The Brazilian Samurai was born! Rickson Gracie´s MMA debut is the subject of Brazil´s Gracie Magazine cover report for their 90th issue. Several photos of Rickson and his opponent Rei Zulu fighting in Brasilia (Brazil's capital), on April 25th of 1980, are published for the first time in the history.
At the age of 20, Rickson had never been in a professional fight before and was not considered the family champion yet. Assisted by his father, Master Helio Gracie, and his brother Rolls, Rickson beat Rei Zulu, who was bigger, 14 years older and unbeaten at that time. It was the first step Rickson Gracie took on the way to becoming one of the greatest fighting legends of our time.
Zulu and Rickson fought again four years later in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the match many people have seen on the Gracie in Action' tapes, but there are virtually no clues regarding the first fight between the two until the release of this historic GRACIE Magazine issue!
The July edition of GRACIE Magazine also gives the readers an opportunity to see Zulu´s fight is still going on as well. Living in a small house in Maranhao, north Brazil, he is not fighting for money anymore now in his fifties. He is fighting to survive. Poor and forgotten, he receives small help to provide food and health care for his family.
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