This has got to be one of the best write ups on the history of vale tudo, origins of Gracie, and mma in general.
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| The history of vale tudo can be traced back to 1914, when “Conde Koma” Mitsuyo Maeda landed on the shores of Porto Alegre, Brazil, for a series of martial arts exhibitions. A well-traveled fighter who had trained judo at the sport’s Mecca, the Kodokan, Maeda settled in Belem and opened his own gym, out of which he began to teach judo and Japanese jiu-jitsu to local youth. A few short years after arriving in Brazil with his grappling exhibitions and challenge matches, Maeda received a new student. In 1917, a 15-year-old Carlos Gracie enrolled at his academy and trained daily with Maeda for almost three years. Carlos passed on the skills he learned to his brothers -- Oswaldo, Gastao Jr., George and even the young and sickly Helio, once he became strong enough -- and they made their living teaching the masses. The family moved back to Rio de Janeiro in 1922, and just three years later, Carlos opened the first Gracie gym in his backyard at 106 Marques de Abrantes Street in the neighborhood of Flamengo. The Gracies ran infamous challenges in local newspapers, proclaiming, “If you’d like to have your face smashed, your ass kicked and your arms broken, get in touch with Carlos at the Gracie Academy.” The publicity brought challengers from many disciplines to the Gracies’ school, from capoeira and karate to boxing. The family’s success in the challenge matches turned it into heroes in the local press, and the Gracie name became prestigious throughout all of Brazil. Improbably, it was the young and once-frail Helio who became the family’s fighting defender. At roughly 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, Helio amassed 17 official contests -- eight vale tudo fights and nine sports challenge matches -- between the ages of 18 and 41, going 9-2 with six draws in those bouts. In a landmark martial arts contest on Oct. 23, 1951, the 38-year-old Helio met 210-pound Japanese judoka Masahiko Kimura. After choking out Kimura’s Kodokan training partner, Yukio Kato, in their rematch earlier that year, the diminutive Gracie took on Kimura in front of some 20,000 spectators, including then Brazil President Getulio Vargas, at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Kimura threw Gracie to the mat and dominated position but could not force the smaller man to quit. Thirteen minutes in, Kimura applied “gyaku ude garami,” the judo shoulder lock that would come to bear his name. He could not make Gracie submit, but older brother Carlos, fearing permanent injury for his sibling, threw in the towel. Despite the loss, Brazilian newspapers featured the headline, “A Moral Victory for Helio Gracie,” cementing him as the soldier and poster boy of the family. Even as he entered his 40s, Helio was not done. Arguably his most famous fight came against a former student, Waldemar Santana, who was at one time responsible for opening and closing the Gracie Academy. On a Friday night, Santana left a sink running, inadvertently flooding the gym and destroying the mats. Helio was furious, berating Santana, firing him and kicking him out of the gym. All it took was some pot stirring from newspaper journalist Carlos Renato, of Ultima Hora, to push Santana to challenge his former master to a fight. On May 24, 1955, in a downtown Rio gym, Gracie and Santana met in a true vale tudo contest, with no rules whatsoever. Over several grueling hours, the disparity in age and weight took its toll, and Santana took over the fight. As usual, Gracie would not submit, but it mattered not. Santana eventually picked up his mentor, slammed him down and soccer kicked him in the face. The impact knocked Gracie out cold at the three-hour, 45-minute mark. Still, Gracie was again championed by the Brazilian media for his valor. While Carlos always had a business plan to build the Gracie family and its brand, Helio was the perfect fighter and public figure to bring the Gracie name to the masses. The work of Carlos and Helio shaped a dynasty of warriors, almost all of whom had peculiar names beginning with R, K and C. As the decades went on, Helio became a general with an iron fist, carrying out the vision and philosophy of his older brother. *** After Helio’s loss to Santana, it was clear the torch had to be passed. It was an easy transition, as Helio handed over the crown to nephew Carlson, who was more than ready to live up to his surname. Carlson and Santana were actually good friends, but Carlson took family and fighting seriously. “I like you a lot, but you put me in a bind by fighting uncle Helio,” Carlson said. “Watch yourself, because in the ring, we’ll be bitter enemies and