Royce Gracie was a man ahead of his time.
Gracie burst on the scene in 1993 at the first Ultimate Fighting Championship event, where he introduced the combat sports world to Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submitted three opponents—Art Jimmerson, Ken Shamrock and Gerard Gordeau—in less than five minutes combined to win a 16-man openweight tournament at UFC 1. Gracie won his first 11 bouts, all of them finishes, and blurred the lines between myth and man. On Nov. 21, 2003, he became the first fighter inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.