Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (40 page)

12. When a fighter is unconscious [
sem sentidos
] the referee will count aloud to ten (10), and then declare the adversary the winner, lifting his hands in the air. It will also be considered a K.O., if a fighter is thrown out of the ring and doesn’t return by the count of 20.

13. It is considered “give up” [
desistencia
] if one fighter is being attacked and can’t endure further punshment [
um dos contendores estiver sendo atacado e não supporter mais o golpe
], he speaks to the referee, or taps with his hand or foot, more than twice, any part of the opponent’s body, or even the floor of the ring.

14. Disqualification [
desclassificação
] will result from passivity [
falta de combatividade
], failure of the fighter or any of his seconds to heed the referee’s instructions three times, and any of the “irregularities” specified in rule # 8.

15. Anyone who violates any of the rules is subject to suspension.

Helio versus the Giant

Promotion for the fight started in August. Massagoichi was described as a strong Japanese fighter [
formidavel lutador japonez
] a high-level fighter [
lutador de grande classe
], as an “almost giant” [
quasi-gigante
] at 85 kilos. He was also unusually tall for his race. He had received the coveted “Cruz de Merito”, was undefeated in both jiu-jitsu and “
cimó
” [sumo], and was the third-rated sumo fighter in Japan.

The fight was originally set for August 22.
42
but re-scheduled for September 12.

After coming to
Brazil, Massagoichi had acquired property in the interior of São Paulo State and dedicated himself to his business interests. But feeling nostalgiac about his past ring glories, he could not resist the temptation to throw his hat back into the ring. He had retained his flexibility and healthy dietary routine, and therefore he was seen as a worthy opponent for the kid brother of the Gracie family, Helio Gracie.
43

For the benefit of those who doubted his abilities, Massagoichi challenged anyone to try him, expecially his compatriots Yassuiti Ono and Takeo Yano, and George Gracie and Roberto Ruhmann as well. Asserting his confidence, he offered to fight “winner take all”
.

At first it was planned that Ruhmann and Massagoichi would fight and that the winner would automatically, without need for a “
prova de sufficienia
” acquire the right to face Helio Gracie, Yassuiti Ono, or Takeo Yano.
44

The Ruhmann versus Massagoichi fight did not happen. Instead Massagoichi was required to undergo a “
prova de sufficiencia
” to demonstrate his skills and his right to confront Helio Gracie.
45
The
prova
was held on September 9, 1936 at Estadio Brasil, beginning at 9 p.m. Admission was free. Takeo Yano was Massagoichi’s demonstration partner. In addition to the
prova
, two amateur catch matches were presented.

As the Ruhmann versus Misuki fight showed, it was not unheard of for a promoter to put an unqualified opponent in the ring with a name fighter, simply to give him something to do. The public was losing patience with these fights, which w
ere negatively impacting the fight business in general. Consequently, unknown fighters were generally required to complete a “
prova de sufficencia
” which was intended to put their skills on display prior to an actual fight.

A
prova de sufficiencia
, also called
prova do efficiencia
and
exame de sufficiencia
was a half-match, half-demonstration. The “
provas
” were open to officials, the press, and usually, the general public. A fighter under contract would be assigned to job of testing him. It was a form of truth in advertsing. The public wanted to be sure the man could really fight. It also served the purpose of promoting the fight, or other fights, and showcasing one or more fighters. Unfortunately, the big fight which was the reason for conducting the
prova
depended on the tested fighter making a good showing. Everyone had an incentive to help him. It happened from time to time that a fighter who looked impressive in his
prova
turned inexplicably inept when it came to the actual fight.

Massagoichi performed his “sufficiency test” on August 20 at
5:00 p.m., at Estadio Brasil in a demonstration with Takeo Yano and reportedly left a magnificent impression.
46

A Noite
didn’t believe that Massagoichi’s 20 kilo weight advantage would be enough to nullify Helio Gracie’s technical superiority [
Vinte kilos de difference não devem atemorisar Helio Gracie
]. Massagoichi weighed 86 kilos. Helio weighed 66 kilos.
47

The fight took place at Estadio Brasil and was schedu
led for three 20-minute rounds.

Helio Gracie won in the early minutes with an armlock [
venceu o brasileiro aos primeiros minutos num golpe de hermelock
(sic)].
48

Diario Carioca
provided a bit more detail. “Helio defeated Massaogichi at the 12-minute mark with an armlock, giving evidence of his vast knowledge of jiu-jitsu”.
49
One newspaper called Massagoichi “the fighter who easily forgot jiu-jitsu” [
“a luctador que facilmente esquece o jiu-jitsu
”] and complained that “the jiu-jitsu fights presented in Rio, with rare exceptions, had been increasingly demoralizing due to the extremely suspicious nature of the outcomes” and called the fight a “comedy” [
comedia
] and a fraud
[burla
] that profoundly revolted the public.
50

Massagoichi was suspended by the Federation for 90 days, for not doing what he should have [
Por não ter se empregado como era do seu dever
], and having taken part in such a “fraudulent comedy”. The Federation seemed to feel that, based on his
prova
with Yano, Massagoichi was capable of putting up a better fight than he did.
51

Dois Invictos

Roberto Ruhmann had been challenging the Gracie brothers since at least 1932. Helio was eager to fight him, but Carlos, as he often did, played hard to get. He wanted the most favorable conditions for his client. George was ready to fight under virtually any conditions. Still, it wasn’t until April 21, 1934 that contracts were signed
52
and more than two more before the usual obstacles were cleared away and the fighters climbed into the ring. In the meantime, Ruhmann’s and the Gracie’ names were familiar fare in the daily press. Indeed, anything they did or said was printable. Of course, that was true for every other wrestler as well, which meant that there was incessant competition for media attention. Interesting stories had to be constantly spun. In return for free publicity, the fight managers provided free content.

