Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (49 page)

The fight was postponed to Thursday June 13.
44

Weight differences matter more in luta livre than in jiu-jitsu. The George Gracie versus Budip fight was luta livre. Budip weighed 92 kilos, George weighed 70.8 kilos. Unlike in their previous fight on April 27, George was not successful. The reason was that Budip, knowing the valor of his opponent, used all of his skills to beat him [
Budip, sabendo do valor de seu adversario, procurou todos os meios para abatel-o
]. Budip surprised George with an armlock in the second round.
45

Balance of Forces

On June 16, it was announced that on Thursday June 20, Budip would meet Angelo Orlando, the champion of the Italian colony in South America. George would face Russell.
46

On June 18 it was announced that Budip would meet Russell, and George would meet Angelo Orlando
. In addition, Dionysio would encounter Oninho.
47

On June 19, Oninho and Dionysio were out, replaced by two of the Ono’s students, Braz Gomes and Udu Dorn, were also included.
48

The fights finally took place on
Thursday June 20, 1940 at Associação Athletica São Paulo.

Silviano dos
Santos replaced Udu Dorn on the day of the fight. Braz’ take-down game was limited but he attacked more and demonstrated greater knowledge and skills [
Braz demonstrou maiores conhecimentos. Comquantos atacasse mais não exhibiu variedadae de quedas
]. He caught Santos with a choke in the second round.

George rehabilitated himself after his loss to Budip by choking
Orlando at the 20 seconds mark in the second round. George weighed his usual 70 kilos. Orlando weighed 86 kilos. Once again jiu-jitsu provided a way for the weak to defeat the strong. George was back on top.

Budip finished Russell with an armlock in the
third round.
49

In the short space of one week, the
Budip had submitted the giant-killing Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion, George Gracie, and the gigantic cowboy Yankee Jack Russell, both with armlocks. He was bigger than George, but smaller than Russell. If men like Budip succeeded in learning the scientific Japanese game, theretofore secret, it had the potential to drastically alter the balance of forces between the two camps. The jiu-jitsu men would effectively be out of work.

Health Drink

As everywhere else, Brazilian newspapers were full of advertisements. The ads in Brazilian newspapers suggest something about the general state of health in the country, which was known to be poor. Many ads offered sure-fire cures for infectious diseases that in fact had no effective therapy at the time (not until the wide-spread availability of antibiotics after World War Two). Alleged cures for sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis were common, as were promises of quick, cheap, and complete relief from every other possible ailment or deficiency, including general weakness. As in earlier decades in the United States, most cures were preparations of undisclosed composition and were uniformly medically inefficacious.

Beer was originally marketed in the
United States as a health drink. In Brazil, Silva Araujo’s Vinho Reconstituinte [reconstituted wine] was touted as a cure for “
muitos disturbios
” [many disturbances], including weakness, listlessness, poor appetite, poor memory, poor sleep, excessive thinness, and depression.
50

Ads generally used the same persuasive techniques that have proven to be effective across time, place, social class, and educational level, two of which are testimonials from peers and assurances from authorities. These were used in
Brazil in 1940 to persuade people to drink Silva Araujo’s Vinho Reconstuinte.

A line drawing of an unnamed man with wide smile testified that “A month ago I felt listless. Today I feel strong and ready for anything” [“
Ha um mez atraz, eu era o typo do desanimado. Hoje, sinto-me forte e disposto para tudo
”].

Another satisfied customer, Sr. Miguel N. Carvalho felt weak and depressed [
fraco e abatido
], with a poor memory [
com falta de memoria
]. He started drinking Silva Araujo Reconstituted Wine, and already felt much better [“
já me sinto muito melhor
”].

St. Olivia Martins suffered from a similar syndrome. She felt weak and down, and also lost her appetite [“
tinha perdido a appetite”
]. She had splendid results with Silva Araujo’s Reconstituted Wine, having returned to good health [“
voltei a gozar bôa saude
”].

An ”eminent surgeon” [
um eminente cirurgião
], Prof. Brandão Filho, testified that “I have always obtained excellent results with Vinho Reconstituinte Silva Araujo, among sick people who need to restore their vital forces after surgery“ [“
tenho sempre obtido optimos resultados com Vinho Reconstituinete Silva Araujo nos doentes recem-operados que necessitam de um rapido soerguimento de suas forças vitaes
”].

Nothing the professional wrestlers claimed must have seemed particularly far-fetched to readers of the sports pages.

Side-Shows

Jiu-jitsu matches and luta livre matches involving jiu-jitsu men were generally side-shows to the real attractions, which tended to be the epic encounters between international giants with memorable
nicknames. A typical example was the Francisco Perez fight with Manoel Conca on Saturday July 6 as the first preliminary to the Roberto Ruhmann versus Jack Russell fight. It was a jiu-jitsu match of four 5-minute rounds. The following preliminary pitted Braz Gomes II against João Mamede Ramos in a luta livre match, also four 5-minute rounds. The semi-final was Budip versus Fritz Weber.
51

At the last minute, Vicente Proise replaced Manoel Conca.
Perez, weighing 53 kilos registered a first-round win over Proise (58 kilos) by choke. Braz II (64 kilos), prevailed over Mamede Ramos (65 kilos) in round 3 by choke
.52

Scandal

On July 23 George Gracie rocked the fight world with the revelation that he had engaged in “simulated fights” [
lutas simuladas
].
53

On July 24 George continued his accusations and was accused in return. Yassuiti Ono denied that he engaged in simulated fights [
Ono não aceitou uma proposta do conhecido lutador para um combate de mentira
]. He never had any arrangement or agreement with George either to win or to lose any fight, he insisted [“
nega haver lutado o campeão brasileiro pos qualquer combinação para perder ou ganhar
”]. Ono challenged George to meet him in the ring at Pacaembu.
54

