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the gracies have a history of "stacking the deck" by either last minute changes to rules or ridiculous rules all together.
i believe the benny match was never actually agreed to and was more some students giving the old "my teacher can beat your teacher" type argument.
gene saw the gracies challenge from rickson (30ish i believe) vs gene (60) as silly. he wanted to fight the frail old, really barely capable helio. helio gracie at 80 yrs old was a shell. still in great shape and capable of demonstrating technique/teaching was not getting into a real fight. by dropping to 140, gene would still hold a 20+/- lb weight advantage but the gracies knew the whole thing was impossible and silly, so did gene so they both blew it out of proportion. the gracies come away with "gene lebell declined our challenge so we win" as usual.
i am not a fan of most of the gracies, and their propaganda. i appreciate and love gracie/brazilian jiu jitsu but not a fan of the bulk of the helio line. the carlos and others line are much more eralistic and do not claim the whole "helio gracie INVENTED" a new form.
the gracie challenge actually stated with carlos offering a challenge to the world heavyweight boxing champion and not a challenge to all arts. this challenge is to this day is open to any boxing champion.
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