Rickson Gracie turned down $5 million fight against Sakuraba

The Gracie name is one that was been held on a pedal stool since the inception of mixed martial arts has come to existence–and rightfully so.

Essentially, it was the Gracie clan the kick started this sport, which began in the early 90′s by one Art Davie and Rorion Gracie. The two minds met, and coupled with Davie’s business savvy and Rorion’s ties through the martial arts community, they were able to create mixed martial arts, which is a blend of all styles: boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, wrestling, judo, and jiu-jitsu.

Royce Gracie is perhaps the most famous of the Gracie’s, since he became the organization’s first real champion, winning the UFC 1,2, and 4 open-weight tournaments, where he was the smallest competitor in the field against some 200-plus-pound men. He was able to negate all of their strong suits with his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills.

While Royce is the most recognized of the bunch, he wasn’t the most talented. The Gracie’s secret weapon, Rickson Gracie, was the best among the best, and will go down in history as such.

A retired mixed martial artist who went undefeated in his professional career with a perfect 11-0 record would seem applause worthy, but his record is only one indication of his legend.

Rickson credits himself with some 400-fights through Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, freestyle wrestling, sambo competition, and no holds barred match ups. As such, he went undefeated in his competitive career, that much is undisputed.

Whatever the legend may be, one thing is known, that Rickson was one bad dude. A 7th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a black belt in Judo, Rickson remains as the best amongst the Gracie clan, and as such was offered a hefty, hefty paycheck some time ago.

Rickson retired from MMA in 2000, but was still in high demand. At the height of PRIDE’s career, their most cherished star had been Kazushi Sakuraba, who had been deemed “The Gracie Hunter” with his victories over Royler, Renzo, Ryan, Royce Gracie–with three of those victories coming by way of stoppage, 2 by submission.

In a recent interview with Gracie Magazine, Rickson has stated that he was offered $5 million to return to competition against Sauraba, but refused to return.

“That fight would have been the biggest payout of all times. They offered me five million dollars, it would have put me on easy street. He beat a number of Gracies, and it would have been a good fight for me, perhaps the best fight. He really was a thorn in the side of all the Gracies.”

So, MMA peeps, what do you make of this? For $5 million dollars, I would do a lot more than potentially take a beating from Kazushi Sakuraba. I’m just saying…dam, that’s a lot of money. Sound off in the comment section below.