Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (30 page)

He also asserted that Omori would be “defeated spectacularly” if he didn’t try to run away.
59
According to the report, the fight would definitively establish who was the supreme jiu-jitsu fighter in Brazil. George trained with Gracie representative Jose Cayat.

Cayat was a luta livre fighter and quite a bit larger than Omori. He probably wasn’t the ideal training partner for that particular fight. But George didn’t have any other choice. Oswaldo and Helio were out with leg injuries. Oswaldo’s rehabilitation progress was kept quiet, but Helio, readers were informed on December 20, was
still recuperating.
60

George versus Omori was ten
5-minute rounds, fought by vale tudo rules. It was held at Stadium Brasil on December 23, 1933.
61

The weigh-in [
pesagem
] took place at 11:00 a.m., at Associação Christa de Moços. Omori weighed 67.2 kilos; George weighed 62. 2 kilos. George vowed that even if Omori broke one of his arms, he would fight on with his remaining arm [“
pode quebrar-me o braço. Ainda me ficará outro
”]. No last-minute rule changes occurred. Most techniques were permitted, including elbows, chops, head-butts, punches, kicks, knees, sting-ray tail kicks [
cotovellada
,
cutellada
,
cabeçada
,
socco
,
ponta-pé
,
joelhada, rabo de arraia
]. It was also permitted to stomp on the opponent when he was on the ground [
pisada quando um estiver cahido
].
62

The fight appeared to be in jeopardy at times, due to the Gracie brothers’ hard-headed negotiating tactics. According to Luiz Segreto, sports director of Empresa Pugilistico Brasileira, “It’s absolutely impossible to work with the Gracie brothers”, he complained.
63

Somehow, they ironed out their differences. A 70
-man regiment of marines [
fuzileiros navaes
] was contracted to guard the ring against over excited fans.

A reporter for
Diario de Noticias
asked Omori for a prediction. “Omori just smiles; he doesn’t want to talk. He believes that fights are won in the ring and not in the newspapers. The enigmatic Japanese doesn’t talk, he just smiles. And no one knows what he is smiling about. What mysteries are hidden beneath that pale face?” [
O sympathic nipponico nada quiz dizer. Sorri apenas….E de opinão que os combates se decidem na arena e não nos jornaes
]…
Esse japonez e enigmatico. Não fala, sorri. E não se sabe o que os eu sorriso traduz. Quanto mysterio naqualle face pallida
].

Omori was a man of few words.

‘I’m well prepared [“
Estou bem treinado
”]. I have unlimited confidence in myself. [“
Tenho illimitada confiança em mim
”]. “I’m not afraid of George” [“
Não teme George Gracie”
].
Three short phrases. Nothing more [
Tres phrases curtas. Nada mais
].
64

The fight did not live up to expectations. In round 1, the fighters exchanged punches. Judge Gumercinda Taboada cautioned George for a low knee [
joelhada baixa
].

The second round continued violently. Round 3 was monotonous. Round 4 was more active; Omori was bleeding. Round 5 was monotonous. In round 6 George attacked Omori with some punches while Omori tried to knock George down with kicks. In round 7, George decided to use his boxing skills. The reporter commented, “after the fourth round it became a boxing match and luta livre went out the door” [
desde o quarto asasalto, a luta livre fugiu do quadrado, dando logar no box, em seu inicio
]. In round 8, the men clinched. Again George tried to show off his boxing skills, leaving luta livre to the wayside. Rounds 9 and 10 were the same as round 8.
65

O Paiz
didn’t enjoy the fight. It was “a terrible exhibition of boxing and luta livre ‘
valer-tudo
’ between Omori and Gracie…the fight was a dud”.
66

O Paiz
described the fight round-by-round as follows: In the first round they clinched and tried to apply armlocks but couldn’t succeed. They then exchanged punches and knees. George was warned for a low blow at the end of the round. Omori was bleeding from the left eye. In the second round, Omori applied a good
gravata
[headlock, guillotine] from which George disengaged, with difficulty. The round was Omori’s.

The third round was uneventful. The fighters hesitated a long time before deciding to act. The round was almost not a fight at all [
quasi sem luta
]. In the fofuth round they clinched again and swapped short punches and knees. Omori bled more. In the fifth round, they feinted and exchanged some straight kicks [“
ponta pés
”] until George attempted a
gravata
. They stayed in a clinch while George threw a succession of light punches and knees. The round went to George.

In the
sixth round George led off with a series of head and body punches which Omori returned, but getting the worst of it. The round was all “boxing” and George seemed to have the advantage. The fans began to jeer the fighter’s lack of aggression [
lentidão
] and excess of caution [
prudencia
]. They continued to box in slow motion [
em câmara
] with neither fighter doing much. The fight was nothing at all like what the fighters had promised.

