Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Grapplers

8. Royce Gracie

The first and perhaps greatest pioneer of MMA, Royce Gracie, who recently received recognition at No. 10 on the ultra-competitive list of greatest Brazilian fighters, cracks another difficult list here, even receiving one first-place vote. As with any list he is on, how one ranks Gracie is purely a matter of criteria. On the one hand, he was by far the greatest grappler in what would soon be called mixed martial arts when he first competed in 1993, submitting much larger, heavier men. He literally put Brazilian jiu-jitsu on the map, and was an inspiration for dozens of other greats, including those on this list. From another perspective, he wasn't even the best grappler in his own family, and by some estimates, was the level of a BJJ purple belt when he debuted at UFC 1. But whether older brother Rickson would have matched or exceeded his accomplishments if not for a dispute with brother Rorion is beside the point—Rickson didn't, while Royce did. That includes choking out 225-pound Ken Shamrock in only 57 seconds at UFC 1, the only other competitor who had any grappling prowess that night. At UFC 2, Gracie also tapped 250-pound heavyweight judoka Remco Pardoel with a lapel choke in 91 seconds. Obviously, lapel chokes are impossible in the modern UFC due to the gi being illegal, but it's still a very impressive victory over a much larger grappler, who was wearing his own gi that night.

At UFC 3, Gracie didn't win a tournament for the first time, being so depleted after defeating 235-pound Kimo Leopoldo that he couldn't continue. Many thought Gracie’s dominance was over, but he won for a third time at the UFC 4 tournament, with the finest moment of his career coming in the finals. Against 240-pound former NCAA All-American wrestler Dan Severn, Gracie was the one taken down, with seemingly no way to win. However, after almost 16 straight minutes of fighting, he executed a tactic that very few people in North America, including the commentators, had ever seen before. It was called a triangle choke, and Severn had no choice but to tap. At UFC 5, Gracie had a rematch with Shamrock, billed as a “special superfight attraction.” Showing his own improvement and that of MMA as a whole in terms of grappling and ground fighting, Shamrock was able to take down Gracie, neutralize his submissions and inflict some ground-and-pound. Since there was no decisive result after 36 minutes and there were no judges yet, it was declared a draw. Gracie was still the better grappler, but it showed that the sport of MMA was quickly catching up, just under 18 months after the first UFC. Nonetheless, for his contributions to grappling in MMA, never mind the entire sport, Gracie is honored again here.

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