Carlos Gracie

Carlos Gracie (1902–1994) was the eldest Gracie brother and the original student of Mitsuyo Maeda—the Japanese judoka who brought jiu-jitsu to Brazil. Carlos trained under Maeda from 1917 and later taught his brothers, most notably Helio. Together, Carlos and Helio built the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Rio de Janeiro and issued the famous Gracie Challenge—an open invitation for fighters of any style to test their art against theirs. Carlos was the organizational and philosophical driving force behind the Gracie family’s lifelong mission to prove BJJ’s supremacy in real combat.