Renzo debuted in the Brazilian
vale tudo circuit. He had his first match against
kickboxer Luiz Augusto Alvareda, whom he submitted by
rear naked choke. After the match, he moved to the United States to teach
Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
World Combat Championships In October 1995, Gracie was called to fight in World Combat Championships, a no holds barred event created by
Jon Peters's son Christopher. The event hosted two separate tournaments for strikers and grapplers whose winners would meet at the finals, and Gracie was put on the latter due to his Brazilian jiu-jitsu background. His first match was against Dutch
judoka Ben Spijkers, who had taunted Gracie in the press conference and pranked him on his hotel room the previous night. Spijkers scored the first takedown, but Renzo answered with another, took his back through headbutts and elbow strikes and finally choked him for the win. After the bout, Gracie intentionally stepped on Spijkers's head as he walked away as an act of revenge for the pranking, although Gracie later apologized for it. Gracie next fought striker Phil Benedict, and although he received a hard right punch in the first seconds, he executed a takedown and defeated Benedict by
ground and pound from the
mount. The first minutes of the match were uneventful, with Gracie claiming years later that Tadeu had greased up his body to difficult his grip, but he eventually managed to mount Tadeu. However, Gracie got tired, and Tadeu started to take control of the action. while Gracie received both punches and kicks by luta livre supporters without the referee noticing. In 2014, Gracie claimed to have been drugged by PRIDE promoters before the fight to explain his performance. Gracie returned in Pride 8, where he fought
professional wrestler Alexander Otsuka. The latter, who came to the match bandaged due to a pro wrestling match the same day, scored a takedown and passed Gracie's guard for a moment, but the Brazilian regained his defense. Gracie came back with hard upkicks and multiple submission attempts, like a
triangle choke and a guillotine choke, being answered with short hammerfists by the Japanese. After the match was restarted, Renzo seemed to secure an armbar from the bottom, only for Otsuka to escape and defend until the end. Even although Gracie next landed a
German suplex-like takedown, the match ended with both Otsuka and Gracie pursuing a submission each.
Fighting Network Rings Gracie discontinued his appearances in PRIDE to participate in the
King of Kings tournament of rival promotion
Fighting Network Rings. His first bout in the card was against the promotion's usual low carder
Wataru Sakata, who nonetheless had a 20Ibs advantage. Gracie defeated him quickly, taking him down from a kick and submitting him by armbar. After advancing round to meet former kickboxer and
UFC Heavyweight Champion Maurice Smith, Gracie achieved the same result, taking him down before submitting him with a
judo-style
yoko-sankaku-jime/
ude-gatame combination. The Brazilian reached the quarterfinals, where he encountered another Rings
shoot wrestler,
Kiyoshi Tamura. Gracie started the fight with takedowns and
guillotine choke attempts, but Tamura took over with defense and positional control, ending the first round inflicting
ground and pound on Renzo. At the second, the wrestler started passing Gracie's guard and capturing his back, to the extent of locking a facedown
crucifix and searching for a
rear naked choke. Although Gracie managed to escape without being submitted, the unanimous decision was given to Tamura, thus eliminating the Brazilian.
Return to Pride Gracie returned to Pride to fight
Kazushi Sakuraba, who had been nicknamed "The Gracie Hunter" for his victories against Renzo's relatives
Royler and
Royce. During the first round, they fought evenly, mainly exchanging strikes and takedown attempts. At the second, the Japanese wrestler took Gracie down, but he was unable to pass his guard despite his many techniques and tricks. The match finally came to its peak when Renzo executed a
De la Riva reversal and captured Sakuraba's back against the corner. At that moment, the Japanese got hold of Gracie's arm and spun around with a
Kimura lock, dislocating the arm before hitting the mat and prompting the referee to stop the fight. Uncharacteristically for the Gracie side during their rivalry with Sakuraba, Renzo took the mic after the match and declared Sakuraba was the better man. Similarly, years later Gracie called Sakuraba "his hero" and remembered their match as "one of the biggest lessons he learned in his life". Gracie next fought American wrestler
Dan Henderson at Pride 13, now under new rules that allowed knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent. The resultant match was short, as Henderson used his wrestling superiority to keep the fight on their feet and land punches and knees as per the new ruleset. After one minute, Gracie tried a takedown, but Henderson landed two heavy punches and knocked him out. The American became the first fighter ever to knock out a Gracie. Renzo bounced back with a victory over professional wrestler
Michiyoshi Ohara, who resorted to clinch defensively for most of the match. In 2002, Gracie fought against
Shungo Oyama in Pride 21. Oyama taunted Renzo incessantly through the match and imitated Sakuraba's offensive moves, getting some measure of success with it. Renzo became so irritated that he spat on Oyama at the end of the second round. At the third, Gracie looked to re-take the bout, but they just could exchange takedowns and strikes before the match went to the judges, with Oyama winning a unanimous decision. Gracie was unhappy with this, and stated his belief that he had lost the decision only because he spat on Oyama. which Gracie disputed. On February 10, 2007, Gracie won a match by disqualification against former
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Frank Shamrock for upstart MMA promotion
EliteXC on its debut night Saturday February 10, 2007, on
Showtime. Gracie was able to take Frank down and keep the fight on the ground, until Shamrock was disqualified by referee
Herb Dean for landing illegal knee strikes to the back of Gracie's head. Shamrock had already been given one warning earlier in the match for illegal strikes to the back of Gracie's head. After the match, Gracie had to be helped out of the ring and back to his dressing room by his team allegedly due to receiving a concussion from the strikes.
Ultimate Fighting Championship Returning from a three-year hiatus, Gracie signed a six-fight contract with the UFC in December 2009 and faced former
UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes on April 10, 2010, at
UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Although Gracie fared reasonably well against the American at first, he began to take more and more leg kicks, and by the end of the second round, the fight began to look more and more to Hughes's favor. The third round saw Hughes score with a series of uppercuts and hooks that hurt Gracie, until Hughes eventually Gracie. Renzo became the second Gracie to fall victim to Matt Hughes, the other being his famous cousin
Royce Gracie at
UFC 60.
ONE Championship On June 7, 2018, ONE Championship's president Chatri Sityodtong announced that Renzo Gracie had been enticed from retirement and was scheduled to face
Yuki Kondo at One Championship Reign of Kings on July 27, marking Gracie's first fight since his loss to Matt Hughes in 2010. He won the fight via rear-naked choke submission in the second round.
Other ventures Renzo formerly coached a team, the
New York Pitbulls, for the International Fight League. Gracie is the head instructor at the Renzo Gracie Academy in midtown Manhattan. Many well-known BJJ and MMA fighters have been trained by Renzo, including BJJ black belts
Rodrigo Gracie, former
UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, former UFC Welterweight Champion
Matt Serra, BJJ World Champion Rafael "Gordinho" Correa,
Paul Creighton, Alan Teo,
David Branch (fighter),
Rafael Natal, former Middleweight King of Pancrase
Ricardo Almeida,
Sean Alvarez and former
UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman. Gracie has co-written two instructional books on jiu-jitsu; "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique" with his cousin
Royler Gracie, and "Mastering Jujitsu" with training partner
John Danaher. He has also been the personal jiu-jitsu teacher of
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
Crown Prince of
Abu Dhabi, since 1993. == Submission grappling career ==