I’m going to kick your ass.” The media loved the drama, with the biggest papers of the time -- A Noite, Ultima Hora, Diario de Noticias and Jornal dos Sports -- all promoting the rivalry. It came to a head on Oct. 8, 1955, when a crowd of nearly 30,000 packed Maracanazinho, with 5,000 other fans cheering from outside the venue. The contest was scheduled for six 10-minute rounds, but Gracie’s utter dominance led Santana’s corner to throw in the towel at the 39-minute mark. The victory proved that Carlson was the family’s new ace and defender. Carlos’ eldest son defended Gracie supremacy for 22 years, facing the toughest fighters of his generation over 18 vale tudo contests. He fought Santana a whopping six times, beating him four times and drawing twice. He also beat the likes of Cirandinha, Passarito, “The Portuguese Lion” Armenian Karadagian, King Kong, Guarnir Vial and Valdemar Vial. After retiring from the ring, Carlson rededicated himself to his gym on Figueiredo de Magalhaes Street, turning it into the greatest rival of the flagship Gracie Academy. Thanks to an intra-family rivalry, the other Gracies were forced to train harder and expand their games, forcing the evolution of both jiu-jitsu and MMA. Photo: M.Alonso/Sherdog.com The Carlson Gracie Team gave rise to a new era in Brazilian vale tudo. From 1980 to 1996, Carlson’s students enjoyed complete domination in jiu-jitsu competitions, from blue belts right up to black belts. Meanwhile, the third generation of Carlson’s students put his seal of quality on vale tudo rings, as well, through the efforts of fighters such as Vitor Belfort, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Andre Pederneiras, Marcus Silveira, Wallid Ismail and Allan Goes. After moving to Chicago, Gracie trained Miguel Torres before his World Extreme Cagefighting signing, but he would never get to see his student capture the WEC title. Carlson died in February 2006, but his technique and history continue to be passed on by the more than 100 black belts he graduated, along with their own disciples. More importantly, many of Carlson’s aforementioned top pupils went on to become influential trainers. Bustamante and Sperry formed Brazilian Top Team before its dissolution; Silveira became an integral part of American Top Team; and Pederneiras created Nova Uniao, which has become the gold standard of MMA gyms in Brazil. Rickson Gracie carried the family torch. Vale tudo in Brazil experienced a drought during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1959, the weekly television show “Heroes of the Ring” showed a bout between top Helio student and eventual UFC 1 referee Joao Alberto Barreto and Jose Geraldo. During the fight, Barreto broke Geraldo’s arm with a kimura, similar to the nasty Frank Mir-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira arm break 50 years later. Broadcast all over Brazil on a Monday evening, the event caused public outrage, eventually leading to a ban on vale tudo in Rio de Janeiro. The media support for the sport had always been strong, but now it was clearly marginalized. Vale tudo was relegated to a state of limbo in southeastern Brazil until its resurgence in the 1980s. The sport’s return to prominence was aided by familiar faces. It was Santana who called his old trainer and rival, Helio, desperately looking for someone for his top student to fight. Santana’s new charge, King Zulu, had cleaned out the northern and northeastern Brazilian scenes. The Gracie patriarch knew his nephew, Rolls, was the best fighter in the family at the time but thought the moment was right to give the chance to his 21-year-old son, Rickson. Trained by Rolls, Rickson had already stood out in practice and jiu-jitsu competitions. Now, in his vale tudo debut, he faced the powerful Zulu, who had more than 30 career fights and outweighed him by nearly 40 pounds, in a no-rules contest scheduled for three 10-minute rounds. The fight took place on April 25, 1980, in Brasilia’s Nilson Nelson Gymnasium. The newspapers did not hesitate in naming Zulu as the overwhelming favorite, but it only gave young Rickson a chance to fire off the kind of witty slogans for which he had become known. He told the press, “If size mattered, the elephant would be the king of the jungle.” Rickson landed an early knee strike that drew blood from Zulu, but he was thrown out of the ring on three occasions. With two minutes left in the second round, Rickson took Zulu’s back, locked up a rear-naked choke and forced the larger, stronger man to tap. Almost four years later, Rickson granted Zulu a rematch in what was meant to be a homecoming party for vale tudo in its birthplace of Rio de Janeiro. On New Year’s Day 1984, a 23-year-old Rickson did not disappoint. With the support of nearly 15,000 