I am very happy to see that my teacher renzo gracie has just been admitted to the ADCC Hall of Fame! Renzo was my teacher from white belt to black belt and it was my greatest honor to be his longest serving teacher at his school in NYC. He was two times ADCC champion and won a super fight against former ADCC champion Sanae Kikuta in 2017 – nineteen years after his first ADCC gold medal!! Mr Gracie was a true pioneer in ADCC – the events were totally different in those early days than they are now. You were often matched against people you'd never seen before, against styles you had no experience of, in a rule set that was totally new. Renzo competed while running his own school in a city and training mostly for MMA instead of specialized grappling and coaching himself – an amazing feat. In that time he created an room of great talent in a city that had no Jiu jitsu culture whatsoever and yet produced great athletes, champions and teachers such as Ricardo Almeida, Matt Serra, Rodrigo Gracie, Shawn Williams and many more. In time he became a very important coach and cornerman for Roger Gracie and cornered him to one of the greatest ADCC performances of all time at the Long Beach ADCC in california. I am so happy to see this great athlete, teacher and mentor get recognition from ADCC for his achievements! And Renzo, from me and all your students from the earliest years to today – thank you for all you did for us, for giving us technical vision when we were blind, the best training room an athlete could hope for, a friendly word when we needed to be picked up, a kick in the ass when we needed to be pushed and the best times of our lives. Thank you Sensei – and congratulations! ??? No one deserves it more ????
