Gracie is also known to have trained Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of United Arab Emirates.

In October 1995, Gracie was called to fight in World Combat Championships, a no holds barred event created by Jon Peters's son Christopher.

The event hosted two separate tournaments for strikers and grapplers whose winners would meet at the finals, and Gracie was put on the latter due to his Brazilian jiu-jitsu background.

[4] His first match was against Dutch judoka Ben Spijkers, who had taunted Gracie in the press conference and pranked him on his hotel room the previous night.

[5] Spijkers scored the first takedown, but Renzo answered with another, took his back through headbutts and elbow strikes and finally choked him for the win.

[6] Producer Peters had the intention to host a second event where Gracie and Vale would fight in a "superfight" format, but these plans were abandoned.

[6] On September 22, 1997, Gracie partook in Pentagon Combat, an MMA event founded by future ADCC backer Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed.

Gracie was pitted against Eugenio Tadeu, a fighter whose style, luta livre, was in a huge rivalry with Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the time, which guaranteed the match was received with heat.

Some spectators climbed up the fence while others pulled them down, leading the match to be briefly stopped to clear them out,[9] while Gracie received both punches and kicks by luta livre supporters without the referee noticing.

After advancing round to meet former kickboxer and UFC Heavyweight Champion Maurice Smith, Gracie achieved the same result, taking him down before submitting him with a judo-style yoko-sankaku-jime/ude-gatame combination.

Gracie started the fight with takedowns and guillotine choke attempts, but Tamura took over with defense and positional control, ending the first round inflicting ground and pound on Renzo.

At the second, the wrestler started passing Gracie's guard and capturing his back, to the extent of locking a facedown crucifix and searching for a rear naked choke.

The match finally came to its peak when Renzo executed a De la Riva reversal and captured Sakuraba's back against the corner.

Similarly, years later Gracie called Sakuraba "his hero" and remembered their match as "one of the biggest lessons he learned in his life".

[16][17] Gracie next fought American wrestler Dan Henderson at Pride 13, now under new rules that allowed knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent.

[19] Renzo bounced back with a victory over professional wrestler Michiyoshi Ohara, who resorted to clinch defensively for most of the match.

At the third, Gracie looked to re-take the bout, but they just could exchange takedowns and strikes before the match went to the judges, with Oyama winning a unanimous decision.

The two fighters exchanged multiple sweeps and submission attempts in a short time, with Renzo almost locking a kneebar, but Newton ultimately escaped and ended the round hitting ground and pound from side mount.

The match was noted to resemble oddly their first encounter, as they struggled for position in the first round with Gracie threatening a submission and Newton ending it in side mount.

After the match, Gracie had to be helped out of the ring and back to his dressing room by his team allegedly due to receiving a concussion from the strikes.

He has also been the personal jiu-jitsu teacher of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, since 1993.

[33][34] In early 2022, Renzo released his biography, written by Brazilian former Special Culture Secretary and theatre director Roberto Alvim.