Renzo Gracie was born on the 11th March 1967 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and is a professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, best known to the world for his victories over such well-respected mixed martial artists Frank Shamrock, Carlos Newton, Maurice Mith, Oleg Taktarov, and also Pat Miletich. He is a part of the Gracie family that has had roots in jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts since the 1920s.
Have you ever wondered how rich Renzo Gracie is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that Gracie’s net worth is as high as $3 million, an amount earned through his successful career, which has been active since the early ‘90s.
Renzo Gracie Net Worth $3 Million
A part of the famous mixed martial artist family, Renzo’s father is Robson Gracie and grandfather Carlos Gracie,. From an early age, Renzo was thrown into fighting and obtained a six-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, thanks to the training he got from his father.
He made his professional debut in 1992 when he fought Luiz Augusto Alvareda in Gracie Vale Tudo, and was victorious. Since then, Renzo has participated in 21 more fights, winning 12 of them, and losing seven in total. His second match was against Ben Spijkers, whom he defeated in the first round of the WCC 1, and the same day fought Phil Benedict and James Warring, all wins, to increase his wealth and to win the World Combat Championships 1 Tournament. He continued to string up successes, defeating such fighters as Oleg Taktarov, Sanae Kikuta, Alexander Otsuka, and Maurice Smith to attain 9-0-1 record. Unfortunately, from then his career began to decline, and he has only won four fights and lost six. He has fought in Ultimate Fighting Championship, Pride Fighting Championships, K-1, RINGS, and International Fight League.
Renzo has also found success in Submission Grappling in which he has fought 18 times and recorded 11 victories; he debuted in 1993 at Campeonato Brasileiro against Ricardo de la Riva and defeated his opponent. His next fight was a defeat to Waillid Ismail at Desafio WxR, and then lined up four victories at the ADCC 1998 -77kg championship in 1998, defeating Frank Trigg, Rodrigo Modarias, Fabiano Iha, and Luis Brito, which also added to his wealth. The following year he competed at ADCC but this time in category 99kg, and after winning his first match against Fan Yi, he lost to Egan Inoue.
For the next year, Renzo returned to the 77kg category and once again was quite successful, defeating Dennis Hallman, Israel Albuquerque, Marcio Feitosa and Jean Jacques Machado, but with the start of the 2000s, Renzo’s performance began to decline in Submission grappling as well in mixed martial arts, and he has recorded only one victory, against George Sotiropoulos in 2003, and lined-up four defeats, and most recently a draw, against Kazushi Sakuraba at Metamoris V in 2014.
He has put fighting aside and is now more focused on his career as a coach; he started the Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan and so far has coached such fighters as Rodrigo Gracie, Georges St-Pierre, Matt Serra, Alan Teo, Sean Alvarez, Paul Creighton, and Chris Weidman among others. Furthermore, Renzo has been the personal jiu-jitsu teacher of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, since 1993. He has opened training centers in his native Brazil, and also has affiliate academies in Canada, Peru, Israel, Singapore, South Africa, and Mexico as well.
Renzo is also a well-known author; so far he has co-authored two books with the main topic being jiu-jitsu, “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique”, with the help of Royler Gracie who is his cousin, and “Mastering Jujitsu” with John Danaher, who is his training partner. The sales of these books have also contributed to Renzo’s wealth.
Regarding his personal life, Renzo is married to Cristina, with whom he has three children. The Gracie family resides in Holmdel Township, New Jersey USA.
Most recently, Renzo had problems with the law; he was arrested after being involved in a club fight, during which he hurt a bouncer who was forced to hospital. In his defense, Renzo stated that he didn’t hit the bouncer, but did take him down.
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