The Gracies are the first family of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Rickson is considered the best of them all. Helio Gracie, Rickson’s father, launched the martial art through challenge matches at his family’s academies in Rio de Janeiro. But it has grown—thanks to Rickson and his many brothers and cousins—into a global phenomenon embraced by everyone from MMA fighters to Hollywood actors to celebrity chefs to suburban kids in need of an after-school activity. The Gracies are responsible for everything from the four-billion-dollar Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) empire to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu academies dotting the strip malls across America. On the perimeter of the mat are Rickson's wife, Cassia, and Rickson's cousin, Jean Jacques Machado, a legendary Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor and “one of the greatest jiu-jitsu teachers in the world” according to Rickson. Machado was born with only a thumb and part of a pinkie on his left hand, but it didn’t stop him from becoming a ch
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