http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/11/12/5043630/rorion-gracie-and-the-day-he-created-the-ufc20th today
Rorion Gracie and the day he created the UFC
Royce Gracie shocked the world at the first edition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Nov. 12, 1993.
UFC’s history, however, started over two decades before.
The Gracie family had established a respectful history in Brazil with Helio, Carlos and Carlson fights. It was time to expand their knowledge to another market, and Rorion Gracie decided to move to the United States.
As he already expected, it wasn’t that easy.
"I came to the U.S. for the first time in 1969 and but I got robbed, they took my flight tickets and money, so I had to stay here for a year," Rorion Gracie told MMAFighting.com. "It was an interesting experience that made me more mature, and I made some good friendships here. I had to sleep in the streets, my bed was a pile of newspapers, but that experience made me grow a lot."
Rorion Gracie eventually returned to Brazil and graduated from law school, but he couldn’t forget his plans to spread jiu-jitsu in the United States.
"When I got back to America, I put a jiu-jitsu mat in my garage and asked everybody to take a class with me, and everybody liked it," he said. "I spent 10 years teaching jiu-jitsu in my garage. Most of my students said their karate, boxing or muay thai teachers said they were wasting time with jiu-jitsu, and I always invited the teachers to come train with me inside my garage. I beat them all, and some of them became my students in the end.
