For Renzo Gracie, the UAE always made for an obvious choice to launch his first academy outside the United States.
There is the fact Rafael Haubert, his Brazilian compatriot and long-time friend, will oversee the project as owner and head coach. Haubert has lived in the Emirates for 14 years and is renowned as one of the country’s foremost jiu-jitsu instructors.
“It’s a pleasure to be doing this with him,” Gracie tells The National inside his Abu Dhabi apartment, Haubert sitting alongside him. “Because Rafael was the first to open a [jiu-jitsu] school in Dubai. To have the chance to work with him now is insane.
“I know how good he is and how well he does his job. It’s special.”
Coming from someone of Gracie’s standing, the commendation is not lost on Haubert. Anything but.
“You see the hairs standing up, to hear that from him,” Haubert says, stretching out his arm. “The responsibility is amazing right now; you can see that.”
That it elicits such a reaction should not come as a surprise. Gracie, 56, is veritable martial arts royalty, the grandson of Gracie Jiu Jitsu founder Carlos Gracie.
Renzo’s dad, Robson Gracie, is a 9th Dan Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu [BJJ] black belt, who initiated his son’s life-long love affair with jiu-jitsu. It began when he was four years old.
A multiple-time BJJ champion in Brazil, Renzo would go on to become a repeat champion in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC), later inducted into its Hall of Fame.
He has competed also in Pride Fighting Championships, the UFC and a number of other prominent promotions.
His coaching, though, is famed. Having relocated to the US, Gracie eventually opened his own academy and was soon one of the most respected instructors in the sport.
Among his notable students are George St-Pierre, considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all-time, Frankie Edgar and Matt Serra who, like St-Pierre, are former UFC champions.
However, other acclaimed pupils paved the way to the UAE. Gracie, who has spent considerable time with President Sheikh Mohamed, has taught jiu-jitsu to Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, National Security Advisor and Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and the next generation of the royal family.
In fact, Gracie awarded Sheikh Tahnoun, who founded ADCC and the ADCC World Submission Fighting Championships, his black belt.
“Sheikh Tahnoun came to visit me in New York, my first academy, in 1996,” Gracie says. “We became friends. He invited me to come to his country; the first time I went to watch a soccer game, and that’s when I met Sheikh Mohamed. And I’ve been coming here a lot since.
“This country makes me very proud. Because I’ve been inside the house of the royal family for 27 years, almost 28 years. I see their main concern is with their people, with their country, with making their country better, improving life around them for everyone.
“Also, to help other countries, to help other cultures. It’s an amazing people, an amazing family.”
Under the directive of Sheikh Mohamed, the UAE has become a global player in jiu-jitsu. Inspired some time ago by the noticeable change in his son’s attitude after training in the martial art, the President developed a plan for jiu-jitsu to be taught in schools.
In 2008, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) adopted jiu-jitsu in the curriculum of public schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region. It is now mandatory in the police and the military, too.
By 2019, official figures said 1,600 of the 10,000 Brazilians living in the UAE were jiu-jitsu instructors. Gracie expects between 600 and 700 more will arrive by this September.
Quite remarkably, last year it was estimated that more than 200,000 Emiratis practise the sport.
Meanwhile, the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation, established in 2012 with Sheikh Mohamed’s support, has become home to some of the sport’s principal competitions. It has produced a succession of homegrown champions.
“Sheikh Mohamed thought this is such an amazing tool, our whole country needs to learn,” Gracie says. “And then they had the schools, started bringing instructors, treating them with unbelievable respect.
“Of all the important investments the leadership made in Brazil, the best was to bring 1,000 Brazilians to teach jiu-jitsu, to help the future generations. Help in our culture too, to allow us to be important, to make them better human beings.
“That’s why we should be very thankful to them. Even though I know money is the spring that moves the world around, the investment Sheikh Mohamed did in allowing us to forge future generations is unforgettable.”
Gracie says, such is the impact of the UAE’s growth of the sport, that Brazil is seeking to implement similar programmes. It is another reason why he wants to give back again to the Emirates.
Opening next month, “unforgettable” marks Gracie’s first eponymous academy in the Middle East. His headquarters are Manhattan, New York, where he has two academies already, with two more to come there and one soon in Brooklyn.
“I’ve had a lot of offers to open franchises all over the world,” Gracie says. “We have over 100 right now. Schools in South Africa, Israel, Vietnam, Japan; China now wants to open, they’re planning a project of 100 schools.
“But I try to make sure that whoever is running a Renzo Gracie Academy will be capable to do it. Most of them, almost all, were my students. So I made sure that they learn under me, how to treat students, how to run the academy and how to really make people better. I was very successful with that until now.”
Dubai represents the next link in that legacy. But, Gracie offers, it’s more than teaching a sport.
“I always say I don’t sell martial arts,” he emphasises. “We sell confidence. We sell friendship. I’ve seen jiu-jitsu change people’s lives in such a positive way it’s insane.
“I know how it changed my life, since I was a kid. There were days that I was tired, I didn’t want to train. And then I think about my friends there, the laughs I’m going to have, the knowledge I’m going to acquire.
“I always joke, I say every day in an academy is like you read a book; you have the opportunity to learn more about life and how to live inside a jiu-jitsu academy than any Ivy League school in the world.”
Gracie insists there is no age limit for jiu-jitsu; some of his students are over 80. The Dubai academy, sprawling 4,000 square metres on the outskirts of Al Quoz and boasting two 100m mats, will cater for everyone, too: beginner classes for children and adults; a specific class for over 40s; one on fundamentals; an advanced class; those dedicated to advanced competition.
The first people will be on the mats at 7am; the last 8pm.
Crucially, Haubert is keen to stress it will not be a facility simply for elite-level practitioners.
“The mentality is that, when you think about martial arts, you always end up thinking about competition,” he says. “And it’s less than 20 per cent that already know where they’re going to end up in martial arts.
“We’re looking for the 80 per cent that have never been part of a community. And then you’re there in that energy, you start to learn about yourself. And then you start to progress, and then comes the happiness.
“That’s the difference. You don’t even need to look at the competition unless you want to, to challenge yourself. The top is UFC, UAE Warriors and all these promotions. But there’s 80 per cent that want to be part of a community. That’s a life experience.
“Life is not easy. You want that commitment, don’t give up, keep moving forward. In jiu-jitsu it’s the same: learn to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
“Look at Renzo, all his life fighting and making jiu-jitsu grow all over the world. So he wants to share that experience.”
Gracie, who has shared the experience as coach with the likes of Guy Richie and Anthony Bourdain, will be a regular visitor to the Dubai academy.
Still, he is convinced it’s in very capable hands.
Asked what will constitute success for the Dubai venture, he lets Haubert take the lead.
“The happiness of the students, the happiness of the community, and the feeling that I’m sure I’m following the standards of the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed, Sheikh Tahnoun, and the vision of the country.
“Also, the amazing work by [UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation chairman] Abdulmunam Al Hashemi to grow jiu-jitsu and reach more souls. If I’m feeling I’m fulfilling all of that I’m going to be very happy.”
Gracie nods along, and smiles.
“If I knew jiu-jitsu would guide me in such a positive way throughout my whole life, I wouldn’t have cried in my childhood,” he says. “I wouldn’t have dropped one tear.
“Because it was such an amazing tool and brought me close to so many amazing people and so many great moments in my life.
“That’s why I work so hard, and I push that to everybody around me. So they can have that feeling too. This academy is an extension of that.”
