Dear Pellius,
I must say I am quite jealous of the incredible experience you must have had during your 3 years of private lessons with Rickson. Very few
people in the world can say they were so fortunate to have had that opportunity. Your BJJ must be incredible.
As I mentioned before, I am a Royler Gracie student but also have the privilege of being his close friend and attorney. I negotiated the contract
when he fought Eddie Bravo for Metamoris (Royler became the highest paid BJJ competitor in the history of BJJ for one match) in California. I was
actually responsible for "Pantsgate." Eddie Bravo turned out to be nothing but a great guy and a true gentleman.
I have represented Royler and many other Gracies and Rickson was my least favorite in terms of personality. However, his BJJ was like nothing
I ever saw. In fact, I now understand why they call it "Invisible."
Harley
When I first started at the Gracie Academy in Carson, CA I would take a private lesson with Royce one day and a private with Royler later in the week. You had to take at least 10 privates before you could join the group class in those days. It was only $20 dollars a class so it was worth it. Rorion wanted to be sure you had the basics down before joining the group class.
I never really got along with Royce. He was impatient, would get mad and had a chip on his shoulder. Some years later I would understand why.
It was the exact opposite with Royler. I came out of his classes so happy and enthusiastic. If everybody took their first BJJ lesson from Royler or Renzo they will love Jui-Jitsu forever.
Royler made training just so much fun as well as a learning experience. In those days, Jiu-Jitsu was new and we never saw anything like it. With Royler's charming, engaging, and playful personality; I never really thought of him as a fighter per se. He almost seemed like a boy playing when he rolled. Always joking around and making funny comments playfully wrestling as he'd submit and tap opponent after opponent.
After one of our privates he told me he would be fighting later that week. This was during the time of the "Gracie Challenge" in which they would award anybody that could defeat them $10,000 dollars. The challenger didn't have to pay anything if they lost. So we had guys coming in all the time to fight and win the prize.
I was not happy when Royler told me this. Royler was a fantastic grappler but the game changes considerably when there are strikes. And Royler was tiny. Maybe 135 lbs. But what bother me most was that I didn't want to see him fight. Like I said, I didn't think of him as a fighter as such. When he did Jiu-Jitsu it was fun and games. Just learning a new skill. It didn't seem like fighting.
Royler just didn't seem to have the disposition of a fighter.
Boy, was I wrong. He became a completely different person when it came to NHB fighting. He was like a Tasmanian Devil and just tore though his opponents with a ferocious intensity that I didn't see in the other Gracies.
I only got to train with him for around six months. I was heart broken when he told me after one of our privates that he was moving back to Brasil. He said his wife was just not happy and didn't want to live in the US. I would find out later that he just wanted to get out of Rorion's control. There was a big rift going on in the family and Rickson had just recently left to start his own dojo. Royler and Rickson are extremely close and when he left Royler saw the writing on the wall. He would forever be Rorion's
employee getting paid by Rorion as Rorion saw fit.
