Back in 2003, Robin Gracie, the youngest of Helio Gracie’s sons, who runs Gracie Barcelona was conducting a seminar in Perpignan, France. Perpignan is about 1h30 drive away from Barcelona. Damien Riccio (who died in 2016 from a hearth attack), a French MMA fighter and karate black belt, had learned of Gracie’s presence in his city and used the occasion to respond to the infamous Gracie challenge (usually challenges for money or honor that the Gracie family issued to different martial artists). So Riccio showed up uninvited to Robin Gracie’s seminar and challenged Robin Gracie to a vale tudo match there and then. Robin accepted even though he wasn’t prepared. Damien won the fight.

Watch the challenge match:

What happened next: The video of the fight went all over the internet and the whole BJJ and MMA community saw it. Royce Gracie, Robin’s older brother sent Damien some threatening emails (Which you can see below) and promised revenge. Royce, Robin and some of his students then crossed the border from Spain to France and attacked Damien in the bar where he was working in Perpignan. There have been many versions as to what happened next and I guess nobody will really know the truth as there are opposing views. Some people say that Royce kicked Damien’s little brother to the floor, and that Damien fired a gun into the air to end the scuffle…The Gracies fled and went back to Barcelona. A lot has happened to Damien since then. He went o having a MMA career fighting mostly in the Uk and even in Japan, with mixed results. His little brother died in a rock climbing accident. Damien was in 2 serious motorbike accidents. Damien’s older brother Matthias (also a fighter) was stabbed in the arm in a road rage incident. Damien ended up dying from a heart attack a few years ago.

What I think: I have trained once at Robin’s academy Gracie Barcelona and met Robin on multiple times. He always seemed like a very nice, polite and cool guy. I never met Damien, but I know his brother Matthias, from my time spent living and training in the south of France. The Riccio brothers are very famous in Perpignan, and they have many brothers in their family. They are tough guys with big hearts. They are nice and full of jokes but they are not the kind of people that you would want to mess with. They are kind of similar to the Gracie family in that respect. Which is why this whole story is tragic as both the Gracies and the Riccio family could have actually been allies and not enemies.

This is the email communication between Royce, Rodrigo Gracie and Damien Riccio as posted by Royce on the Atama BJJ forum himself:

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