One example probably was Ruhmann’s decision to learn the fearsome Japanese game of defense. After his April 1932 loss to Omori, Ruhmann had decided to take jiu-jitsu lessons, hoping to do better the next time.
53
His matches with Misuki and Yamada were designed to showcase his new knowledge. Not everyone was convinced, but it was enough to justify a fight with a Gracie.

Ruhmann and George Gracie were both undefeated in jiu-jitsu [
invictos do jiu-jitsu
]. A battle between two undefeated champions was always special. It was going to be the iron muscles of Ruhmann versus the technical knowledge of George Gracie at Stadium Brasil.
54
George weighed 66 kilos, Ruhmann weighed 71 kilos. The fight was scheduled for two 20-minute rounds. It lasted 9 minutes.

Dan Shupe described the fight.

Ruhmann looks very serious when he appears in the ring, while shortly after Gracie appears smilingly and is the picture of confidence. Ruhmann trips Gracie and applies a Body Scissors but Gracie falls on top and both secure Strangle Holds. After 2 or 3 attempts at throwing Gracie off Gracie tightens his Strangle Hold and the impression given was that Ruhmann would lose, however, he manages to stave off defeat for a time by moving around on the canvas. Gracie tightens his Strangle Hold and a Ruhmann unconscious on the mat short time later [
sic
] gets up leaving after 9 minutes during which time only one hold was applied by both, a Strangle Hold. Without doubt, a significant win for Gracie
.
55

From Shupe’s description of the fight, it did not seem to be a “work”
. In any case, neither Ruhmann’s usually faithful “
gravata
” nor arms of steel served saved him this time.

***

Challenges continued to arrive from every direction. On September 20, 1936 the French catch wrestler Jean Bognar challenged George and Helio Gracie to a luta livre contest. He went out of his way to make a potential match attractive to either or both of them, if they they choose to accept. It would be no-gi [
não haverá kimono
], but chokes [
acceita estrangulamento
] would be allowed, and he would eschew pinning [
sem espaduas no chão
]. Carlos had publically declared that the Gracies never refused a challenge. Bognar hoped that the brothers would respond soon [
O desafiante pede resposta urgente
]. They didn’t.
56

Survival

The Yassuiti Ono versus Helio Gracie rematch took place Saturday, October 3, 1936 at Stadium Brasil. Ono’s younger brother Naoiti (also known as Oninho) would be fighting Helio’s sparring partner Carlos Pereira. Naoiti was (probably) 16 and weighed about 57 kilos. Periera was 18 and weighed 74 kilos.
57
There were also three boxing matches. Helio weighed 68.3 kilos, Ono weighed 64.6 kilos.

Locally based foreign reporter Dan Shupe previewed the fight: “Never was Gracie so hard pressed as when he met Ono and this when the Japanese was handicapped by an injured knee”
. Ono and Helio both felt certain of victory this time, Shupe reported.
58

Both were wrong, neither won. Neither lost either. Whether Helio did better the second time around seemed to depend on the nationality of the reporter. According to
A Noite,
Helio avoided being thrown, which was an obvious improvement over his performance in the first fight. No mention was made of Helio’s success in attacking Ono. Again, it seemed that his game plan was centered on survival. The reporter felt that a draw was a reasonable outcome [
Helio annullou a efficiencia de Ono. Evitando os quedas em que o Japonez é mestre. Empate foi o desfecho logico
”].
59

Frank Wright described the fight as follows:

Ono (64.6 kgs.) was the whole fight. He constantly had Gracie (68.3 kgs.) in difficulty and Gracie can thank his lucky stars for the draw decision. Gracie did not score one single effective hold and was content to remain on the defensive. Points for this fight were not counted, for it they had been, victory would have gone to Ono. Carlos Gracie as per usual found something wrong with Ono’s costume and to oblige him, Ono had to trail back to the dressing room to change it for another. Throughout the fight, Ono applied many spectacular leg trips and stomach throws and the vast crowd at once realized that they were in the presence of a master. Gracie’s defensive system was good and he made a spectacular escape from a fatal armlock engineered by Ono after the later had downed Gracie with a leg trip, by spinning. At the end of 60 minutes the result was a draw
.
60

The reports disagreed about how well Helio avoided being thrown. Perhaps he did better than in 1935, but apparently his stand-up defense was far from impeccable. Possibly he did not want to bother to avoid being taken down, where he wanted to be anyway, since points were not being scored for throws
despite the new rule system announced by the
Federação Brasileira de Pugilismo
in September. Nevertheless, both reports seem to indicate that Helio’s strategy was to survive. Clearly, Yassuiti Ono was on a different level from Massagoichi.

Correio de S. Paulo
summed up the match: “Ono dominated the final three rounds, applying 27 techniques to Gracie’s one” [“
Ono dominou os tres ultimos tempos applicando 27 golpes em Gracie contra 1
”].
61

Obviously, Helio performed better in 1936 than in 1935, only being thrown 27 rather than 32 times, and accordingly to one account he even managed to execute one technique of some kind. Officially the result was again a draw [
empate
] and Helio remained undefeated [
invicto
]. The match was anything but even however, all reports agreed.
62

In November the Club de Regatas do Flamengo sponsored the “
Festa Pugilistica do Flamengo” to celebrate its 41
st
anniversary, In addition to club members, representatives from Club Carioca de Box, Policia Especial, and Academia Jose Andre also participated. There were four luta livre matches of one 10 minute round each, five boxing matches, one capoeiragem match, and three jiu-jitsu matches. In the jiu-jitsu matches, Odemar Figueiredo faced Eguti; Vicente Marques confronted Luiz Ciz; and Togo Carper met Egrad Guisher.