Renzo Gracie Academy

The Gracie family foundation

Renzo Gracie Academy was founded in 1996 in Manhattan, New York by Renzo Gracie — a grandson of the Gracie family BJJ founders Carlos and Hélio Gracie. The gym is the most-significant New York-based BJJ and MMA training facility and has produced multiple UFC champions and contenders.

The gym's BJJ-first culture distinguishes it from the wrestling-base AKA, the kickboxing-first CKB, or the Muay Thai-base Chute Boxe. The MMA program is built on BJJ foundations with striking and wrestling as supplements.

The MMA roster

• Matt Serra — UFC welterweight champion (UFC 69, 2007 upset of Georges St-Pierre)
• BJ Penn (briefly, training partnership) — UFC welterweight + lightweight champion
• Frankie Edgar (training partnership) — UFC lightweight champion
• Garry Tonon — ONE Championship featherweight contender (BJJ specialist)
• Various regional contracted UFC fighters

The roster has been smaller than the major training gyms because the Renzo Gracie Academy operates primarily as a BJJ school — only a subset of students develops into full MMA athletes.

The John Danaher era

The most-significant Renzo Gracie Academy story is John Danaher's leg-lock revolution. Danaher, an ex-Renzo-school instructor and now the most-influential BJJ coach in the world, built the "Danaher Death Squad" team (Gordon Ryan, Garry Tonon, Eddie Cummings, Craig Jones, others) at the Renzo Gracie Academy through the 2010s.

The Danaher leg-lock system — particularly heel hooks from 50/50 guard, kneebar entries via Imanari rolls, and the modern catch-wrestling-style leg-attack catalog — was developed and refined at Renzo Gracie Academy.

Danaher and most of the Death Squad team left Renzo Gracie Academy in 2021 to relocate to Puerto Rico, but the BJJ and leg-lock technical legacy remains tied to the Manhattan gym.

The training culture

The Renzo Gracie Academy training day:

• Morning and afternoon BJJ classes: open to all students at varying skill levels.
• MMA-specific training: limited to contracted professional fighters; conducted in dedicated MMA-class sessions.
• Striking and wrestling supplements: brought in by visiting coaches rather than maintained as the gym's primary program.

The gym attracts BJJ students from the broader New York combat sports community. Many MMA fighters at other gyms (including some UFC contracted athletes) train BJJ rolls at Renzo Gracie Academy when they're in New York.

The Matt Serra UFC 69 upset

The most-significant MMA result in Renzo Gracie Academy history was Matt Serra's UFC 69 upset of Georges St-Pierre (April 2007). Serra, a BJJ black belt trained primarily at Renzo Gracie Academy, KO'd the welterweight champion in round 1 — one of the most-decisive upsets in UFC history.

The result drove GSP's career-defining mental-preparation reset and established Renzo Gracie Academy's MMA championship credibility.

The legacy

Renzo Gracie Academy is the foundational BJJ-into-MMA training base in the United States. The combined technical legacy — BJJ pioneer Renzo's own competition career, Matt Serra's UFC welterweight title, John Danaher's leg-lock revolution — makes the gym one of the most-significant single MMA institutions in history.