fans, he submitted the Maranhao native, again with a rear-naked choke, eight minutes into the second round. Just like that, as if by magic, Rickson’s second triumph marked the rebirth of vale tudo in Rio. *** While the 1970s were defined by vale tudo’s hibernation, it did not take long for the sport to re-enter the Brazilian consciousness and headlines in the 1980s. Curiously, the event that shaped the next 20 years of MMA would come out of an argument at Carnival. It was 1982 in Teresopolis, a mountain city 75 miles outside Rio. Cousins Rilion, Renzo and Charles Gracie left a party in a car and headed to the 18-room house where the Gracies gathered on weekends. On the way, they spotted a girl on the roadside by herself and called out to her. What the Gracies had not realized was that Mario “Marinho” Dumar, a brother-in-law to and student of local muay Thai master Flavio Molina, was following close behind. Dumar did not appreciate the Gracies’ treatment of the girl, so he argued with Rilion. Dumar threw a punch and a scuffle broke out, but police showed up and the parties ran off before a resolution was reached. In the 1980s, the martial arts world in Rio was tiny. Dumar lived in the same Flamengo neighborhood as Charles and was incensed when he heard that Gracie had told others he had “smashed a loudmouth in Terespolis.” A week later, Dumar ran into Charles on the streets of Flamengo. Charles happened to be with his then 15-year-old cousin, Royce. Dumar approached, cocked his arm and knocked out the teenager and future Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament winner with a punch to the nose. A shocked Charles ran to his uncle Rolls’ gym in Copacabana. Upon receiving the news, Rolls immediately canceled his lesson, assembled his best students and took them to Molina’s Naja Academy. While Rolls and Molina argued about how to settle the score, one of Molina’s students, Wellington Narany, sensed that chaos might ensue. Narany grabbed a crowbar from the locker room for protection, escalating the event into a full brawl almost instantly. Rolls’ students immobilized Molina and Narany, while Rolls took down Dumar, mounted him and slapped him repeatedly in the face. “This is so you learn not to hit kids,” Rolls told him. The police arrived to find the Gracie crew fleeing, with several unconscious muay Thai fighters in their wake. The war between jiu-jitsu and muay Thai was officially under way. The following week, Molina challenged Rolls to a fight in the local newspapers. A possible challenge between the two martial arts was under consideration when, on June 6, 1982, Rolls was tragically killed in a hang-gliding accident in Visconde de Maua. Considered by many family members as the best fighter in the Gracie clan, Rolls was 31 and left behind two sons, Rolles and Igor. Photo: Gracie Family Archive For better or for worse, the Gracie family is MMA royalty. After Rolls’ death, Molina turned his sights to Rickson, who had been picked by Helio as the new family ace. True to Gracie tradition and form, Rickson said Molina would first have to deal with his best student, brown belt Marcelo Behring. If Molina defeated Behring, Gracie would then challenge him. The proposed challenge gave Charles’ father, Robson, an idea. At the time, Robson was an administrator for Maracana Stadium and its smaller sister gym, Maracanazinho. Robson sensed it was a perfect moment to raise the status of jiu-jitsu and his family’s name, proposing a series of four challenge fights between jiu-jitsu practitioners and other martial artists. As kung fu movies were popular at the time, the Gracies arranged for a confederacy of Molina’s muay Thai fighters and other kung fu fighters. They even promoted Sergio Batarelli, a Sao Paulo-born kickboxing champion, as “Rocky Batarelli: the Italian Stallion,” to cash in on the early 1980s popularity of the “Rocky” films. With Maracanazinho at his disposal, a super fight between Rei Zulu and the “Brazilian Rocky Balboa” planned and the allure of unbeatable Gracie jiu-jitsu fighters taking on other martial artists, Robson’s vision became a quick media sensation, attracting considerable press and sponsorship. It was difficult for Molina to put together the team he wanted to face the Gracies. His two top students, Narany and Luiz Alves, refused to take part in the challenge. His only student who immediately accepted was Eugenio Tadeu, who felt he owed his trainer for allowing him to train for free. Molina was forced to look for recruits in luta livre circles. The luta livre fighters, who grappled without the gi, had long disapproved of the Gracie approach of invading academies and trying to humiliate athletes. Carlos Brunocilla’s top students, Marco Ruas and Marcelo Mendes, both accepted Molina’s