George declared that he didn’t fear reprisals from the Federation and blamed Renato Gardini, the former world champion and current director of Brasil Box, among others, for orchestrating the fake fights. He confessed that he participated in worked fights at the insistence of promoters.
55
Two days later he specified that under the direction of Gardini, he fought various worked fights [
lutas combinadas
] in 1939.
56

He named Roberto Ruhmann as the foremost
simulador
[faker] Gardini responded by issuing a challenge of honor [
repto de honra
].
57

George went further and claimed that almost all fights since 1934 were fixed.
58

Ricardo Pinto weighed in on the scandal in an article titled “Fake Tough Guys” [“
Valentoes de Marmelada
”]. Pinto took George at his word, but he didn’t completely buy George’s plea that he was an innocent victim. No one twisted his arm. After all, he was the champion.

And if other fighters managed to resist the seduction of easy money, George could have also. Yassuiti Ono was one. George’s own brother Helio was another. “Helio was always a correct and decent professional. He preferred to give up his beautiful career rather than cross into the territory of immorality”, Pinto said.
59

The President of the Federation, Dr. Anysio de Sá, was another who didn’t believe that George was as innocent as he tried to pretend. The Federation had copies of all fight contracts and had verified that they were drawn up in accordance with Federation regulations. If there had been worked fights, it could only have been by agreement with George and his opponents, Dr Sá decided.
60

George agreed with Pinto. Helio never worked any fights, George said. Helio always went into the ring to win or lose.
61
He said nothing about Dr. Sá’s point. He also didn’t reply to Renato Gardini, who said that George’s contract gave him 10% of the gross receipts.
62
George could have replied that Dr. Sá’s and Gardini’s point were irrelevant. The written contract did not have to correspond to what the promoters told the fighters to do, and the 90% of the gate that the promoter kept would have been larger if ticket sales matched the greater appeal the worked fights had with fans. But George kept his mouth shut. Evidently he had accomplished his purpose, whatever it might have been.

The scandal had potentially wider ranging ramifications. Brasil Box (Empresa Brasil Box Ltda.) had been established by the well-known sportsmen Eurico de Andrade Neves and Manoel Tumminelli to promote
diversões publicas
[general entertainment events] which included boxing and luta livre. They promoted mostly boxing but also luta livre, for example, the 1939 match between Charles Ulsemer and Dionysio. In 1939, they rented Estadio Brasil to Renato Gardini and Gunter Baszinski, who wanted to use the facility to produce catch, luta livre, and jiu-jitsu shows.
63
Brasil Box had nothing to do with whatever happened in those shows, Andrade Neves and Tumminelli protested, obviously concerned that their boxing productions would be tainted.
64

Yassuiti Ono felt that his reputation was being damaged. He challenged George to fight him at Pacaembu on July 28
.

George accepted
, but disappointed his fans by not showing up [
George não apareceu no Pacaembu, decepcionando seus adeptos
]. Later George explained that he didn’t want to participate in a fight that Renato Gardini and Jose Antonio Lage
65
were involved in, but that he was ready to fight Ono and any other fighter, after he had time to train properly.
66

But fight opportunities were drying up for jiu-jitsu representatives. Gardini’s unexpected death in September, in
Santos, was certainly not the whole reason, but it may have been part of it. Few people understood professional wrestling, from both sides of the ropes, as thoroughly as he did.
67

Suc
h tomfoolery no longer preoccupied Helio. He was studying to take a driving test [
exame de motoristas
] on July 18. He passed.
68

Death of Jiu-Jitsu

The difference, if any, between jiu-jitsu and the new practice of ‘judo,’ had been a matter of debate in Brazil. In July of 1940, Salim Helou contributed an article titled “Jiu-Jitsu is dead in Japan” [“
O Jiu-Jitsu Morreu no Japão
”], in which he explained that jiu-jitsu had not been practiced in Japansince the advent of judo, about 50 years before. After a largely accurate 13 paragraph account of the development of Kodokan judo, he concluded that “there isn’t the slightest doubt that the word ‘jiu-jitsu
’―
evocative of legendary mysticis
m―
has been relegated in the complicated idiom of Japanese, to the category of archaic expressions”.
69

Judo was specifically designed to be a Western style sport, although derived from and influenced by traditional Japanese f
orms of physical training, including several varieties of jiu-jitsu, as well as games of skill. The jiu-jitsu matches of the 1930’s, and before and after, in Brazil, were identical to judo as it existed at the time, subject to any modifications needed for theatrical presentation. The fact that they were “matches” above all, made them judo.
70
One could summarize by saying that there were two types of jiu-jitsu. One was the battlefield art that no longer existed. The other was the art, or more accurately, grab-bag of techniques that Jigaro Kano incorporated into his Kodokan judo. It was the second type of jiu-jitsu that the Brazilians encountered, learned, divulged in Brazil, and eventually reintroduced globally many years later.

What people chose to call what they did is another question entirely. The answer lies more in the history of advertising than combat. When products or services are most similar, if not indistinguishable, that is when branding becomes most important to producers and providers.
71

Passivity

On August 10 at the gymnasium of the Associação Athletica São Paulo, Yassuiti Ono confronted Andres Castanho. It would be a jiu-jitsu match of six 10-minute rounds. Others on the card were Sarkiss Budip versus Angelo Orlando, Charles Ulsemer versus the Lithuanian Pedro Gustavo, and Jack Russell versus Fritz Weber. With the exception of Ono and Gustavo, all were veteran catch wrestlers and regular opponents of the jiu-jitsu representatives.
72