Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (50 page)

The fight ended quickly [
desfecho rapido
]. Ono overwhelmed [
sobrepujou facilmente seu antagonista
] Castanho with take-downs [
quedas
] and throws [
balões
] before choking him out in 6 minutes of the first round. Castanho, while game [
de boa vontade
] did not demonstrate much knowledge of jiu-jitsu [
não demonstrou grande conhecimentos nesta modalidade de luta
]
.

Ulsemer beat Gustavo with an armlock and Russell and Weber drew. The Federation seized the purses of Budip and Orlando for “passivity” [f
alta de combatividade
].
73

Benefit

On Sunday September 8, 1940 the Clube Esperia in São Paulo held a benefit festival for the Cine Theatro do Asyio Colonia de Santo Angelo. In addition to other activities, there would be four amateur boxing matches, a demonstration of strength by Roberto Ruhmann (bending steel bars), a demonstration of self-defense by São Paulo jiu-jitsu champion Benedicto Peres Campos and his student Arthur Mieles, two luta livre matches, a jiu-jitsu match, and catch-as-catch-can exhibition match between Jack Russell and Andre Castanho.

The luta livre matches involved at least two of Yassuiti Ono’s students, and the others were very likely also his students. In one luta livre match Braz II faced Joã
o Menezes. In the other Udo Dorno (Udu Dorn) faced René Malheiros.
74

Jiu-jitsu was increasingly a side-show to catch. Practitioners were increasingly young. They also were versatile. They were as likely to fight luta livre as jiu-jitsu. Or to put in another, equally correct way, they were as likely to wear kimonos as not. But people came to see the giant catchers and men with muscles of steel. Jiu-jitsu fighters were there to fill out the program.

Living Legend

By 1940, Yassuiti Ono had become a living legend.
75
Charles Ulsemer was a relative newcomer.

Ulsemer was born in Strasburg, in the
Alsace region of France near the River Rhine. He competed in amateur luta livre and Greco-Romana beginning in 1928. In 1934 at the age of 22 he became the French luta livre champion and a finalist in Greco-Romana. He then turned professional and traveled throughout Europe, North Africa, Australia, North America, and South America.

In 1940, he estimated that he had won 299 fights, losing only one. He wasn’t exactly sure because when and where he fought depended on his contract, but twice a week was
not exceptional. He had fought in Brazil 22 times at that point, including two matches with Takeo Yano in June and September of 1939.
76

Ono and Ulsemer were both
“undefeated” in Brazil (actually, Ono had lost once or twice to George Gracie, albeit on technicalities). Fights between undefeated champions were always fan pleasers. A fight was arranged for December 14, 1940, at Associação Athletica São Paulo. It would be a jiu-jitsu contest of ten 5-minute rounds.

The semi-final was a six
-round (of 5 minutes each) jiu-jitsu match between Oninho and Godofredo Silva. Godofredo seems to have had no other public fights. It is likely that he was one of Yassuiti Onos’ students.

There were three preliminary fights. The first was a luta livre match between Braz Gomes II and Udu Dorn. The second was a luta livre match between Braz
Gomes I and Ser Nizaki. The third was jiu-jitsu match between Benedicto Peres and Luiz Tarzan Fazio. All three preliminaries were five rounds of 5 minutes.

Braz I and Udu Dorn were known to be Ono students, so Braz II and Ser Nisaki probably were as well, making it essentially an intra-academy contest, embellished somewhat by the fact that Mr. Kaoru Ashahima, proprietor of the Bar Japonez at
avenida Rangel Pestana 1.214 offered medals to the winners.

Benedicto Peres would be disputing Luiz de Fazio Tarzan for the title of Campeão Paulista de Jiu-jitsu. “I have never in my career been in such good condition as today
. I feel that I’m at the peak of my career”, Peres said [“
nunca me senti tão bem como agora. Sinto-me apogeu de minha carreira
”].

Peres acknowledged the valor of his opponent, who was a well-known strongman, as his
nickname suggested, but was confident that he would win [“
Sei que o contendor é valoroso e capaz de grande feitos mas vencerie…não quero esconder a certeza que tenho na victoria
”].

