I sorta gave up on them once they introduced weight classes and more stringent rules. The playing field stopped being interesting and now everyone's catching up to/surpassing the Gracies.
Outside of the occasional surprise here or there (I was given a bunch of UFC/Pride DVD's for my birthday and browsed them) it's generally whoever's the bigger grappler who's not afraid of striking that wins.
But the early days were hell of a lot of fun. I trained with Relson, Royce and Rorion a little back then, and it was fun being the skinny guy beating the heavies in Judo class the following year
I need to get back in the game...