In July 1996, we turned the old ‘Jornal Gracie’ newspaper into GRACIE Magazine in order to enhance the quality of the printing. It would have been easier to say the sport’s evolution led us to it. Directly, at least, it had nothing to do with it. It’s just that we had better-looking images, ever since photographer Ricardo Azoury, months earlier, had convinced us to pay more attention to the careful depicting of competitions. And seeing those good photos printed on the newspaper stationery was rather frustrating. Except for Carlos Gracie Jr., president of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Confederation and partner in the publisher, who always thought ahead, the rest of the small staff didn’t envision the sport and the publication ten years from then. Very young and very busy, we were too concerned about the present to worry about the future. But the fact is, when the publication stopped being distributed for free and started being sold on newsstands, we began being more cautious about the stories of each issue, we started investing in trips around the planet in order to take the best events to the reader’s hands, and automatically we began having greater contact with the world of fighting as a whole. This soon made us see where it would all wind up. So much that, soon after the advent of the magazine, we were already thinking of someday publishing it in English, and that became one of our main objectives. But we didn’t have a clear goal in sight. That is, we didn’t yet have a date set for that to happen. Again, the rollercoaster drove us away from the focus, and only when we publicly committed to it, soon after the ADCC, in May 2005, on a piece of news published on the internet, was the one-year deadline determined. Goal set, goal accomplished: in April 2006, almost ten years after the first GRACIE Magazine appeared on Brazilian newsstands, the first international issue was launched. What in ten more years? Well, we’ve got a couple of goals already, but to reveal them now would provoke shock, and perhaps, laughs. After all, not knowing that a given task is impossible is the first step toward executing it. In order to celebrate its first decade of life, GRACIE Magazine has prepared a historical edition, one of those you save a special place on your shelf for. In the course of the 92 pages of GRACIE Magazine #113, the friend reader will find testimonies by stars like Ronaldo Jacare, Mark Coleman, Wanderlei Silva and Ricardo Cachorr?o. We assigned them the task of speaking about how their own lives have changed throughout these ten years. But GRACIE Magazine #113 isn’t just that. Besides exclusive lessons by Ronaldo Jacar? and Leozinho Vieira in our academy and a series of takedown exercises by our feature writer Martin Rooney, you will find:- The second part of the series that details the 20 fundamental moves of Jiu-jitsu- Renzo Gracie firing away in a mind-blowing interview- A preview of the 2006 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships – A story about the Atl?ntico Sul Cup and the U.S. OpenFor those who like mixed martial artes, we went to American Top Team, in Florida, to show the structure of one of the biggest academies in the world. And we dived again into Pride’s open-weight Grand Prix with a profile of Croatian idol Mirko Cro Cop. To get your copy or to subscribe go to: www.BJJMart.com
