He devoted his life to the sport of Judo and trained constantly with a strict training regimen. This is why he is believed to be so successful throughout his lustrous career. Kimura’s training involved significant weight training. Resistance training was also a key to his strength and would involve him pushing and pulling on trees.

In 1955 Helio Gracie challenged Masahiko Kimura to a match. The match was to be under the rule of jiu-jitsu. They would be allowed to do anything except punches and kicks. There were to be no points and no time limits. When Helio presented the challenge to the Kimura he was very surprised when he saw how small Helio was. To make sure Helio was up to the task Kimura had Helio fight a man named Kato. Basically you had to prove your worth to Kimura before you were allowed the privilege to fight him. Helio accepted and took the fight with Kato.

In an interview with Nishi Yoshinori, Rorion Gracie had this to say about the fight with Kato.

My father finished Kato with a choke less than six minutes. So Kimura accepted my father’s challenge. But the people around strongly objected to it. It seemed that especially uncle Carlos didn’t want him to do it.

Rorion Gracie

So the fight was on. Though people that knew of the fight didn’t think Helio stood a chance against the 38 year old godan including Helio himself. Even Helio thought nobody in the world could defeat Kimura. Helio’s brother Carlos was worried that Gracie would never give up under any condition and sustain a serious injury. So Helio was given permission from his family to fight under the condition that he would tap or give up if it came to that. I believe Helio probably knew he would lose the fight but fear was overruled by the desire to know what type of moves Kimura might unleash upon him during the epic battle.

he might open the door to an unknown world for me.

Helio Gracie

He attempted to relax the muscles in his body and move his position a little during the throw. This worked and as a result threw Kimura a little off balance.

Kimura still landed on top of Gracie on the ground and immediately passed to side control with very little effort. Kimura then initiated a choke which had Helio struggling for breath. It was working so well Helio even wondered if he should tap then and there. This is where it gets interesting. In the interview with Nishi Yoshinori Helio made a shocking statement claiming that he was totally unconscious during the choke.

If Kimura had continued to choke me, I would have died for sure. But since I didn’t give up, Kimura let go of the choke and went into the next technique. Being released from the choke and the pain from the next technique revived me and I continued to fight. Kimura went to his grave without ever knowing the fact that I was finished. If possible, I wish I could have talked about the fight with him and let him know about it.

Helio Gracie

After releasing Helio from the choke Kimura went right into another technique. Throughout the fight Kimura threw Helio several times with judo techniques such as the one armed shoulder throw, major outer sweep, and sweeping hip throw. He reportedly kept throwing him in an effort to knock him out. It seems the floor was too soft and prevented the ko from ever happening. This however did not stop Kimura from finishing Helio Gracie.

In his 2002 interview, Helio said Kimura was very strong and a gentleman. He said that during the last few moments of the fight Kimura spoke in his ear in Japanese saying “good good” while at the same time catching him in the armlock that would finish the fight. Helio later said he was strangely encouraged by his voice and it gave him power. Kimura later told Gracie “I was admiring your heart”.

This is a very important moment in the history of mixed martial arts and a legendary fight that will always be looked back upon for many years to come. Both fighters are legends of mma and had a great influence on the sport as we know it. It was the birth of the Kimura and the birth of a new style of jiu-jitsu called Gracie jiu-jitsu. The Gracie family founded the Ultimate Fighting Championship and were the first ones to pit one style of fighting against another to see who’s style was truly superior. Mixed martial arts has since evolved to the point where you can’t just know one style of fighting. You must now be well rounded in all aspects of fighting and practice multiple styles to be the best.

Here is some original footage of the legendary match.