Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and mixed martial arts legend Renzo Gracie was featured in a documentary titled "Renzo Gracie: Legacy" at the inaugural U.S. Sports Film Festival last Saturday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Perhaps best known for his battles with Dan Henderson and Kazushi Sakuraba back in the days of PRIDE Fighting Championship, Gracie (13-6-1) last competed at Elite XC: "Destiny" where he defeated Frank Shamrock via disqualification.
The movie chronicles Gracie's life from his days as a boy growing up in Brazil to his time spent as a top competitor in Japan and beyond.
Of particular interest was his feud with BJ Penn back in 2005. Penn first studied the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under 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.
After taking the decision win, Penn then set his sights on Rodrigo's cousin and brother of his mentor, Renzo Gracie.
As if it wasn't bad enough that a Gracie-trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter was calling out another, Renzo took exception to the fact that it was Penn's father who made the call and not BJ himself.
Renzo explains in our exclusive video after the jump:
Renzo and BJ fought to a very close decision that saw Penn win a battle of positions. Renzo would later get his revenge when one of his star pupils (at the time) Georges St. Pierre outpointed Penn in similar fashion at UFC 58.
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Gracie has enjoyed his time away from the sport, but still doesn't consider himself retired. In fact the 41-year-old fighter plans to get back into the mix - after shedding a few extra pounds.
Where he fits in to the big picture is hard to say.
He still has the ability to draw in Japan and could be a nice addition to one of the upcoming cards in either DREAM or Sengoku.
And of course he could always head over to Strikeforce to rematch Frank Shamrock, who got DQ'd for driving his knees into Gracie’s head while he was on the ground at 'Destiny' (despite being warned by referee Herb Dean regarding an earlier infraction involving the back of the head).
Time will tell.
Renzo Gracie: 'Legacy' is expected to be available on DVD this November.
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