The fans jeered and began stomping their feet noisily. George threw a left at Omori’s face and Omori attempted to retaliate with some kicks [
vae tirando partido de sua esquerda á cara e Omori dá ponta-pés e é só
].

Already it was the
ninth round and so far nothing! [
Já estamos no 9
th
round e nada!
] The referee warned the fighters, the fans continued jeering, and the fight went on in the same way, without effect [
sem efficiencia
].

The
tenth and final round was slightly more energetic than the previous nine, but by that time it was too late. The fans had already started leaving, disenchanted with George and Omori’s dismal [
fraquissima
] performance.

A Batalha
felt that not only George versus Omori, but all of the fights were flops [
foi fraco
]
.

Empresa Pugilistica Brasileira agreed but protested that their hands were tied. Only the Boxing Commission could withhold the fighters’ purses.
67

The commission reviewed the fight and post-facto awarded the decision to George.
68
Omori rejected the commisson’s act, pointing out that the contract stipulated a 10-round fight with the winner decided by knock-out or give up. As neither fighter gave up or was rendered unconscious, the outcome was properly a draw [
empate
].
69

That same day, the commission annulled its own decision. The final official result was a draw. It also announced that from that day forward, punches would not be permitted in luta livre or any other form of sport other than boxing.
70

Judging from descriptions of the fight, George must have felt confident about his boxing skills. He hadn’t wanted to fight Joe Zeeman earlier but now he wanted Isidro Pinto de Sá, who turned him down saying “George isn’t a boxer” [“
George não a boxer
”]. Sá asked why, if George wanted to fight a boxer, hadn’t he accepted the challenge of Anibal Prior?
71

Prior was lightweight (61.2 kilos) with a professional boxing record (as of December 1933) of 22 wins, 7 losses, and 2 draws. Sá was a featherweight (57.2 kilos) with a professional record at that time of 49 wins, 13 loses, and 3 draws. Perhaps George thought that Sá’s size made him a more suitable opponent. In any case, both were considerably better boxers than Helio Gracie’s opponent, Antonio Portugal, whose professional record, when he fought Helio in 1932, was 5 wins, 12 loses, and one draw.

As for Jose Santa who also challenged George, he was a former European heavyweight champion with a professional; record (as of December 1933) of 66 wins, 17 loses, and 4 draws, with a 50 percent KO rate, who had gone 10 rounds with Max Baer (a future world champion with heavy hands).
72

George said that he would gladly accept Santa’s challenge, blindly confident [“
confia, cegamente
”], that he would convince the skeptics about the power of jiu-jitsu. He awaited Santa’s arrival in Rio. He was smiling [
sorrindo
] when he said it.
73
Was it the smile of blind confidence, or the smile of having successfully gotten his name in the newspapers again?

Challenging boxers was easy publicity. Most jiu-jitsu fighters did it (and some boxers reciprocated). Given the number of challenges that were launched and the apparent fact that everyone was seemingly willing to fight everyone else, it is surprising that so few boxing versus jiu-jitsu matches actually occurred.

.
Chapter 13 Notes

Chapter 14

1934

By 1934, the giant killer [“
o matador de gigantes
”] George Gracie had pretty much run out of giants to kill. He turned his attention to his former “
principal treindador
“, Orlando Americo da Silva, o “Dudú”. At around 82 kilos, Dudú was big enough to qualify as a “giant.”

There was a slight problem. Dudú had suffered two shattering loses in 1933, to Roberto Ruhmann and Manoel Fernandes. Dudú’s stock had fallen among the public to the point that he was being referred to as “The Poor Dead Chicken” [“
Pobre Gallinha Morta
”].
1
He attempted to rehabilitate his image by “confessing” that he had thrown the fights. He justified his action by saying the he needed to eat and no one would fight him for real. He preferred losing to starving [“
fui um homem sem adversarios ou com adversaries que não desejavam lutar duro commigo…preferindo uma derrota a morrer de fome
”].

Dudú’s plea for compassion fell on deaf ears. Faked fights were regarded by the public as anathema, moral offenses, sins, crimes. They took fighting seriously. “Would any promoter want to sponsor a Dudú versus George Gracie fight? Would the fans want to see a man who had so many times already abused their good faith?“
2

It turned out that there was a promoter. His name was Dr. Erico Serzedello Machado.
3
Moreover, the fans did show up to watch the fight. Perhaps they were more ingenuous than
Diario de Noticias
thought. Maybe they were more forgiving.

Or maybe they couldn’t resist the chance t
o see a good fight.

The fight was held
Friday, January 19, 1934 at Stadium Brasil, on Feira de Amostras, in Rio, promoted by Empresada Ponta do Calabouço. The Boxing Commission would render a verdict in case neither man scored a clear victory by give up or KO.

