Since the turn of the century the fortunes of the fighters’ from the world’s most famous combat family have been decidedly indifferent in MMA bouts.

Thanks to the likes of Sakuraba, who famously defeated four of the supposedly invincible Gracie’s, and MMA evolving at an incredible rate, the Gracie mysticism has long been on the wane.

There is however one fighter who could well lift the Gracie name right back to the top of the sport’s food chain… one Roger Gracie.

Before any talk about MMA it must be noted that Roger Gracie, grandson of the legendary Carlson Gracie, is arguably the greatest Jiu-Jitsu competitor to ever step foot on a mat.

He is a 14-time Jiu-Jitsu world champion and in 2005 he won the prestigious ADCC Submission Wrestling Championship in both his weight and the Absolute (open weight) division. He submitted all eight of his opponents on the way, an achievement that had never been accomplished and hasn’t been since.

Shortly after this feat, in 2006, Gracie decided to give MMA a shot and fight UFC and Pride veteran Ron Waterman. Suffice to say the fighting world was paying very close attention.

Of the adaption into MMA, fighting without a gi was acknowledged by the grappling master as perhaps the toughest challenges facing him.

“It changes everything absolutely, it equals some of the levels because of the striking and it gets slippery. It’s much harder to grapple someone when there’s no gi and when there is punching. In the guard you cannot play the distance, you have to protect yourself so there are two ways to play it from very close and very far away, there’s no middle, when there’s no punching you don’t care how far the person is from you. When you fight in MMA it’s all about the adaptation, you have to know the movements that you do are very strict there aren’t many options for you to use it (the guard) there are much less options because of the distance and the punches.” (Source adcombat.com)

And adapt Gracie did do. Although Waterman was clearly past his best at this point in his career, the ease in which the Brazilian submitted, him via armbar in the first round, was by all accounts pretty impressive.

Despite this successful first foray into a new sport it would be two years before Gracie would fight in MMA again.

After further domination in Jiu-Jitsu and grappling tournaments Gracie’s second MMA bout would be against wily Japanese veteran Yuki Kondo. Considerably bigger than his opponent, Gracie had little problem taking Kondo to the mat and submitting him in the first. After this win Gracie would again take a two-year break from MMA.

In 2009 Gracie signified more serious intentions in MMA by signing with Strikeforce. He would eventually make his American MMA debut in 2010 against former UFC heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman. He would fight for the first time at light heavyweight.

As in his two previous MMA fights Gracie won via submission with minimal damage being inflicted upon him, although this time around the fight went to a second round.

In January 2011 Gracie choked out another UFC veteran Trevor Prangley in the first round. Gracie’s current MMA record stands at four wins from four – all by way of submission.

By far Gracie’s biggest challenge to date was due to be against Muhammed Lawal at the end of this month on the Strikeforce: Fedor versus Henderson bill but he had to pull out due to a stress fracture. The fight has now been put back until September.

Thus far Gracie’s run in MMA cannot really be faulted although how he performs against a top level striker will be a true barometer of his place in the sport.

Questions about his stand-up ability, the level of his takedowns and his chin all remain unanswered at this early stage in his MMA career. (Gracie himself has said that he still trains far more on his grappling skills than he does in his stand-up – 80 percent (grappling) to 20 per cent (striking) he once revealed).

Many grappling virtuosos have come unstuck when dealing with top stand-up fighters but, standing at 6ft 4ins, Gracie is a towering light heavyweight and has a good chance of imposing his will on many fighters and getting the fight to the mat.

Strikeforce isn’t exactly overflowing with strikers in the 205lbs division right now but an encounter against Mousasi or even Jardine might well tell us more about Gracie. And it would certainly be great to see a Gracie once again relevant in the MMA landscape.

Matt Hyde