Imagining an MMA Hall of Fame: The Inaugural Class

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Royce Gracie Ultimate Fighting Championship (1993-95, 2006); Pride Fighting Championships (2000-03); K-1 (2004-05, 2007)
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Gracie redefined fighting. Prior to UFC 1, boxing was what most people thought a real fight looked like. Martial arts were enigmatic disciplines that involved spectacular spinning kicks and devastating touch techniques. All that changed with Gracie. By submitting his opponents with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he showed the importance of the ground game and forever changed perceptions. From a box office standpoint, his rivalry with Ken Shamrock was crucial to the UFC’s early pay-per-view success; his battles in Pride Fighting Championships with Nobuhiko Takada, Kazushi Sakuraba and Hidehiko Yoshida were instrumental to its boom period; and his fight with Matt Hughes not only set the UFC’s then pay-per-view record but helped to establish the dominance of a new generation of fighter. Not bad for Rickson Gracie’s little brother.

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