Top 9 Classic Historical Myths and Misconceptions about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 

Myth 1: In order to avoid confusion with judo, the original Gracie belt system (at least during the 151 Rio Branco era) consisted of white belt for students, dark blue belts for instructors, and light blue belts for masters ["Para não se confundir com o judô, não haviam graduações de faixa, o aluno era faixa branca, o instrutor era faixa azul escuro e o mestre azul clara."] Black and other belts were introduced when the first (unofficial, unapproved) jiu-jitsu federation was formed by the Carlos and Helio Gracie in 1968.[1] 

Myth 2: There were no rules and no interruptions "back in the day of Carlos/Helios and even Carlson eras of the 40 & 50s a fight or challenge was taken as a test of manhood and mostly contested with almost no rules and definitely with no interruptions until someone surrendered" [2].

Fact: There were never any no-rules fights. Even supposedly no-rules fights [vale tudos] had rules and time-limits. The process of negotiating the rules was a large part of the pre-fight build-up (all thoroughly documented in Choque 1, Choque 2, and Choque 3). 

Myth 3: Helio was "diminutive" (i.e., tiny).  Gracie's ground style developed because "diminutive" Helio often found himself under his opponents. [3]

Fact: Helio was bigger than some of his opponents. He was on the bottom sometimes and on top other times. His guard style was nothing more or less than the ground style shown in Miyake and Tani's 1906 book The Game of Ju-Jitsu for the Use of Schools and Colleges. An alternative to the theory that Helio developed his ground style because he was diminutive is that he read Miyake and Tani's book. Another alternative is that he didn't have a unique ground style. To appreciate that, we need to compare Helio's performance in the ring with those of other fighters (George, Omori, Ono Brothers, Yano, etc.) against similar or the same opponents (for that, see Choque 1). Helio was not the only one who sometimes found himself on the bottom and he was as big, or bigger, or not significantly smaller than most of the fighters he faced, and he was no more diminutive than the other jiu-jitsu representatives of his two periods of ring activity (1932-1936, and 1950-1955). See Myth #2 here for more about that.  What did distinguish Helio Gracie's style from almost everyone else was his reference for stalemating rather than risk losing by going aggressively for the submission, and he adapted his overall contest strategy around that in combination with his realistic awareness of of his relative deficiency in stand-up skills (in other words, he accepted the fact that he was going to get thrown or put on bottom most of the time).

Myth 4: The vale tudo television program "Heróis do Rings" was cancelled because Gracie Academy representative João Alberto Barreto fractured an opponent's arm and viewers were shocked and appalled by the brutality of real fights.

Fact: João Alberto did break Jose Geraldo's arm on July 6, 1959. It was not the final fight of the series, but rather the first fight. The program was not cancelled. It went off the air April 1960 and subsequently was renamed and continued under new direction,  after a six month hiatus, following the new "safety" rules demanded by the sports authorities. (In this sense it was revamped, renamed, and overhauled rather than cancelled).  The matches were luta livre americana matches, staged by the Organização Carioca dos Lutadores, which consisted of most of the academies that had taken part in Heróis, minus the Gracies (a few of their representatives appeared, but seldom). Semi-legit luta livre americana gradually morphed into blatant pro wrestling. Jiu-Jitsu fighters who wanted to get paid in Rio took off their kimonos. Oswaldo Fada took an active role. Helio suspected that it was conspiracy against the Gracie family. He and Carlos subsequently promoted their own hardcore program of real fights in São Paulo that quickly failed due to lack of viewer interest. There was still vale tudo in Brazil, but in Baia and the interior, with a few exceptions between 1983 and 1999. (See Choque 2 and Choque 3 for full details.)

Myth 5. Oswaldo Fada team defeated Gracie Academy team.

Fact: The Gracie brothers (Carlos and Helio) attempted to promote jiu-jitsu as a sport along the lines of judo beginning from 1950, when they organized a tournament and invited four other academies to participate. The four academies were headed by Carlos Pereira, Azevedo Maia, (both former students of Carlos Gracie), Oswaldo Fada, and Augusto Cordeiro. After the first round, Pereira, Maia, and Cordeiro withdrew, charging that the Gracies were substituting fighters and entering professionals (specifically Pedro Hemeterio) in what was supposed to be an amateur sporting competition. Fada hung in, and in fact, competed himself, and had his arm dislocated. The Gracie brothers were criticized by the press for charging high admission prices to watch recreational players compete.

All of the competitors in the final round were Gracie Academy students, who thereby became the "Brazilian national champions." 

In 1955 a friendly competition was arranged between the academies of the Gracie brothers and Oswaldo Fada. Fourteen matches were held. The Gracie team won seven (7),  lost three (3), and drew four (4). George showed up to act as time-keeper. (see Choque 2 chp. 6 for details.)

Myth 6: Carlos Gracie was a boxing champion. And George Gracie was a boxing vice-champion. According to Carlos in 1961, he was a boxing champion in 1925 (Choque 3, chp 1). According to Reila Gracie, "Carlos was Brazilian amateur middleweight champion, and George was vice-champion" (my translation; see here for Reila's own words). According to Reila, quoting Carlos, he fought "almost 20 fights and was never hit even once." 

