Rorion Gracie Quotes

“Rorion did for a generation of Brazilians what 30 years previously Brian Epstein did for a generation of English pop musicians, stimulating seemingly limitless demand for a product where none had existed before (Gould, 2007). But Rorion did it to an even greater degree, conceding that his system was basically judo. Helio felt the same way. In one of his last interviews, with Ana Missa on Sensei SporTV in 2009 (February 14), he explained that because he wasn’t physically suited for judo, he “modified jiu-jitsu so that a weak citizen like himself could fight” [pelo meu porte físico eu não podia ser judoka, então eu adaptei o jiu-jitsu para que até um cidadão fraco como eu pudesse lutar]. So there we have it. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is pre-Olympic judo, taught by Helio’s method, whatever that is, and modified so that weak citizens can fight (apparently Helio felt that judo required too much strength, which is odd, because many of his promotional pictures and demonstrations involved judo throws). That doesn’t mean Gracie products and services aren’t worth what they cost. If judo people were teaching this material, people wouldn’t be paying Brazilians to do it. Rorion didn’t invent anything. What he did was to make it valuable.”
― Roberto Pedreira, Jiu-Jitsu in the South Zone, 1997-2008

“Twenty million Brazilians have crawled up out from poverty since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva became president in 2003. Rorion did not save 20 million Brazilians, but his achievement should not be underestimated. There are a lot of Brazilians making a living from jiu-jitsu who would still be doing construction work (if any work at all), if it hadn’t been for Rorion.

And this book wouldn’t have been written.”
― Roberto Pedreira, Jiu-Jitsu in the South Zone, 1997-2008

“Rorion had filed trademarks for both the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu triangle logo and the name itself. Which isn't really a problem in and of itself, and isn't even that odd a move: the idea with a trademark is to be able to control who gets to represent your brand and to corner any revenue that interest in the brand generates. It's standard business practice and, given what Rorion was trying to build, it would have been a mistake not to do it. Without an enforceable trademark there would have been nothing to stop anyone from hanging out a shingle and claiming that they taught "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu," or selling a teeshirt with the Gracie logo. The problem was that in the mid-'90s he started aggressively enforcing the trademark... against members of his own family.”
― Richard Bresler, Worth Defending: How Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Saved My Life

“One of the things that Rorion used to say was, "You don't need Jiu-Jitsu if your opponents are small.”
― Richard Bresler, Worth Defending: How Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Saved My Life

“Rorion used to say that when a person walks into a Jiu-Jitsu school they're never walking in thinking, I wonder if these guys can teach me to be a world champion. The first thing on the average person's mind when they walk into a martial arts school is self-defense. They're walking in because they want to learn how to defend themselves in a worst-case scenario out in the world. That's most people's underlying insecurity.”
― Richard Bresler, Worth Defending: How Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Saved My Life