Dudú entered the ring first, weighing 82.3 kilos, followed by George, who weighed 62.25 kilos. The referee was Gumercindo Taboada.

A Batalha
provided a round by round account of the fight.
4

George and Dudú spent round 1 clinching and “massaging each other’s neck” [
massagens na nuca
]. Gracie was thrown to the ground by Dudú. Gracie then prepared a trap [
armadilha
], but it failed.

Dudú maintained the pressure in round 2 and threw Gracie to the ground. On their feet the two worked to avoid take-downs [
quedas
]. Dudú applied a neck-tie choke [
gravata
] but George escaped. The two focused on defense and neither appeared to be in any danger.

In round 3, Dudú hurled George
to the ground and administered a “kidney-lock” [
chave de rins
] after tossing him over the ropes. In round 4, the fighters started on their feet and looked for opportunities to “work” [
trabalhar
]. Gracie put Dudú on the ground and applied violent pressure to his kidneys.

The referee called their attention in round 5 to the fact that they were on their feet too much. Dudú threw Gracie down and tried to attack his neck. In round 6 Dudú took Gracie down violently and applied strong pressure on his spine. George defended himself and was saved by the bell.

In round 7, the fight went to the ground [
tapete
] with Dudú on top and George defending effectively. In round 8, the fighters stepped up their pace. Dudú went for a footlock [
chave de pé
] and both tried to apply shoulder throws [
balões
].

Dudú was magnificantly aggressive in the ninth round, with a footlock to neck-tie choke combination [
uma gravata seguida de chave de pé
], which put Gracie in danger, but he escaped with difficulty [
teve difficuldade para se livrar
].

In the final round
, both men dug down deep trying to pull out a victory. George went for an armlock, but Dudú fended it off. The fight ended with a flurry of activity at the edge of the ring.

As had been previously agreed, in case neither man gave up or was KOed, the Boxing Commission rendered a verdict. Oddly, the Commission called it a draw (oddly, because it would have been called a draw even without their verdict). The public thought that decision was absurd in view of Dudú’s total domination of Gracie from beginning to end of the fight.
5

Diario da Noite
felt that the fight presented some interesting action after the eight round, but was otherwise uneventful and was lacking in the thing that an entertaining fight needs most. That was “violence” [
apezar do choque ter tido seus instantes deveras interessantes, não chegou elle a empolgar. Porque faltou-lhe o melhor factor para isso: violencia
]. Nevertheless, the last three rounds seemed to give the fans an overall satisfactory impression.

Both men were capable (and obviously knew each other’s games, as they had trained together), but Gracie could not overcome Dudú’s 20 kilo weight advantage.
6

O Paiz
had a somewhat different opinion. The first three rounds were monotonous [
transcorrem monotonos
]. The fans became hostile [
O publioco mostra-se hostil
].

George and Dudú stepped up their pace in the
fouth round. The fifth round returned to the same monotonousness of the first three [
volta a monotonia
]. Referee Taboada exhorted George and Dudú to fight. The fans jeered them during the sixth and seventh rounds [
A assistencia vaia insistentemente os luctadores no transcorrer do 6
th
e do 7
th
round
]. George and Dudú picked up the pace in the eighth and ninth rounds but the fans jeered them anyway. The tenth round was the best of the ten, but the fight ended inconclusively. The reporter summed it up by saying that although Dudú and George hadn’t fought much they demonstrated good knowledge of their respective modalities.
7

Left out of the action by Helio and Oswaldo’s injuries and George’s estrangment, Carlos Gracie applied his energy toward promoting his recently acquired students, Jose Cayat, Ary Martini, Edward Stone, Francisco Lima, and Roberto Villa. All were big, if not the 100 kilos that local fight fans thought that proper luta livre fighters should be.
8
Carlos planned to introduce one of them, the syrio-libanez
peso-pesado
[heavyweight] Jose Cayat to the public by way of a “
combate academica
” (or
lucta academica
) during a program of boxing matches, February 1, 1934 at a new boxing stadium on rua do Riachuelo, 221, presented by Empresa Pugilistica Carioca (EPC). The main event was Antonio Rodrigues versus Jose (Joe) Zeeman.
9

On January 27 it was reported Carlos twisted his left foot in training, but he expected to recover sufficiently in time for the exhibition, which had been rescheduled for January 31.
10

Jiu-Jitsu versus
Luta Livre

Many fans felt that
Dudú had been robbed. But his draw with George Gracie put him back in the game. A rematch with Geo Omori was arranged for March 24.
11

Omori and Dudú had met once before. The fight lasted almost
three hours into the early morning until suspended by police. Empresa Pugilistica Brasileria (EPB) persuaded the men to agree to 30-minute rounds, hoping that a time limit would force them to fight seriously.
12

