Royce Gracie, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament winner, is sending his son off to Army basic training.
Kheydon Gracie, the famed fighter’s 19-year-old son, plans to join the 75th Ranger Regiment, according to a weekend post on his father’s Instagram account.
The younger Gracie enlisted on an infantry contract with a Ranger option on Sept. 22, an Army spokesperson told Stars and Stripes. That means the new recruit will have the chance to attend the intense, two-month Ranger Assessment and Selection Program at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The Gracie family is renowned for creating Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the 1920s.
Royce Gracie moved to the United States from Rio de Janeiro as a young man, where he competed in mixed-martial arts and was eventually inducted into the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
Royce Gracie has led martial arts clinics for military personnel, as well, including a 2011 training event with soldiers in Colorado, according to the Army.
Kheydon Gracie’s enlistment ceremony was performed by Maj. Miguel Diaz in Huntington Park, California, with the Gracie family in attendance, according to Royce Gracie’s Instagram post.
“What a special day, I’m a proud father,” Gracie wrote of his son on Instagram.
