The Man That Changed the Sport

The other day I caught myself with about a hour or two to kill as i waited for the season premier of The Ultimate Figher to begin. (Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck, quite possibly one of the best seasons yet!) As I flipped through the channels I came across a documentry about the man that has quite possibly impacted the sport of MMA greater then anyone else. When Royce Gracie began to compete in the UFC, his submission fight style slowly transformed the sport from a "who can hit the fastest and hardest struggle", to a sport that is now seen as an art. As Gracie steped in the cage, the tempo of every fight changed, the fight would transform from a brawl to a match of Mixed Martial Arts. Gracie was the first champion in the UFC, he used his familys Jiu Jitsu practices, or what they called, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, to choke or lock his opponets and pull a submission victory for his win. As Gracie grew in the UFC so did the the tournament, it was originally ran as constant fight till someone finished his opponent with very few, and not so inforced rules. However, as Gracie transformed the sport from a caged street brawl, to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, the UFC began to create a more effective rule policy and orginized the tournament much better. As time went on, the UFC continued to grow, with Gracie as the base of the tournament, eventually Dana White took over the company and he has turned it into one of the fastest growing sport orginizations today. As time goes on, MMA and the UFC becomes more popular and creates a brand new breed of athletes. At UFC 45 in 2003, it was the tenth year anniversery of the orginization, the UFC was now much more respected and  MMA was becoming classifed as a true sport, at this event Dana White was sure to make the man that "started the art of Mixed Martial Arts" the first inductee into the UFC Hall Of Fame, Mr. Royce Gracie.