In 2008 the famed CBS television program 60 Minutes covered Pat Miletich, the man who created the blueprint for mixed martial arts success, and the legendary Renzo Gracie. The reporter noted there was only one photo on the wall of the academy; it was of Gracie together with one of the greatest fighters in MMA history, Japan’s Kazushi Sakuraba.
The pair fought, with the ref stopping the fight after Gracie’s arm was twisted, dislocated, and twisted further. Gracie said in all seriousness that he enjoyed the moment.
(5:07 mark)
60 Minutes: He twists your arm completely inside out?
Renzo Gracie: Yes
60 Minutes: I see the arm, but i don’t see it on your face.
Renzo Gracie: To be honest, i really even enjoyed that moment. Because i had plenty consciousness of what was going on. And I didn’t give up. I saw the ligaments going, I heard one by one going away. And I embraced that as a punishment of the mistake I had.
60 Minutes: But your arm is busted, fight’s over. Why didn’t you tap?
Renzo Gracie: Because I really believed that I could keep fighting, even without the arm.
Mixed martial arts is meaningless without meaning. It is just entertainment. But MMA holds deep lessons, hard earned, that you can, that you must bring into life. Among them is fact that we each have shortcomings, we each have disabilities, and the only thing that matters is in end is believing, and all the hard work that believing demands.
Renzo now runs the most successful martial arts school in North America. He is signed with the UFC, and says he wants to fight again, but UFC president Dana White has concerns, due to his age (48). Sakuraba, now 46, continues to fight sporadically, but at the age of 46, is only a shell of the champion he once was.
