Royce Gracie Double Leg Takedown
Call me nostalgic if you want. You can call me old school. You might even decide to call me delusional. But still to this day, I feel that the Royce Gracie front kick takedown in MMA did not get the credit it deserved or deserves.
Royce Gracie and the UFC
Royce Gracie was 6 foot nothing and one hundred and nothing, fighting in an open division, open format fighting tournament.
In truth, Royce was 6’1″ and roughly 170lbs. at the time he was fighting in these events. Every UFC fan has heard of Royce. Old school MMA fans, got to watch him in action. He was amazing to watch to be honest.
The reason he was so much fun to watch is not that he had this great persona. He did not have flashy punching power. In fact, as someone that was used to watching grappling, he didn’t seem to me amazing in that area either!
What he did do however, was continue to win. Win against bigger fighters. Win against accomplished strikers. He also won against very good grapplers.
The Royce Gracie Takedown
Even though Royce did not seem like some sort of superstar when I first saw him, he had a plan. He knew no one could deal with him on the ground. It did not matter if they were on top of him or if he was on top of them. For him, getting the fight to the ground was the priority.
After watching a few of his fights and some of the fights of his family and fighters, I saw a bit of a pattern on one of their takedowns.
This takedown still remains a favorite of mine to this day.
Shuffle Front Kick
Royce Gracie would often use a probing style kick to test how you would react. At some point he would take advantage of your reaction to try to drag you to the ground. That is where he would finish you. Slide up front kick, shuffle front kick, it does not matter what you call it. The point is you step up a bit with your rear leg then strike with the front leg.
The important part of this step is not the impact of the kick at all. It is where the front foot ends up.
Royce was not going to knock you out with this technique. He was going to get your hands, body and feet to move. More importantly his feet and hips would move.
Wrestling Double Leg Takedown
To see what I mean, lets just look at the 1st takedown every wrestler is taught. The double leg takedown.
Here, Olympic Gold Medalist, Jordan Burroughs shows a basic double leg takedown. At around :51 of this video he talks about penetration. In other words taking your body close to your opponents body. As many high school coaches say, step to where he is standing.
If you watch this video, you will notice how Burroughs eliminates the space between him and his opponent. Keep this in mind as we go back to Royce.
Here is another example, around 20 seconds in… Notice the lead leg ends up very close to the opponent.
The MMA Takedown-Royce Gracie
Truth be told, Royce Gracie did not care if he was taken down or got the takedown. He wanted to be on the ground grappling with you.
However, even by the early UFC’s some fighters were hesitant to engage.
This is where Royce Gracie, usually the smaller fighter, would push the action.
This is an underground fight with a fighter named Jason Delucia. Delucia was a Kung Fu fighter with many years of experience and to his credit, accepted what was called the Gracie Challenge. The Gracie challenge was very simple….
Come to my gym and beat my ass if you can. Or I can go to yours.
Delucia got defeated that day by a smaller Royce Gracie.
Here is the original video. Notice around 20 to 25 seconds in Royce throws a front kick against a much more experienced striker. He steps in, plants his foot and gets the takedown. Now its all over but the crying, as they say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1KDz1X7iE
Jason Delucia would eventually get a rematch with Royce Gracie in UFC II. He even trained with the Lions Den, a club experienced in mixed martial arts and grappling. Delucia even got the takedown in the UFC, end result?
Delucia tapped out to an arm bar. That’s the benefit of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, takedown or no takedown, all you want is for the fight to be on the ground.
This is exactly how the end of the fight looked in the UFC II, the man on the bottom in white won… as the man with the black pants had to submit or get his arm broken in half.
Double Leg Takeown
Let’s get back to the double leg take-down. While Royce didn’t care if he was on top or bottom, being on top has its advantages. For example, it is much easier to strike an opponent if you end up on top.
That being the case, many of the Gracie family and other Jiu Jitsu fighters attempted takedowns. This of course includes Royce Gracie.
Here is Royce Gracie, once again at UFC II fighting Okinawan Karate master, Minoki Ichihara. Ichihara was a multiple degree black belt in Okinawan karate but Royce probed him with a couple of front kicks and within 20 seconds had him on the ground. From that point forward it was a matter of time before he finished the fight.
The link above takes you to the video but if you want to skip the drama, here is what the last 5 seconds look like. Gracie is on the right about to finish the fight. You can see the Karate master already making the tapping out motion.
In this fight Royce took full advantage of his front kick to close distance and execute the double leg takedown. From that point forward he smothered his opponent while also inflicting strikes. When his opponent made a mistake, got desperate or got hurt, that is when Royce took the opportunity to end the contest.
Double Leg MMA Takedown Tips- Gracie Stomp Front Kick
The fighters now are usually skilled in multiple ranges. For a fighter to respect your kick, you have to be able to kick. For them to respect your fists, you have to be able to punch. You cannot be a one trick pony anymore.
But if you have good footwork, good hand speed and are excellent at finishing a double leg takedown, the shuffle front kick should be part of your arsenal.
- Test the opponent reaction when you throw a front kick
- If they react, the takedown is possible
- If they do not react, they do not respect your kicks OR they are more worried about the takedown
- Once tested and you see the opponent react, be sure that your lead foot steps to where your opponent is standing
- The back foot should follow
(You have now closed the distance)
- At this point you should have or be in the process of lowering your level for the takedown
- Then the rear and front leg drive through the hips of your opponent while you arms take control of their thighs or hips
- You can drive through or “turn the corner” or even lift and slam them to finish the double leg in MMA
Last Bit of Advice
Royce was not a “great” wrestler. All he wanted was to get on the fight on the ground. He was good enough to take non trained grapplers down with ease. He was good enough to go 50/50 on takedowns with pretty skilled grapplers. However, even if he was taken down by a better grappler, he still knew he could finish the fight from his back.
That is the beauty of BJJ.
Mixed Martial arts and Jiu Jitsu is pretty mainstream now, so be careful about just trying to drag an opponent to the floor for the sake of dragging them to the floor. You just might find yourself in a situation where the opponent on top of you is actually a better fighter than you are!
The Royce Gracie Stomp, Shuffle Kick or Double Leg, whatever you would like to call it works best if you are actually competent with takedowns and ground fighting.
If you are, then the first kick you learn in Karate and the first takedown you learn is Wrestling might actually take you a long way!
https://youtu.be/_Rs1x9AAxA0
