Carlson Gracie Sr.

From OTMWiki

Carlson Gracie, Sr. was a practitioner of the Brazilian martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was the eldest son of Carlos Gracie, co-founder of the system with his brother Helio Gracie, and learned the art from his father. Carlson Gracie would later split from Helio Gracie's group. He founded one of the most victorious Mixed Martial Arts team to date, which spawned many champions; in 2000, following a financial dispute, many of Carlson Gracie's students would split from him to form yet another top MMA team, the Brazilian Top Team, but would remain respectful of the master.

He was considered the finest representative of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu of his generation and fought many grappling and Mixed Martial Arts matches, most notable are his 4 matches with Valdemar Santana, who had defeated his uncle Hélio Gracie in a fabled match in 1955. Carlson won 2 of the 4 fights, with the other 2 being declared a draw.

Carlson Gracie trained many top competitors such as Allan Góes, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Wallid Ismail, Andre Pederneiras, Ricardo Liborio, and was also responsible for introducing and mastering Vitor Belfort into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Carlson Gracie also trained Stephan Bonnar, a finalist in the UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter. He was in Bonnar's corner during his fight against eventual The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin. He is the author of a book on the subject, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: For Experts Only: Classic Jiu-Jitsu Techniques from the Master.

He was born on August 13, 1935 in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and died on February 1, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois, of heart failure, apparently the result of complications of kidney stones (and possibly his pre-existing diabetes), following a hospitalisation of several days' duration. At the time of his death he was a 9th degree black belt and was referred to as Grandmaster.

Although known as a fierce fighter in his youth, Carlson will be most remembered as arguably the greatest bjj trainer of all-time. He was the first of the family to teach the entirety of the art to the general public, holding no techniques back. He also is credited for bringing in aggressiveness as his style of jiu-jitsu was not passive. He believed in both aggressiveness (to end the match quickly by submission) and the importance of physical conditioning. Carlson's greatest achivement, and testimonial to his skill as a trainer, is that some of the most influential teams in the world of mma and bjj were all created from by his pupils. Nova Uniao, Brazilian Top Team, American Top Team, three of the greatest teams in bjj and mma, were created by his students. Through the acheivements of these power house teams, along with other smaller teams that have been formed by other students of his, Carlson's legacy and style of jiu-jitsu, will not be forgotten.

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