In Brazil, they believe Mitsuyo Maeda was the father of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Not Helio Gracie.

Before settling in Brazil, Maeda was already traveling the world and won more than 2,000 challenge matches against boxers and catch wrestlers.

Before teaching it to the Gracies, he already made modifications to his art and came up with new theories on fighting in different ranges and fighting against strikers. He trained with catch wrestlers and incorporated wrestling into his art.

So was is it Mitsuyo Maeda or Helio Gracie the founder of BJJ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuyo_Maeda