The eldest of 21 kids, Carlson Gracie began his study of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu while still in diapers directly from the creator of the art, his father, Carlos Gracie. 

Carlos learned Japanese Jiu Jitsu from Mitsuyo Maeda and then taught the art to his own younger brothers, George, Oswaldo, Gastao Jr, and Helio. They took the art to new heights by challenging masters of other martial arts to bare knuckle, no weight class fights throughout Brazil for years, modifying techniques along the way as they used their own bodies as well as their opponents' as the test dummies to find the most effective methods of combat, establishing the supremacy of their family's version of Jiu Jitsu as the king of all martial arts systems. 

After a very public disagreement played out in the local newspapers between Grand Master Helio Gracie and a top student of the academy named Waldemar Santana, Helio Gracie came out of retirement to fight a bare knuckle battle against Waldemar. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, it was the longest Vale Tudo fight in history that ended when a dehydrated, exhausted Helio was soccer kicked and knocked out by his former pupil. 

 "You are my friend, but now I have to SMASH you."

- Carlson Gracie to Waldemar Santana

 

After Helio's defeat, there were no family members old enough to avenge the loss, so Carlos called up his oldest son, Carlson, for the job, who was at the time just a boy of 17. This began the illustrious career of THE KING of Jiu Jitsu, who went on to defeat Waldemar badly and carried the name of the Gracie family on his back alone nearly 20 years, until other members became old enough to fight. He became a celebrity in Brazil & generated a lot of jealousy from Helio Gracie, causing a rift in the family that lasted until Helio & Carlson's deaths. Although, this competition between Carlson and the rest of the family only helped to improve the arts' effectiveness overall.

After retiring from prize fighting, Carlson created the most powerful stable of fighters in both sport BJJ, & Vale Tudo (now called MMA) in the world. The internal competition to decide who would take the honor to represent the academy was considered tougher than any of the actual tournaments the team ever competed in, against the other top academies in Brazil!

Nowadays, if you look at the most successful MMA gyms at the top of the sport, you will more often than not find them owned & trained by a Carlson Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt.

MMA teams like Brazilian Top Team, American Top Team, Team Alpha Male, Blackzilians and Nova Uniao are some of the biggest MMA teams in the world, with legends like UFC & Pride champion Minotauro Nogueira, Pride Champion Mario Sperry, Pride and UFC Champion Murilo Bustamante, UFC Champion Anderson "The Spider" Silva, UFC Champion Jose Aldo, WEC champion Uriah Faber, PFL Champion Kayla Harrison, UFC Champion Kumaru Usman, UFC "people's champ" Jorge Masvidal, UFC champion Amanda Nunes & on & on all have one thing in common: 

The Carlson style is a stripped down, no nonsense approach to Jiu Jitsu. Since it has to work under real situations with just a switch of a grip here or there, Carlson Jiu Jitsu is the MOST SUCCESSFUL BJJ STYLE IN MMA EVER CREATED, BAR NONE. It's not even up for debate.

" Don't confuse Gracie Jiu Jitsu with CARLSON GRACIE JIU JITSU!"

---Grandmaster Carlson Gracie