The Truth About The Most Legendary Family In Martial Arts

History is full of crazy martial artists who could rip your head off in five seconds flat. But none of these characters are quite so colorful as the Gracie family. A Brazilian dynasty dating back to the early 1900s, the Gracies invented their own fighting style and created one of the most popular sports in the world, but their twisty tale also involves everything from polygamy to psychic powers.

While Helio was the face of BJJ, Carlos was the family figurehead. As blogger Pedro Olavarria put it, Helio was Luke Skywalker, and Carlos was Yoda. And just like the Jedi, the Gracie brothers had some ... pretty bizarre beliefs.

For example, Carlos practiced polygamy, fathering 21 children by six women. When Carlos learned Helio's wife couldn't have kids, he convinced her to let Helio take a mistress. Out of this unusual union came future fighters Rorion and Rickson. Shockingly, nobody other than Carlos and Helio knew the identity of this mystery woman, and it wasn't until much later that Rorion discovered his real mother was actually his babysitter. Not what most guys have in mind when fantasizing about their childhood babysitter.

Stranger still, Helio had a secret second family, and out of that relationship came future UFC champion, Royce Gracie. In total, Carlos and Helio had 27 kids, and the two often raised each other's children. But despite all the baby-making, Carlos preached sex was solely for reproductive purposes. In other words, no fun allowed (booo). On top of that, Carlos had some pretty weird rules when it came to naming children. The jiu-jitsu master believed certain letters were more powerful than others, so Gracie names often begin with "R," "K," "S," or "C." After all, a successful athlete needs a strong name, something Sichael Jordan can readily attest to.

An athlete also needs to train non-stop, so the Gracies purchased a 21-bedroom compound outside Rio de Janeiro. This is where all the Gracies ate, slept, and trained, practicing their moves and establishing inter-familial rivalries. In short, the Gracie household was like a religious compound where everyone spent their days either making babies, or worshiping at the altar of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

If you're going to sport, you have to watch what you eat. That's especially true for the Gracies, who have a system of complex dietary rules, courtesy of Carlos.

According to the story, the family patriarch was suffering some pretty serious headaches when he decided to change what he was eating. The result was the Gracie Diet, a system that says you should only eat three meals a day (no snacks), you can only have one starch per meal, and you can only eat certain foods in certain combinations. According to Carlos, this prevents a "dangerous level of acidity" from messing up "the internal balance of your gastro-intestinal system."

In other words, if you can make the process of digestion easier for your body, then you'll have extra energy to divert toward jiu-jitsu. That's why acidic fruits have to be eaten all by themselves. So if you want an orange, the entire meal must be oranges and nothing else. And you can't put strawberries in your cereal, or honey on your bananas. And that cake you ate for dinner? A definite no-no.

When it comes to one starch per meal, you can't mix foods like rice and beans. The Gracies also believe it's a bad idea to eat pork, vinegar, pepper, or cinnamon, and if you're eating nuts, chicken, or shellfish, then you can't drink any milk.

While there's not a lot of science backing up the Gracie Diet, some argue there's lots of anecdotal evidence. For proof, look no further than Carlos and Helio — both men lived into their 90s. And the Gracie Diet is still practiced by the family today. It's championed on YouTube by Rener Gracie, and Rorion claims he'd pick the diet over jiu-jitsu any day. Dude must really like oranges.

Wanting to show Americans the superiority of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Rorion Gracie devised a simple-yet-genius plan. He would invite a variety of martial artists to duke it out on TV, and then everyone across the country would witness the power of jiu-jitsu.

But first, Rorion needed the perfect ring. With the help of John Milius, he considered all sorts of wild ideas. Could they surround the ring with an electric fence? An alligator moat? Or how about a tank full of sharks? Thankfully, they settled on an eight-sided cage called the Octagon. The newly christened Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) held its first pay-per-view on November 12, 1993, and the card featured everyone from a taekwondo expert to a sumo wrestler, and representing BJJ was 26-year-old Royce Gracie.

While Royce had been competing in jiu-jitsu since age eight, he wasn't the best of the Gracies. Plus, Royce was smaller than the other UFC competitors. But Rorion was intentionally creating a David vs. Goliath situation — if stick-thin Royce could manhandle these bruisers, then jiu-jitsu was clearly the superior martial art.

Now, in 1993, the UFC was ... different. It was a tournament, there were no judges, referees couldn't stop a match, and you could only win by finishing your opponent or forcing him to quit. Hoping to make it like a street fight, Rorion insisted everything other than biting, eye-gouging, and groin strikes be legal. Despite his size disadvantage, Royce defeated a boxer, wrestler, and a kickboxer to win the first UFC championship. And the rest is history, though we still dream of what could've been with that alligator moat.

Helio's third son, Rickson Gracie, is widely considered the greatest member of his legendary family. Much like Rorion, Rickson wanted to spread the message of BJJ, so he grappled his way across Japan. In 1994, he cleaned house in an eight-man tournament and then proceeded to beat his way across the country, like a tiny, agile, less-scaly Godzilla.

However, this didn't sit well with Yoji Anjo, a professional wrestler who confronted Rickson at his Los Angeles gym. The wrestler offered to fight Gracie in an upcoming bout in Japan, but Rickson demanded a battle right then and there. Moments later, Anjo staggered out of the gym, battered and bloody. This was a normal day at the office for Rickson — most of his matches took place outside the ring, like his famous fight with Hugo Duarte. A practitioner of Luta Livre, a rival grappling style, Duarte wasn't fond of BJJ, and enjoyed trash-talking the Gracies. Eventually, he went too far and, in 1988, Rickson found Duarte relaxing on a beach and slapped his face. The fight went to the ground — in seconds, Rickson was raining down with some serious ground-and-pound. The whole thing was caught on tape, and Rickson used the footage to encourage people to buy Gracie instructional videos. "Buy our tapes or this happens to you" was never used as a slogan, but almost certainly implied.

But while Rickson is a beloved BJJ artist, there's a little controversy surrounding his record. According to Rickson, he has an amazing 400 wins and no losses. But see, only 11 of those fights were professional. As Helio Gracie explains, Rickson counts every single contest he's ever been in, from amateur matches to street fights to probably thumb wrestling. On top of that, some say Rickson once lost a bout to a guy named Ron Tripp. Still, if Rickson has come anywhere close to trashing 400 people, sanctioned or not, then this a dude you don't want to mess with.

Grandsons of Helio, Rener and Ryron Gracie have taught UFC stars like Ronda Rousey, but when they're not teaching athletes, they're busy running Gracie University, an online school where students can learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Kind of.

Formed in the late 2000s, this internet academy provided instructional self-defense videos that taught approximately 70 moves. Once pupils mastered these basic techniques, they would film themselves demonstrating their skills and then send the footage to Rener and Ryron. If impressed, the brothers would promote their students through the belt system. It was basically America's Kickingest Home Videos.

But while Rener claimed "online study is more effective than traditional [study]," quite a few people were skeptical of Gracie University ... especially other Gracies. Family members like Relson, Renzo, and Kron all slammed the school, and even Royce said "it's a shame when your family changes the concepts of everything you stood for..." Really, Royce's position is pretty understandable. If you're going to learn how to escape an armbar, you should probably be in a gym with other students and teachers, getting armbar'd.

However, things finally changed in 2016. Under the guidance of Rickson, Rener and Ryron changed their entire process. These days, students can earn a special belt after passing a self-defense course, but if they want to earn an actual BJJ belt, they'll have to do a little sparring before showing off their stuff at a physical Certified Training Center. It's still not exactly old-school, but at least you have to roll on the mat before putting on your belt.