Fact: That would be an extraordinary, indeed miraculous, achievement for any boxer, if it actually happened. But there is no record of Carlos ever stepping into a boxing ring, at least not with boxing gloves on his hands. We know that because boxing began in Brazil, like the other combat sports, as a variety show attraction. A few amateur "sportsmen" took it up as a physical fitness activity. Professional boxing, on a small scale, began in 1921, introduced by immigrants. Organized amateur boxing began in 1928. Two Brazilian amateur boxing championships were held in 1928 and 1929 and were extensively covered in the Rio press. People who registered to fight, weighed-in, gloved-up, fought, and won titles were well covered. Carlos Gracie's name was never mentioned. George Gracie registered to compete (George was familiar with boxing gyms, taught his jiu-jitsu out of boxing gyms (at times), and had rudimentary boxing skills, as Choque 1 proves). But George didn't show up for the weigh-in and never fought a boxing match. However, Carlos and George's jiu-jitsu instructor Donato Pires dos Reis did. Donato gloved up and was ready to rumble. His opponent didn't appear so Donato won by "walk-over". But that is more than Carlos can truthfully say. (See Choque 1, chp. 7 for details.) Carlos enhanced his personal autobiography with details from the life of his instructor, Donato Pires dos Reis on other occasions (documented in Choque 1). It appears that he was dipping into Donato's boxing resume as well (inflating one walk-over win into 20 victories without ever being hit).

Myth 7: Rickson Gracie was victorious in 430 fights and never lost.

Fact: By October 1998, just before Rickson vs. Takada II, the number of Rickson's supposed victories had risen to 460 (according to Karate Bushido magazine, below). Reports differed as to whether they were total victories (in any type of fight), or specifically in vale tudo contests. Rickson himself said (in 2005, here) that if we included fights of every type (including dojo challenges, or "desafios") the number might actually be 1,000 or more. And that is with no losses. He didn't know the exact number. It was too many to count. He hadn't been keeping track all these years.

So there are two answers. One is that if we are talking about every type of match, including sparring sessions, then the number might be vast. But the number of losses is more than zero. Rickson conceded that he lost a sambo match to Ron Tripp. Rickson didn't think it really counted though, because no one explained the rules to him before the match.[4] 

If we are talking about vale tudos, then the answer is known. Rickson was undefeated in October 1998, but the number of victories was considerably less than 460 (it was 13, to be exact).

How did this myth arise? It arose in October 1995 as part of the hype for a Brazilian vale tudo tournament known as Desafio Internacional Vale Tudo Brazil Open 95. The concept behind it was that fighters from various countries would eliminate each other and the last man standing would qualify to meet Rickson. In order for that to make sense, Rickson would need to be portrayed as superhuman. Accordingly, Rickson was described as the "undefeated world champion with 430 fights" ["Campeao mundial invicto a 430 lutas RICKSON GRACIE"]. Rickson was described as the "Great Big Dragon" ["O Grande Dragão"], possibly a play on Bruce Lee's nickname. He was also described as "The King of the Mats with 430 victories" ["O Rei do tatame, soma 430 vitorias"], and with 430 fights and an equal number of victories ["forma 430 lutas e o mesmo numero de vitorias"].

In the above, the "fights" [lutas] were not specified. Luta does not necessarily mean value tudo (or any specific type of contest or struggle for that matter). The vale tudo myth began on Tuesday, October 24, 1995. On the evening of that day Rickson was scheduled to appear, via an interview taped earlier in Santa Monica, USA, on the popular late night TV show Gente de Expressão, hosted by Bruna Lombardi.  In an afternoon newspaper article about the show, Rickson was praised as a man who no other man on the planet could beat. Rickson (it went on) had 430 fights and 430 victories in vale tudo ["não há lutador no planeta capaz de derrotar o homem, que ostenta em seu curriculo 430 lutas a 430 vitorias, na modalidade do vale tudo"]. (For details, sources, and an extensive glossary of fight-related Portuguese vocabulary, see Choque 3, esp. chp, 35, and app. 6).

Obviously, the 430 number was intended merely to hype a tournament (which did take place, although Rickson ended up not participating). The addition of "vale tudo" to the "record" was the inspiration no doubt of another marketing person who knew nothing about fighting, but apparently must have assumed that all of Rickson's fights were vale tudo. Between October 1995 and October 1998, Rickson had one more fight, beating pro wrestler Nobuhiko Takada. Disregarding elementary arithmetic, Karate Bushido boosted Rickson's record by 29 instead of one. (And to leave no knot untied, Rickson had two more fights after that, Takada again, and Masakatsu Funaki in 2000, and then retired. Funaki talks about the fight here.)

Above: Rickson Gracie (October 1998), winner of 460 fights. Will he beat Takada again October 11?

Myth 8. "Gracie [Helio] introduced a series of adaptations to traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu that emphasized leverage and position as a way to compensate for size differences among opponents." So said The New York Times on January 30, 2009 (pg. B9)

Fact. Helio never studied traditional Japanese "Jiu-Jitsu" so he couldn't adapt it. He also never said that he did. What he said (here) was that because he couldn't imitate Carlos' power-based techniques, he began  learning jiu-jitsu (or what he thought was jiu-jitsu) "in his own way". He didn't adapt Japanese "jiu-jitsu", he adapted Carlos' power-based jiu-jitsu by using science, such as force and leverage (here). 

This may seem like beating a dead horse if you've read Choque, Jiu-Jitsu in the South Zone, or the previous Myths & Misconceptions, but it brings up an important point. As always, we need to ask where the information came from. The NY Times obit gives a clue: The Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy Web site. Obit writers are rarely experts in the field of the dead person's eminence. So, where do they get their information from, especially on what is sometimes short notice? According to one NY Times obit writer (here), they get it from family and friends of the deceased[5]. And, apparently, from academy web sites.

Myth 9: The Gracies were the first Brazilians to spread jiu-jitsu in Brazil.

Fact: Mario Aleixo was the first. Unfortunately, his march to martial arts immortality was derailed when he met a young man named George Gracie. The full story is told in Choque 1, chps. 4 and 11). 

**