One of the most highly touted prospects in the sport, Roger Gracie is an extremely accomplished grappler and one of the best jiu jitsu practitioners on the planet today. The term "world class" is thrown around very frequently, but even referring to Roger's ground game as that doesn't truly do it justice. Pound for pound, Gracie's jiu jitsu and ground skills are at the absolute top of the food chain when compared to the elite grapplers in the world. Roger is an unprecedented eight time black belt gold medalist at the BJJ World Championships (twice more as a brown belt and also once each as a blue and purple), and a two time winner of the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships. A grappling phenom no doubt, Gracie is probably the best pure jiu jitsu player in the world today and definitely possesses a ground game that is not seen in the heavyweight division. Gracie is incredibly calm and collected on the ground, never panics and is almost impossible to put in any kind of danger (grappling wise). His ground game looks effortless as he is so technically sound and methodical that it almost looks easy how well he does against the top grapplers in the world. Gracie has focused on the basics and does not possess a lot of flashy "new age" moves; instead he's become a master at the fundamentals of BJJ and has become ridiculously proficient in those. A lot of grapplers will play for points in tournaments and look to win on the scorecards, but Roger is a finisher who actively looks to submit his opponents.

Gracie put on one of the most memorable performance in Abu Dhabi history in 2005, when he submitted all eight of his opponents (including Shiya Aoki, Ronaldo Souza, Fabricio Werdum and Xande Ribeiro) in capturing the ADCC Championship in both the absolute and under 98 kg weight divisions. Gracie is comfortable from top position or fighting off his back and is incredibly adept at taking his opponent's back. While his pure grappling abilities are unquestionable, there are obvious differences between jiu jitsu and MMA and there are issues that he'll need to overcome. For one, he's not a tremendous wrestler and how his takedowns will play out against fighters who will be making a conscious effort to avoid going to the ground with him remains to be seen. Secondly he will have to deal with strikes on the ground which is something that is brand new for him entering the sport. In spite of those concerns Gracie's ground game is exceptional, his pure grappling abilities will never be questioned and he holds immense potential in his MMA grappling game.

Gracie is light on his feet, moves around very well and displays good natural instincts with his striking. Two fights into his career however, his standup game is a complete question mark and is very untested. Gracie's striking abilities will have a large say in what he can do in the sport and he will need to continue working on them in order to compliment his extraordinary ground skills. Questions also linger about how dedicated Gracie is to his MMA career given how active he still is in grappling tournaments and how infrequently he's fought, but he did recently sign with Strikeforce and will hopefully be returning to the cage soon.