Ulsemer was training at Academia Paulista de Box de Kid Joffre e Zumbano III. He specifically selected smaller opponents to train with and he wore a kimono for all his training. Ono was training at the academ
y that he ran with his brother, the “Academia de Defesa Pessoal” on avenida Rangel Pestana,. Ono adopted the opposite tactic and trained with larger men.
77

Ulsemer’s usual weight was around 89 kilos. He weighed at least 20 kilos more than Ono for this fight, so Ono must have been around
his usual weight of 68 kilos. In addition to his weight advantage, Ulsemer was not a neophyte at the game of jiu-jitsu. He had after all fought a match with the “King of Throws” [
Rei das Quedas
] as Takeo Yano was known for the incredible ease with which he routinely threw even the biggest adversaries. Yet Yano was unable to throw Ulsemer even once. Ulsemer was also exceptionally flexible. His nickname was “Rubber Man” [
O homem de borracha
].
78
Yassuiti Ono’s task would not be an easy one,
Correio Paulistano
predicted.
79

All of the fights were interesting and appreciated by the fans
.

Braz II and Udo Doru drew after four active rounds.

Braz I defeated Ser Nizaki by armlock in the second round.

Benedicto Peres submitted Luis Tarzan in the
third
round, by armlock, retaining his title of São Paul jiu-jitsu champion.

Oninho defeated Godofredo in the
second round by “
golpe de asphyxiamento
” [choke].

Yassuiti Ono and Charles Ulsemer drew after 10 rounds. Both remained undefeated.
80

In historical hindsight it wasn’t remarkable that Peres defeated Tarzan in a jiu-jitsu match. It was noteworthy that Ulsemer went the distance with Yassuiti Ono. Ono had gone to considerable lengths to assert that he never worked fights and his record seemed to bear him out. If this was true, Ulsemer
might actually have had some of the skills that he claimed, making him a rarity among catchers of the period.

.
Chapter 20 Notes

Chapter 21

1941

With Helio retired from professional fighting and his other three brothers following their own paths, Carlos Gracie needed sources of income. One of his spiritual devotees, Oscar Santa Maria, provided some. Carlos also continued to teach jiu-jitsu. Without fights to attract public attention to his academy, Carlos needed to conduct demonstration
s. For that partners were needed. Big tough guys were always impressive in the roles of aggressor-victims. Young girls could also be impressive in the opposite role. Carlos apparently, combined demonstrations with another of his interests, young girls.
1

One of Carlos Gracie’s primary projects was producing new life, generally with the assistance of young girls from a lower social class than his own.
2
He usually married them and generally managed to stay out of trouble. But not always.

The fighter promoter Gonçalves de Oliveira filed a complaint in the 4
th
Police District alleging that Carlos had promised to marry his under-aged daughter, Lida de Oliveira e Silva, and then reneged.

Lida had begun as a maid in Carlos’ house and had somehow become a jiu-jitsu student and partner in his demonstrations. Lida stated that Carlos drew a horoscope and then “interpreted” it to arrive at the conclusion that she would become his wife
. Carlos abandoned her after she became pregnant.
3
Carlos firmly denied the allegation. His lawyer promised to offer proof within the next few days of his client’s innocence.
4

Carlos was absolved of the charge, article 267 of the penal code, by judge Toscano Espinola.
5
The promoter (now identified as Eugenio Clatta-Preto) appealed. Judge Romão Cortes de Lacerda overturned the absolution and ruled definitively that Carlos should serve one year in a prison cell.
6

In a probably unrelated bit of misfortune, Gastão Jr. lost the position he had held since October 1938
7
teaching jiu-jitsu in the Department of Physical Education.
8

Professional jiu-jitsu had increasingly fallen into disfavor over the years. By 1941 there were few pure jiu-jitsu matches. Jiu-jitsu could not compete with “catch” as a form of entertainment. Even the most outstanding jiu-jitsu representatives of the previous decade were faced with the choice of participating in catch wrestling or getting out of the business. Some got out. Others became pro wrestlers.

Interest in jiu-jitsu did not die out, but it became increasingly an amateur sport. Fans still enjoyed seeing spectacular throws, but these were difficult to execute in a catch match with no kimono and opponents who sometimes weighed nearly twice as much as the jiu-jitsu man, if not more.

