Most influential martial artist of the century

It doesn't say most well known it says most influential, Helio gave us BJJ as we know it he gave us rickson, rolyer, royce and ronion all who had a major impact on combat sports and created the UFC (and MMA) as we know it, not to mention gi and no gi grappling that is different from judo but probbaly almost as widespread now, and seeing a non Olympic sports grow that quickly is something ive never personally experienced in my life time

Before the Gracie's the vast majority of people still believed the ninjas were deadly, people didn't have to spar, sports like judo and wrestling were just well sports and didnt work on the street, and that one step sparring and non contact sparring was a realistic way to train.

The general public now view martial arts differently than they did before Helio and his kids think thats his real influence (i agree both Bruce and Kano espoused similar philosophies but outside their own art and sport that didn't seem to have a big impact, not in the way the Gracie's changed things)

 

Not disagreeing, because as I stated it isn't black and white, but mention a Gracie to the man in the street and few will know them. Some don't even know what UFC is surprisingly

Everyone knows Bruce Lee

(yes I am clearly biased as all hell!!! sue me!!)

 

Icefield did specify influence over notoriety. People are touched by the ramifications of his actions even if they haven't heard of him.

 

Yep I get the vote for Bruce he introduced kung fu and action movies to the public and let to a huge boom, but he didn't really influence how arts were taught, in fact the arts which I think benefited most were the Chinese classical mess arts he moved away from and talked about, 30years after his death the number of scholols teaching his thinking were relatively few compared to the wing chun schools he helped populat lol.

But helio through his kids have us MMA and BJJ, sports and arts which grew from nothing to be popular and accessable all over the world in almost every city. And MMA became a prime time global sport, something no other combat art outside boxing has managed, and it did it in what a decade or so?

The Gracie's also led to a see change in how training and arts are viewed, so much so that traditional organisations started addressing grappling and ground work for the first time,

I just think the Gracie's influence on both how martial artists view what they do, and how the general public see martial arts and combat sports has been huge.

 

What about Musashi Miyamoto?His "Book of Five Rings" has been around since 1645.Many of his verses read like Bruce Lee's book.

 

"century"

 

Oh yes,I forgot to narrow it down to this century.Disregard.

 

I voted Kano, I was on the fence with Kano or Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee would certainly come out as the most well known internationally, but the influence of Judo on all other martial arts, many other well respected arts have come from this, and you can access a Judo school most places throughout the world.

Funakoshi is high up there also, almost as accessible as Judo.