.”
“Why don’t you come down to the school one day?”
“Oh, I will. I will. And I want you to come to mine.”
“I promise.”
And then I introduced him to my 12-year-old son. Told him that he was training too. And I left him alone.
I felt like I could have continued talking to him, but I wasn’t going to impose. He was here to watch the fights, to watch his students. And a large portion of the fighters were his students, if only indirectly.
There were fighters from the following schools that are affiliated with Renzo Gracie:
- Renzo Gracie Jiu-jitsu (his school);
- Serra Jiu-jitsu (his first American black belt’s school);
- Ricardo Almeida Jiu-jitsu (another of his black belt’s schools);
- Madama Jiu-jitsu (a Serra brown belt’s school);
- Ocean Jiu-jitsu Academy (an Almeida black belt’s school);
- Shore Jiu-jitsu Academy (another Almeida black belt’s school);
- Silver Fox Jiu-jitsu (another Renzo black belts’ school).
I am, indirectly, a Renzo Gracie student, and am very proud that he took a couple of minutes to talk with me.
Renzo, thank you. I’ll see you in class.
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