Jiu-jitsu throws were not only spectacular, but seemed mysterious. One popular sports magazine presented a pictorial showing various ways, using the “scientific Japanese sport”
, to put an opponent on the ground [
As varias maneiras de lever o adversario ao chão
]. Two Kodokan alumni, Geo Omori and Takeo Yano demonstrated “
Tsurigoni seoa-nage
”, “
o uchimata
”, and “
o haraigoshi
”. The photos were taken long before, as Omori had died in 1938 and both men looked very young. Yano was described as the young Japanese disciple of Conde Koma, and a master of throws who excited the fans with the apparent ease with which he had been able to throw George Gracie in most of their numerous previous encounters. Yano’s error, the article suggested, was not immediately following up with ground attacks, allowing George, with his “calmness and perfect defense” to avoid defeat.
9

In 1934, Empresa Pugilistica Brasileira announced the arrival of a student of Conde Koma,
then in Pará. He was said to be a major expert in jiu-jitsu who could be successful in the ring against the best fighters.
10
He was undoubtedly Takeo Yano.

Yano met Conde Koma in mid-1931.
11
Before his first professional fight, Yano was introduced as having been in the shadow of (or under) [
a sombra de
] the almost legendary Conde Koma in Pará.

Takeo
Yano was not the greatest Japanese jiu-jitsu master, or most successful in the Brazilian rings, but he was the most visible and the most active. With a few exceptions, jiu-jitsu in the rings of Rio, São Paulo, and Bello Horizonte from 1941 to 1949 was represented by Takeo Yano.

Jiu-Jitsu Sport

But jiu-jitsu was an amateur sport as well. The Bento Ribeiro Football Club inaugurated a jiu-jitsu section on Friday, September 6, 1941. Four matches were presented. Dirceu confronted Alcides; Franca Filho faced Baiano; Oswaldo Fada measured forces with Moreira, and Oswaldo Fada and Moreira engaged in a “self defense” match.
12

Little information about the jiu-jitsu section subsequently reached the press, understandably. Amateur sports and recreational training were not particularly newsworthy. Without a gifted promoter along the lines of Carlos Gracie to launch challenges and manufacture miscellaneous media events, no one would hear about it. The public had no reason to care, and the amateur athletes and hobbyists
probably didn’t need the publicity either.

Fada was still teaching jiu-jitsu in Bento Riberio in the 1950’s which implies that people were learning his version of the art throughout the 1940’s, subject to the disruptions of World War II.

Life went on. Helio Gracie was born a few days before March 1941 in São Paulo. Not the famous, but now retired, fighter, brother of Carlos and George, but rather the son of Gastão Gracie Filho and Rosa Fusco Gracie.
13

Choque de Jiu-Jitsu

The only confirmed professional jiu-jitsu matches of the year were Takeo Yano versus Charles Ulsemer, and Carlos Pereira versus Manoel Rocha. The first was the main event, the second was the semi-final. It was Organized by Imprensa Nicolino Vigiani, to take place September 27, 1941 at Estadio Brasil. It would be a “
choque de jiu-jitsu
” [jiu-jitsu match] in four 10-minute rounds. There also were two amateur and two professional boxing matches.

It was a revenge match for Yano. He had already faced Ulsemer in 1939, losing by choke in the
fifth round. Assuming that the fight was legitimate, it simply may not have been Yano’s night. Even great champions can lose flukishly. No one can be 100% every time they enter the ring. Sometimes that results in close-calls. Other times, titles change hands, and eras come to an end.

But Yano bounced back. His reputation was reasonably intact. As for Ulsemer, it was enough to mention that he had previously drawn with the “magnificent professional” Yassuiti Ono in São Paulo on December 14, 1940.
14
In fact, it was this draw that ostensibly qualified him to meet Yano.
15
It was also probably not unrelated to the fact that the “catch” season had just ended and both had time on their hands.
16
Another reason was that Yano had been slated to fight Leon Finklestein, better known as “Homem Montanha”, who had suddenly gone to Buenos Aires. Ulsemer was drafted as a substitute.
17

A picture in
Diario de Noticias
before the fight showed Ulsemer wearing a kimono and a dark, possibly black, belt. He was described as a practitioner of jiu-jitsu [
praticante do jiu-jitsu
] as well as a “catcher”.
18
The kimono did not fit. Perhaps he left his own at home and put on whatever was available for the publicity shot. The first thing anyone who regularly trains in a
do
-
gi
(or kimono) learns is how to tie their
obi
(belt). Ulsemer’s belt was incorrectly tied.

It wasn’t the first time a wrestler (sometimes boxers and capoeiras too) had been described as being versed in, or even masters of, jiu-jitsu. In fact, it was common. It might have meant that they occasionally trained in a kimono.

