On Sunday morning, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Roger Gracie stepped onto the mats for his final jiu-jitsu match. His opponent was Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, who he first met years ago under the Metamoris banner.
This showdown between Gracie and Buchecha – two men who won the IBJJF world championship a record 10 times as black belts – started a little slow, but picked up down the stretch.
After pulling half guard and initiating a sweep, Gracie took his foe’s back, and from there, it seemed to be only a matter of time. Just shy of seven minutes into his final jiu-jitsu match, he locked up a lapel choke for the win, further cementing himself as one of the sport’s all-time greats. With the battle in the rear-view, the pair shared a sportsmanlike embrace, and Gracie called it a career.
See Roger Gracie’s slick submission win in the clip at the top of this post.
Though Gracie is hanging up his gi, his combat sports career is not yet over. He now plans to return to the One Championship cage, probably sometime later this year.
The first-ever One cruiserweight champion, Gracie is 6-2 in the mixed martial arts arena. His only losses have occurred against top flight foes in Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal under the Strikeforce banner, and against Tim Kennedy in the UFC.
According to a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Gracie has his eyes on One’s middleweight belt.
“That’s my goal,” he said. “To fight for the middleweight belt at One Championship.”
Where do you think Roger Gracie ranks on the list of best BJJ players ever? Do you think he can capture the one middleweight title, which is currently owned by Myanmar’s Aung La N’Sang? Weigh in on the grappler’s career in the comments section!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/23/2017.
Punches are expected in combat sports like MMA, boxing, and even in hockey, but you don’t, as a general rule, expect to see anyone throwing hands in the refined sport of horse racing.
Paulo Costa has brought in a tall, rangy Muay Thai specialist to help him prepare for his upcoming fight with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
UFC middleweight contender Paulo Costa has shared a truly bizarre promo video for his upcoming title fight with reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
Shortly after the UFC on ESPN 14 weigh-ins concluded, the card’s headliners Robert Whittaker and Darren Till came face-to-face for a tense, final staredown.
