Dissecting MMAMania.com Article on Renzo Gracie

MMA Mania posted an article on Renzo Gracie today, discussing his MMA career and feud with BJ Penn. It was pretty interesting, but I take issue with some of the statements made in the piece.

First, let me say that BJ Penn is my favorite fighter, but I also like Renzo Gracie as from what I've seen and heard, the guy is a total class act. However, let's break down some of MMA Mania's statements:

"Renzo and BJ fought to a very close decision that saw Penn win a battle of positions. Renzo would later get his revenge when his star pupil Georges St. Pierre outpointed Penn in similar fashion at UFC 58."

True, GSP trained under Renzo, but in no way was he Renzo's star pupil. GSP was awarded his brown belt by Renzo, but earned his black belt under another instructor. And if you wanted to pick a star pupil of Renzo's, the logical choice would be either Ricardo Almeida or Matt Serra, the latter of whom is the first American to be awarded a black belt under Renzo. Serra also lost to BJ Penn at UFC 39. BJ also holds a victory over another Renzo Gracie black belt, Paul Creighton. These losses were never avenged, and I seriously doubt Renzo got much satisfaction out of seeing GSP beat BJ, especially since the fight was pretty close.

MMA Mania also says this:

"Penn was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Renzo’s brother Ralph Gracie, who took the gifted Hawaiian under his wing and molded him into a formidable grappler. Penn eventually left the Gracie school and in 2005 went against Gracie tradition by calling out one of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s most revered pioneers in Rodrigo Gracie."

According to plenty of articles, BJ was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by a neighbor, and only after that did he move to California to train under Ralph Gracie. I have no comment on Gracie tradition, but Dave Camarillo's Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu book paints a pretty damning picture of Ralph Gracie. I don't know if it's all true, but there is a chance that Ralph Gracie is a jackass!

Some of the points I'm making are purely semantics but I still think MMA Mania could have done a better job with the facts.