Mostly, it provided a pretext for putting them in matches with smaller jiu-jitsu men. In most cases, such matches occurred in pairs, one without a kimono, in which the wrestler generally won, and another with kimono, in which the jiu-jitsu men generally won.

The fight was postponed to Saturday October 4 due to rain.
19

Both fighters were confident. Yano was not afraid of Ulsemer [
Yano não teme Ulsener
]. Ulsemer was big but that was nothing new. Yano had disposed of big men numerous times before.

Gumercindo
Taboada served as the referee. He was highly experienced and understood the game (the Carlos Pereira versus Manoel Rocha match was refereed by Alex Pinheiro). It was resolved that the fight would go on no matter what the weather was like [
com qualquer tempo
].

Ulsemer’s confidence might have been based on his previous victory by choke over Yano. But confidence isn’t enough to win a fight. Ulsemer had skills. He proved that in the Yasssuiti Ono draw in 1940. Could he repeat the feat?

He couldn’t. At one point, after several spectacular exchanges of techniques, both men fell out of the ring together, leaving Ulsemer injured as a result. When they returned to the ring Yano surprised Ulsemer with a shoulder throw [
balão
] in combination with a fatal choke that ended the fight. It was all over in 5 minutes [
Yano venceu Ulsener…foi vencedor Yano aos cinco minutos por estrangulamento
].

Despite his loss, Ulsemer fought well [
apesar de vencido, actuou bem
]. Perhaps lack of experience cost him the fight. He had managed a draw against the greatest jiu-jitsu fighter in Brazil (Yassuiti Ono), but against Yano, it just wasn’t his night.

Carlos Pereira won by armlock 4 minutes into the
second round.
20

The program marked the re-initiation of the 1941 fight season [
temporada de pugilismo de 1941
]. But apparently, with one possible exception, the season did not include any more jiu-jitsu matches.

Dark Clouds

Outside of the rings, life went on.

The Standard Oil Company tanker I.C. White, flying a Panamanian flag, was sunk by a German submarine 750 kilometers north of Pernambuco. It was the sixth such attack. U.S. Secretary
of State Cordell Hull believed that it represented Germany’s intention of eliminating shipping from the Atlantic.
21

Germany
and the Soviet Union were engaged in the first year of their four-year project of exterminating each other and killing half of the people of Eastern Europe.
22

America
was six weeks away from becoming fully and formally involved, thanks to the Japanese attack on December 7, and Hitler’s declaration of war on the U.S. on December 11. Brazilians were an ocean away and were more interested in catch wrestling and jiu-jitsu than genocide. What could they do about it anyway? Brazilians stereotypically prided themselves on their ability to compromise, but with people like Stalin and Hitler, they were out of their depth and lucky to be on the other side of the globe.

Like it or not however,
Brazil would be involved. Both American and Germany wanted Brazilian rubber and other resources and if they couldn’t have them, they at least didn’t want the enemy to have them. That meant that Brazil was effectively cut off from Europe. Brazil got off easy. No one bombed or invaded Brazil. As in every other country sacrifices would need to be made. Pro wrestling would have to be put on a back-burner for the duration.

The situation in
Europe was dire. No one expected the Russians to be able to hold out against the Germans.
23
But the war was not yet a world war. There might be time for one more fight. George Gracie announced that he would soon meet an unspecified Portuguese fighter [
lutador lusitano
] at Estadio do America in Porto Alegre on Wednesday November 19.
24
The planned fight may have been a casualty of the rapidly deteriorating international situation.

Oswaldo was no longer fighting. He still taught. In 1941, he was the “
técnico de luta livre
” [luta livre instructor] at the Minas Tenis Club.
25

Japanese Water

Conde Koma died at 4:05 in the early morning on November 28, according to the diary of Ozaki Tatsuo of the Brazilian consulate. Koma’s last words were “I want to drink Japanese water; I want to go back to Japan”.
26

Conde Koma’s real (or birth) name was Maeda Mitsuyo
[
前田光
世
]. As some immigrants did to facilitate inter-cultural interactions, he adopted a Brazilian name as well, Otavio. But in the press, he was invariably Conde Koma (or Conde de Koma, or Conde, or simply Koma). He was so well known by his nickname that when his death was reported in a local newspaper, his wife and daughter were described as May Iris Mayeda Koma and Celeste Iris Mayeda Koma, respectively.

It was in a sense the end of the jiu-jitsu era in
Brazil, or rather the beginning of a decade long interlude.