invitation to join his team. This watershed moment forever knit together the muay Thai and luta livre communities. Initially, the jiu-jitsu team was set with four Gracie Academy black belts: Behring, Fred Bomba, Inacio Aragao and Renan Pitanguy. After his first grappling session with Brunocilla, Molina knew it would be best to postpone the event, but the Gracie side refused, certain that the fights would spill out into the street if they delayed the card. Making Molina’s situation worse, Mendes injured his knee days out from the event and had to be replaced by kung fu fighter Bruce Lucio. Meanwhile, the Gracie team actually grew stronger: an injury suffered by Bomba two weeks out led to his being replaced by Fernando Pinduka, who was regarded as Carlson’s top student at the time. With the spate of injuries, only three jiu-jitsu against muay Thai and luta livre fights remained when the fighters squared off on Nov. 30, 1984. Zulu choked out Batarelli with a guillotine in the main event, while Aragao easily choked out kung fu fighter Lucio. However, the style war ended up in a draw; while Rickson student Behring easily mounted and beat Molina, young Tadeu surprised by knocking out Pitanguy. Ruas and Pinduka battled to a 20-minute draw, leaving the ledger at 1-1-1. It was an iconic night, as it marked the first time the world of jiu-jitsu found worthy competition. It only fanned the flames of the growing rivalry, which would become the backbone of Brazilian vale tudo and MMA into the late 1990s. Even as the sport evolved past notions of “style,” the greatest Brazilian rivalries, such as Chute Boxe versus Brazilian Top Team, are still based on the idea of muay Thai against jiu-jitsu. *** Photo: M.Alonso/Sherdog.com Andre Pederneiras has created a legion of champions under the Nova Uniao banner. In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, the sport changed. Between the sport becoming regulated in North America and Japan turning into the greatest international stage for MMA, Brazil was forced to evolve. However, there was a shortage of mid-level shows in Brazil that fighters needed to help beef up their resumes in order to attract major organizations. Over two decades, dozens of fly-by-night promoters tried to change this, but most could only get a few events staged before shuttering their doors. Universal Vale Tudo Fighting, Pentagon Combat, Brazil Open, Super Challenge and Mo Team League all tried and failed. Early on, Sergio Batarelli’s International Vale Tudo Championship was the one promotion that kept its flag planted, launching the careers of Wanderlei Silva, Jose Landi-Jons, Pedro Rizzo, Mark Kerr and Chuck Liddell. It was IVC that first put Curitiba’s Chute Boxe team on the map. After the IVC went by the wayside, Chute Boxe boss Rudimar Fedrigo and promoter Jorge Guimaraes put together Meca World Vale Tudo. Meca then filled the necessary role in the Brazilian fight scene, promoting the likes of Anderson Silva, Murilo Rua, Mauricio Rua and others to the world stage. As the Japanese MMA scene cooled, so did Brazil’s local market for a brief time. Pride Fighting Championships fell under scandal, the Ultimate Fighting Championship became the world’s top promotion and it became necessary for Brazilian MMA promoters to adapt and create stable, reputable promotions that could prepare local fighters to face the world’s best in the cage. First, Ismail’s Jungle Fight answered the call. Jungle Fight put the spotlight on Lyoto Machida, Fabricio Werdum, Ronaldo Souza, Erick Silva and many of the fighters now considered to be the best in Brazil. Those who were not groomed by Jungle Fight likely rose through the ranks in Pederneiras’ Shooto Brazil, where Nova Uniao representatives such as Jose Aldo, Renan Barao and Eduardo Dantas learned their craft. By showing that regional events could thrive in Brazil if they were well-promoted and offered a legitimate chance for fighters to advance their careers, Ismail and Pederneiras inspired the community. In recent years, events such as Watch Out Combat Show, Bitetti Combat, Max Fight, Nitrix Champion Fight and others have become staples in their local territories, helping to uncover the next generation of Brazilian talent. Yet, with all of these shows and the UFC now planning several Brazilian events every year, the supply of Brazilian talent continues to outpace the demand. Thanks to its rich history in vale tudo, Brazil is now a continent-sized factory of champions where the next Aldo or Anderson Silva waits patiently for his turn. http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles...lex-Past-59571 |
Source: http://www.mmaforum.com/general-mma-discussion/150697-vale-tudo-rich-storied-complex-past.html
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