Georges St. Pierre, Thiago Alves Have Respect for Royce Gracie

As Georges St Pierre and Thiago Alves prepare to fight for the welterweight championship of the world at UFC 100, both have praised the first Ultimate Fighting Champion, Royce Gracie.

"I remember Royce Gracie winning the first tournament, and that inspired me to do what I do for a living," St. Pierre said on a call to promote his fight with Alves. "He was using a weapon nobody knew at the time, Brazilian jiu jitsu, and he was smaller than all the other guys but he was able to win. That really inspired me. ... I'm always going to be a huge fan of his, and he's always going to be my idol, no matter what."

Alves said the first martial art he pracitced was muay Thai, but once he saw a tape of Gracie, a fellow Brazilian, he knew he wanted to give MMA a try.

"I just liked the fact that it was two guys in the cage going at it," Alves said. "I thought it was a beautiful thing. I never thought I would fight in that way, because when I first saw it I thought I would be a K-1 champion. I thought I would be a Thai champion. But it's great that I'm here."

For his part, Gracie (who is expected to appear at UFC 100) recently named St. Pierre, along with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida, as the fighters whose mental approach to the game he likes best.

"You have to use your mind," Gracie said. "I like the guys who use strategy -- these are the guys who are on the top: Lyoto, Anderson, GSP. They fight clean and take their opponents out of their own games."