Why didn’t Rener Gracie ever follow in the footsteps of his father Rorion, Uncle Helio, and even slightly older brother Ryron in becoming a professional MMA or grappling fighter? In a recent chat with Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblet Rener revealed the reason.
Rener Gracie is one of the most well-known names in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and he has no competitive record to speak of. Still, he is not just the man (along with his brother) in charge of the legendary Gracie Torrance Academy, but also in charge of ht Gracie University online teaching program. His choice to teach BJJ made him undeniably successful and comes down to the fact that he decided to dedicate his life to teaching, rather than competing. After all, everyone in the family was already competing.
In his own words:
“Growing up in the Gracie family, fighting is in your DNA and you don’t really know anything else.
But what happened was that, as I was coming of age – once I turned 19/20/21/22 – the UFC had already been 10 years on the air. So for me, it was really a question of: “Do I want to do what my uncles and my dad did and be a professional fighter and just go fight for the sake of fighting?”
Because, remember: when the UFC started, it was all about proving that Jiu-Jitsu against karate… And ten years later, nobody denies Jiu-Jitsu. So right now, if I’m fighting in the UFC, I’m fighting against the people who are of my same religion. The people who believe in my religion, so there’s nothing to fight about because we agree that Jiu-Jitsu is, at least, the quintessential art in mixed martial arts.”
So once that agreement was there, the opportunity to fight style vs style was gone. And that was the opportunity that all of my uncles had, my grandfather, my dad… They always had that opportunity to fight against other styles to demonstrate Jiu-Jitsu’s effectiveness.
Once that was gone, I had to weigh my options. And what my brother and I focused on and dedicated our lives to was to teach BJJ.
Because, there was a massive demand for it globally, but there weren’t a lot of quality instructors certification protocols in place. So, we created the instructor certification program, we created the Gracie University online academy, and now people can learn this stuff from anywhere in the world.
And that’s because we’ve focused our efforts on: “Okay, how are gonna spread Jiu-Jitsu so that everyone has access to it?”
Rener has taught many professional grapplers, Hollywood celebrities, UFC fighters, etc. UFC star Brian Ortega is one of his most accomplished students, using Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to perfection inside the octagon with a record of 15-3, with 7 submission wins.
Moreover, Rener was a visionary in showing that you can teach BJJ through an online platform when everybody else laughed about it. His Gracie University platform is huge and has helped spread Jiu-JItsu worldwide.
His end goal? To make sure that MMA fans are not like football fans, just watching the sport without ever thinking about participating. He would like to teach BJJ to every MMA couch potato at least once to help them see the life-changing power of the art.
You can check out the full interview on Paddy’s “Chattin Pony” podcast here:
