Pictured: Carlson Gracie Jr. (left) and Ricardo “Rey” Diogo at their Seattle seminar last weekend

Part One: Carlson Gracie Jr talks about his life in jiu-jitsu, his thoughts on his most famous black belt Miguel Angel Torres, and how a guy from Rio finds himself in Chicago anyway…

Total-MMA had the honor of meeting two more Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legends last Saturday, as the art’s “Crown Prince,” Carlson Gracie Jr, came to town for a seminar, assisted by Ricardo “Rey” Diogo, the 2005 and 2009 Pan-American BJJ champion. The two were hosted by Gracie’s childhood friend, Marcelo Alonso, at his Seattle academy. All three proudly wear black belts awarded them by Gracie’s father, the late Carlson Gracie Sr.

In a brief interview at the seminar’s conclusion, Gracie offers a few surprises. He has a reserved and even modest manner as he describes the seminar’s success, as well as his own career in “the gentle art,” with a quiet confidence.

“The seminar was great,” he begins, in his characteristically mellow tone. “It was even better than I expected, because lately everybody does seminars everywhere. All great fighters, they travel all over the world and do seminars. I’m not saying I’m not one of those!”

“But I’ve been coming to Seattle here a long time,” he continues with a smile. “So people know my work. It was a pleasant time to work with “Rey” Diogo, one of my dad’s students, and now he’s followed me to Carlson Gracie Federation. Marcelo is 32 years my friend you know, I actually know him before I started jiu-jitsu. It was great; people learn, good attendance. 41 people here in Seattle.”

Gracie describes Alonso as a childhood friend in Rio De Jainero, as well as a frequent training partner. “My daddy’s school was right across from his house. I used to go down, play around, play soccer, games people play as a kid, and that’s when I met Marcelo. He got interested to go to the school and that’s how we met. We’ve been friends for all these years. We learn from each other, all this time.”

Gracie, the son of one of Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s greatest legends in Carlson, and the grandson of the man credited as its founder in Carlos; was a champion in his own right at many levels when he made his first trip to the US to fight for Battlecade Extreme Fighting in 1995. Essentially, he never left.

“I came to America to stay for two months, for Extreme Fighting,” he explains. “The day I was packing for home, my daddy said, “Oh you don’t want to stay here with me?” I said, you should have told me this a month ago; I’d prepare myself to do it! I was supposed to stay for two months, right after that go back to Brazil. My dad stays and I end up staying.”

Gracie Sr and Jr. began doing jiu-jitsu seminars with the assistance of an old student who had relocated to Chicago. They ended up opening a school which would bring the MMA world such standouts as Miguel Angel Torres and Stephan Bonnar.

“One of our students, my father & me, back in Brazil, he actually moved to Chicago, he worked for some big company,” he explains. “He was interested in having some business in jiu-jitsu. He loved it, everybody who does jiu-jitsu gets some passion for it.”

The academy which was born of that union became a success. Sr. may be gone now, but Gracie Jr. now heads the “Carlson Gracie Federation,” which features such talent as his partner for this seminar, Ricardo “Rey” Diogo, who now resides in Los Angeles. Diogo, whose nickname is Portugese for “King,” has a long history with Gracie.

“Rey was an original instructor with me,” Gracie says of the early years of the Chicago academy. “So I got an opportunity to open a school in California, and then Rey said, I wanna go! So I stayed in Chicago by myself. I was invited for a seminar, they had the idea to do a school, and I said, hey let’s do it! But I never really thought I was going to stay there. I really like Chicago though.”

“I opened a school in Temecula, California too; and it’s going great. Good facilities. So split my time between both, and seminars. I don’t really have much free time for myself. But I do the best I can.”

Currently, Gracie’s most accomplished and well-known student is Miguel Angel Torres, the WEC Bantamweight champion who drew attention to the division with his combination of tight, aggressive jiu-jitsu and striking skills. Torres lost his WEC title in a bout with Brian Bowles earlier this month, but Gracie’s pride in his student is unfazed.

“He was my daddy’s student,” Gracie recalls. “After my daddy passed away, I promoted him to black belt. He’s very dedicated at what he does; he’s very good. It doesn’t matter that he lost his last fight. I think he has great potential to come back. I would not say, you know, he need to train more… eh, you know, somedays is not your day! Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s not your day. Nobody is unbeatable.”

“He’s a very motivated fighter,” Gracie continues. “People really follow his path like a fighter. Skinny guy, and he never steps back, just goes forward! But you get hit in the chin, well, everybody can go down. It’s a split second between the winner and loser. So that’s what happened to him. I think he got all the credit for the great fighter he is. People who say, oh, he needs to train this… only he knows. Nobody can judge him for anything.”

Asked about jiu-jitsu’s future, Gracie gets more energetic. He shares his cousin Royler’s opinion (which was shared with Total-MMA in this interview back in June) that BJJ will enjoy a bright future.

“The future of jiu jitsu? It’s never gonna stop. It’s gonna keep growing. People developing better games, everything getting harder and harder. It’s gonna become a real professional game. I’m working here, working different places, I think the future jiu jitsu will be an Olympic sport… I’m thinking maybe ten years. I’m all over the world, I’m in different countries and they have their own national tournaments; their own teams. It’s not far now.”

Pictured: Diogo (left) guides a student through a side control sequence as Gracie looks on

Click here for part two: Ricardo “Rey” Diogo on jiu-jitsu today, his undying devotion to the Carlson Gracie Team, and much more