Carlson Gracie

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Carlson Gracie, Sr. (August 13, 1935 – February 1, 2006) was a practitioner of the Brazilian martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was the eldest son of Carlos Gracie, co-founder of the system with his uncle^[1] Hélio Gracie, and learned the art from his father. Carlson Gracie would later split from Hélio Gracie's group. He founded one of the most victorious mixed martial arts teams to date, which spawned many champions; in 2000, following a financial dispute, many of Carlson Gracie's students would split from him to form yet another top MMA team, the Brazilian Top Team, but would remain respectful of the master.

Carlson fought a total of eighteen vale tudo fights, with only one loss to Euclides Pereira in a fight that was held in Bahia. His first fight was against Capoeira practitioner Luiz "Cirandinha" Aguiar in this March 17, 1953. Carlson won after over an hour of fighting. His second match was a draw against Wilson "Passarito" Oliveira in May, 1953. Carlson had a rematch in March 1954 in the longest fight of his career, which he won in the fifth 30 minute round. Most notable are his four matches with Valdemar Santana, who had defeated his uncle Hélio Gracie in a fabled match in May 1955. In October 1955 Carlson fought Santana to a draw in a Jiu-Jitsu match. In 1956 and 1957 Carlson won two fights and in 1959 they fought to a draw.

Carlson Gracie trained many top competitors such as Allan Góes, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Wallid Ismail, Andre Pederneiras, Ricardo Liborio, and was also responsible for introducing and mastering Vitor Belfort into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.^[2] Carlson Gracie also trained Stephan Bonnar, a finalist in the UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter. He was in Bonnar's corner during his fight against eventual The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin. He is the author of a book on the subject.^[3]

He was born on August 13, 1935 in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and died on February 1, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois, of heart failure, apparently the result of complications of kidney stones (and possibly his pre-existing diabetes), following a hospitalisation of several days' duration. At the time of his death he was a ninth degree black belt and was referred to as Grandmaster.

[edit] References

1. ^ Ratner, Dave (2005-03-29). Gracie Family Tree. Bjj.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
2. ^ Venga, Gleidson; Gross, Josh (2006-02-01). BJJ Forefather Carlson Gracie Sr. Passes Away. Sherdog.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
3. ^ Carlson, Gracie; Fernandez, Julio (2004). Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: For Experts Only: Classic Jiu-Jitsu Techniques from the Master. Invisible Cities Press Llc. ISBN 1-931229-34-1.