The fight took place at Stadium Brasil on
Saturday March 24, 1934. The fight was scheduled for three 30-minute rounds with 5-minute breaks between rounds. Dudú weighed 80 kilos, Omori weighed 68 kilos.
13

Diario da Noite
reported that Geo Omori was defeated spectacularly [
Dudú derrotou espectaculosamente
]. Within the first three minutes of the fight, Omori fell into a potent “
gravata de estrangulamento
” [probably a guillotine, or possibly simply a headlock]. He tried to free himself by throwing violent punches. Dudú retaliated by hitting Omori in the face with his forearm [
ante-braço
]. Omori retreated to a corner complaining to the judge. Dudú applied another
gravata
from which Omori attempted to extricate himself by throwing Dudú with a
balão
[shoulder throw] but failed. Omori had no choice but to tap out.

According to
Diario da Noite
, Dudú fought brilliantly with the intention of liquidating his antagonist early and was rewarded with estreporous applause from his fans as well as some jeering from Omori’s supporters. It was the most resounding [
retumbante
] victory of his career. After the contest Omori attacked referee Gumercindo Taboada.
14

According to
O Paiz,
the fighters exchanged elbow strikes [
cotovelladas
]. Dudú initiated a “rush” and drove Omori into the ropes, where he attempted a
gravata
, which Omori defended. More elbows were exchanged. Omori alleged that Dudú punched him. While Omori was talking to the referee, Dudú threw what looked like a punch at Omori’s jaw. Omori was disoriented [
desnorteia-se
], and Dudú took advantage of that moment to apply another
gravata
. Omori tried to free himself and they fell to the ground with Dudú in a
tesoura
(legs around). Omori was on the verge of passing out [
prestes a desmaiar
]. He had no choice but to tap out.
15

The next day the Boxing Commission said it was witholding Omori’s purse for “disrespecting the public”
. Apparently they felt he didn’t fight to win. Attacking the referee didn’t help either. It was far from the sort of good sportsmanship that Omori had promised to show.
16

Giant Killer

As Carlos Gracie said, Gracies never refuse a challenge.
17
So it was that George Gracie accepted Roberto Ruhmann’s challenge. A match was scheduled for April 7, 1934. Some felt that George was not training seriously enough for Ruhmann.
18
Indeed it seemed that George was taking Ruhmann lightly. George called Ruhmann a “
sôpa
” [a “push-over”]. Ruhmann was strong, no one doubted that. But George was not called the“
matador do gigantes
” for nothing.
19
Nonetheless, anything could happen in luta livre and sometimes did, as sports writers commented before the Oswaldo Gracie versus João Baldi fight. One of those things was that a heavily marketed fight never happened. George and Ruhmann ended up fighting, several times in fact, but not in 1934.

Helio Gracie, still not fully recovered from his one-sided encounter with a city bus, was already scheduled to fight Japanese jiu-jitsu fighter Miyaki. Carlos warned fans
not to bet against Helio because, despite, his recent injury, Carlos assured, Helio was still better than anyone else on the current scene.
20

In the meantime, Miyaki would fight Ruhmann on
April 14, 1934, in a program that also show-cased Abate, from Uruguay, making his debut against Wlasak from Germany. Myaki was a new face. No one seemed to know anything about him [
ainda não o conhecemos…nada podemos dizer elle
].

Carlos Gracie’s opinion was that Miyaki was a stepping stone for Ruhmann [“
parace que esse japonez veiu para server escada para Ruhmann
”]. There would also be a luta livre contest pitting Jayme Ferreira against Roberto Parry Pantojo, and one professional and two amateur boxing matches.
21

Black Belt

The fight was held Saturday April 14, 1934 Saturday at Estadio Brasil at Ponta do Calbouço. Nevertheless, Geo Omori predicted that Miyaki would win [“
Miyaki vencerá Ruhmann
”]. The fight was to be
sem kimono
[no gi]. Despite the advantage that gave Ruhmann, Miyaki was confident that his knowledge of the secrets of jiu-jitsu would overcome Ruhmann’s strength.

The writer reminded readers that “Jim Londos and other ‘cracks’ of world luta livre became famous only after they studied the techniques of jiu-jitsu and combined them intelligently with catch-as-catch-can”
. Reports emphasized that Miyaki was a Kodokan black belt [
faixa preta de Kodokwan
]. He also had cat-like agility [
agildade feline
]. Ruhmann, as everyone knew, had impressive muscles [
musculature impressionante
] and exceptional vigor [
vigor invulgar
]. Ruhmann was not impressed with Miyaki’s black belt [“
A faixa preta não me impressiona
”].
22
The winner would in all probability face George Gracie.