In 1978 Rorion Gracie, Hélio's eldest son, moved to California. He had no academy. He taught jiu-jitsu in his garage. 9,106
Eleven years later, in 1989, he opened the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, near Los Angeles, with his brothers Rickson, Royce and Royler. 9,106 Today two of his sons, Rener and Ryron, run it, with Gracie University, its online and licensing arm, launched in 2009. Its beginner course, Gracie Combatives, has 36 techniques, which the academy says Rorion first chose for a US Army course in 1994. 15,106 It was from there that the family's name spread across the United States, and from there that the word "Brazilian" was added to the art, by other people, to tell it apart from arts with similar names. 1 Rorion registered "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" as a trademark; it was later voided after a legal dispute with his cousin Carley Gracie. 1
Denver, 12 November 1993
Rorion co-created the Ultimate Fighting Championship with the promoter Art Davie. The first event, UFC 1, was held in Denver on 12 November 1993. 9 Royce Gracie, the smallest fighter in the tournament, won it. He also won UFC 2 and UFC 4. 1,9
Fighters of every style had just watched the smallest man in the tournament beat bigger opponents on the ground. Ground fighting became an essential part of mixed martial arts as a result. 1,9
A championship from Abu Dhabi
One of the people watching was Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. Inspired by Royce's win, he learned jiu-jitsu, and with his instructor Nelson Monteiro he created the ADCC submission grappling championship. The first was held in Abu Dhabi in March 1998. 18 ADCC is fought mostly without a gi, every two years, and is often called "the Olympics of grappling", a nickname rather than a status. 18,60
Abu Dhabi did not stop there. Since 2012 the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation has organised the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, now the main event of the AJP, the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro tour. 19,50
The teams
While the UFC made the art famous, the people who had trained under Rolls and Carlson were building the teams that most UK academies belong to today.
Carlos Gracie Jr., Rolls's student, founded Gracie Barra in Barra da Tijuca, Rio, in 1986, and in 2005 moved its world headquarters to Lake Forest, California. It says it has over 1,000 schools. 11,100 He also founded the Brazilian confederation known internationally as the IBJJF, which now runs the World, Pan American and European Championships and publishes the most widely used rules and belt system. 11,17,40
In 1993 Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti founded Alliance with Fabio Gurgel, Alexandre Paiva and, by some accounts, Fernando Gurgel. It has won 14 adult team titles at the IBJJF World Championship. 12,102
In Los Angeles in 2003 Eddie Bravo, a black belt under Jean Jacques Machado, set up 10th Planet to train without the gi, for submission only grappling and mixed martial arts. 16
And in 2008 Leo Vieira and his brothers Ricardo and Leandro founded Checkmat. The name joins "checkmate" and "mat", for the brothers' view of jiu-jitsu as a strategic game like chess. 13
Gi and no gi
The UFC also changed what people wore. The gi, the jacket, trousers and belt, is lighter and closer fitting than a judo uniform, and its cloth can be gripped and used for chokes. 1,23 No gi training uses a rash guard, a tight stretch shirt, and shorts, with no gripping of clothing. 1,43 Traditionally a belt promotion needed a gi; today more academies promote students who train only without one, and 10th Planet teaches no gi only. 1,16
The sport's wider world
Other federations found their own road. The Ju-Jitsu International Federation added a discipline it calls "Jiu-Jitsu (Ne-Waza)" in 2010, took it into The World Games in 2013 and into the Asian Games from 2018. 20,66 No jiu-jitsu body is recognised by the International Olympic Committee, so the art is not an Olympic sport. 27,66
By the end of the 1990s the art had left Brazil for good. One of the places it reached was a converted factory in Birmingham.