Roger Gracie (born Roger Gracie Gomes; 26 September, 1981) is a Brazilian former professional mixed martial artist and 5th degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) practitioner and coach. The son of coral belt Mauricio Gomes and grandson of BJJ founder Carlos Gracie, Roger Gracie is one of jiu-jitsu's most decorated and accomplished athletes and considered by many as the greatest competitor in jiu-jitsu history. A member of both IBJJF Hall of Fame and ADCC Hall of Fame, Gracie won 10 IBJJF world championship titles across multiple weight classes, every year from 2004 to 2010, becoming the first competitor to win the open weight division 3 times. He is also a two-time European Champion, and a Pan Champion. Gracie is an ADCC Submission Fighting weight, absolute, and superfight champion, the only athlete to win gold in both his weight class and the open weight division with a 100% submission-rate. Gracie retired in 2017 after defeating then BJJ world champion Marcus Buchecha, leaving jiu-jitsu without a single submission defeat in his record. Competing concurrently in MMA, Gracie is the 2016 One World Cruiserweight Champion, a former Strikeforce and UFC middleweight contender, holding at the time of his retirement in 2017 a professional record of 8–2. Early life Roger Gomes Gracie was born on 26 September 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His mother, Reila Gracie, was a daughter of Carlos Gracie, the founder of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and his father, Mauricio Gomes, was a jiu-jitsu black belt under Rolls Gracie and a famous competitor in the 1970s known as . From a very young age Gracie started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Brazilian jiu-jitsu career Early career During his teenage years, after training with his uncle Rilion Gracie, Gracie started competition. In 1999 he won the Brazilian National Jiu-Jitsu Championship fighting as blue belt in the middleweight division then the following year Gracie won the 2000 Pan American Championship followed by the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship both in the medium-heavy blue belt division. That same year, 18-year-old Gracie was arrested by the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro together with three other grapplers (Rafael Lima, Rafael Ramos and Murilo Carvalho), for allegedly shooting paintball and rubber bullets guns at three transvestites. Gracie was not prosecuted but the incident led his mother to send him to London to live with his father, who had moved to England to set up the first Gracie Barra academy in the UK. Training