An Interview with Carlson Gracie Jr.

This is an informative interview with Carlson Gracie Jr., son of the legendary Carlson Gracie. Carlson Jr. talks about the academies that existed when he was a young lad in Rio.

CG: Jiu-Jitsu has been a part of my life for the last 38 years. The first technique I ever learned was a front roll, and my first submission was a straight armlock from the mount. It all came naturally to me, just by playing with my father. My first tournament I actually lost in the finals. I went for a takedown and my opponent threw on a guillotine. Man, he held that choke like crazy for four minutes. I didn’t tap and the score was zero-zero, but they gave the match to him. I don’t remember my opponent’s name; he was a black guy from Oriente Academy. When the match was over my face was almost the same colour as his, very dark red. But my father wasn’t mad – he was happy that I didn’t tap. I was seven years old. When I was twelve or thirteen I lost again, but all I can say about that fight is that the guy looked VERY old for a twelve year-old.

As a blue belt I lost again to another guy from Oriente. It was scored 4-4, but they gave the match to him. But I got my revenge one month later when I beat that guy really badly, like 28-0. As a brown belt I fought and beat him again. This guy was very good. I think he was a student from Oriente or Kioto – it was a long time ago. Back then there weren’t many Jiu-Jitsu academies in Rio. There was the Gracie Academy, Oriente Academy headed by professor Amélio Arruda, Francisco Mansur’s Kioto Academy, and there was Monir: the academy of Monir Salomão. Those were the four strong Jiu-Jitsu teams in Rio de Janeiro at that time. I especially remember the fighters from Monir and Oriente were very, very good with footlocks. That was their specialty. Those two teams still exist by the way; Oriente is located in Niteroi across the big bridge in Rio, on the other side of the bay. I think their master Amélio Arruda just turned ninety years old.


To read the entire interview, please check out this site, bjjlegends.com, and link:

http://bjjlegends.com/bjj/bjj-news/jiujitsu-mma-news/item/475-an-interview-with-carlson-gracie-jr.html