Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (36 page)

But the new kids on the block would more than take up the slack
. The Ono brothers, Yassuiti and Naoiti, had arrived.

.
Chapter 14 Notes

Chapter 15

1935

On Saturday January 5, Geo Omori and his student Saburo Senda gave a public demonstration of jiu-jitsu at Club da Light, at
rua Figueiredo de Mello, n. 456. Victor Slazolo and Guilherem Sizheler engaged in a jiu-jitsu match and luta livre instructors Jose Sampaio and Salamiel Oliveira performed a match of catch as catch can. There were also luta livre and boxing matches.
1

Jiu-jitsu was holding its own among the amateur combat sports. Its mystical and scientific aspects were mostly the stuff of pro-wrestling publicity.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

The Brazilian luta livre champion [
Campeão brasileiro de luta livre
], Dudú, was said to be a master of jiu-jitsu as well as luta livre. Oswaldo, George, and Helio apparently respected his abilities. Dudú had served as Helio’s sparring partner and George’s principal trainer. Dudú and the Gracies seemed to have an amicable relationship.

Sometime around the end of 1934, the relationship deteriorated.

Dudú and George fought on January 19 of 1934. The match was officially a draw but most observers thought that Dudú had really won by virtue of having dominated George. They met again on November 3.

At that time George entered the ring but then refused to fight
. Some people interpreted that as a “moral victory” for Dudú. Dudú talked as though it was more than just “moral”.

Dudú concluded from George’s unwillingness to fight that the
Gracie Academy was weak, and that the Gracies weren’t any good [“
os Gracies nada valiam
”]. Carlos and Helio took offense at this and similar statements. Dudú also declared that he could easily beat any of the Gracies under any conditions. The proof of that, he illogically said, was that George hadn’t wanted to fight him on November 3.
2

Helio reacted by going to the press and challenging Dudú, under any conditions, thereby proving, he said, that there was a Gracie who was ready to fight him.
3

Dudú accepted Helio’s challenge. He reiterated that he would beat any of the brothers under any conditions, and would do it easily and within a few minutes. He promised to give Helio the same “moral defeat” that he had given George, but with one difference. Helio would also be beaten physically and painfully.
4

Threats and promises have always been a routine part of pre-fight marketing. Boxers have always done it. Fighters try to hype the fight, but at the same time want to gain a psychological edge on their opponent. Fighters usually know that the pre-fight hype is designed to promote the gate.

But they also sometimes get caught up in it themselves. When a man is publically calling his future opponent a sissy, coward, homosexual, rabbit, ugly bear, Uncle Tom, gorilla, washerwoman, peanut head, or whatever he thinks will get under his skin, boxers sometimes forget that it is a verbal game and against the better judgement of their corner people, react visicerally. They take it “personally”.

Dudú promised that “this is not a game” [“
Isto não é brincadeira
”]. That was true. It was not a game. It was a business. Dudú might have been expecting a low-keyed, friendly match with the same theatrical embellishments that had characterized his previous fights. His goading of the Gracies did in fact help to promote the fight, but it might have had an additional consequence as well. Helio took Dudú’s “not a game” admonition literally.

But that is speculation. Dudú demonstr
ated a genuine intention to injure Helio. The truth might be that they both wanted to fight a real “vale tudo”.

The
pesagem
[weigh-in] and medical check [
exame medico
] took place on the morning of the fight, 11:00 a.m., at Associação Christa de Moços.

Du
dú
weighed 85 kilos, Helio weighed 66 kilos, and neither appeared to be suffering from any disability that would interfere with their respective tasks of totally annihilating the other.

The location was Estadio Brasil. The date was
Saturday, February 2, 1934. The fight was scheduled for five 20-minute rounds.
5

It started at
10:47 p.m., after three boxing matches (Acosta versus Zumbano, Pires versus Picole, and Prior versus Heredia). As promised, the fight was bloody.

The fighters began cautiously studying each other. Helio initiated with a “
tapa
” [slap]. Dudu retialiated and they both fell to the canvas with Dudú on top. Dudú unleashed a barrage of punches and headbutts. Helio kept his composure and calmly defended. They stayed in that position for 13 minutes. Dudú hurt Helio, but not enough to force him to give up. Helio in return inflicted damage, apparently mostly superficial.

But Dudú was on the losing side of the exchange, because as it turn
ed out, he had less in reserve.

Observers commented that Dudú seemed to be tired already. His 13 minutes of fruitless attack had only succeeded in draining his gas tank. Whether that was Helio’s plan, or Dudú misestimated how much energy he was expending, or how much he had in his tank, we don’t know. It wasn’t the first or last time that a fighter had profited from his opponent’s miscalculation or lack of accurate information. It wasn’t the first or last time that a fighter had “punched himself out”.

They rolled partly outside the ropes and referee Gumercindo Taboada sent them to the middle of the ring. Dudú looked morally and physically beaten [
está visivelmente batido moral e physicamente
]. Helio kicked Dudú [
dá um ponta-pé
] and then punched his arm. After running around the ring, Dudú asked the referee to stop the fight. He had nothing left [
depois de rodar em volta do ring, pede a suspensão do combate….havia desistido
].

Dudú’s manager, Sr. Diniz, was disgusted. He had bet 12
contos
after Dudú assured him that he was going to fight to win. Diniz accused Dudú of having a “cowardly lack of heart”.
Correio da Manhã
concluded that Dudú’s annihilation [
pavorosa derrota
] at the hands of much smaller Helio Gracie demonstrated that he lacked the “fiber” of a fighter [
não possuir fibra de lutador
].
6

According to
Diario Carioca,
Dudú was the first to step into the ring, at 10:34, followed by Helio, wearing a kimono, at 10:36. The “brawl” [
briga
] started at 10:47 p.m. Helio began throwing punches, Dudú took him down. Helio closed his guard [
chave de rins
] and threw punches at Dudú’s face, drawing blood. Dudú retaliated, breaking Helio’s nose and rearranging his face with headbutts. Both were bleeding.

At
10:59 referee Taboada separated them and directed them to the center of the ring. Helio kicked Dudú in the throat [“
Dudú e attingado por um ponta-pé no pescoço
”], and kept the pressure on. To everyone’s surprise, at 11 p.m., Dudú indicated to the referee that he couldn’t or didn’t want to continue [
acena ao juiz, desistindo
]. According to ringside observers, in so doing Dudú had shown a high level of unsportsmanly cowardice.
7

Diario Carioca’s
report included four large illustrations. Two clearly showed Helio using a low closed guard (one with Dudú with knees on the mat), another with Dudú crouched over Helio, dropping bombs. In another photo Dudú is standing and Helio’s guard is half open, shins in Dudú’s side).

Dudú’s stature as a great champion and luta livre master nose-dived. The public had been fed a diet of theatrical fights and probably didn’t know what it felt like to receive a
ponta-pé
[front kick] in the throat. Quite likely, Dudú hadn’t known either, up to the moment that Helio’s foot found its target.

The public had been drawn by the promise of blood. They didn’t like what they saw. It is unclear whether it was because there was too much blood, or too little. Perhaps also the “cowardice” that Dudú showed in giving up when he knew he was beaten left a bad taste. Dudú was exhausted and must have been in considerable pain.

The fans didn’t care. They wanted a show. Under the circumstances, neither Dudú nor Helio could comply (Dudú because his tank was empty, Helio because Dudú quit). As a result, similar mixed fights fell into even lower disrepute. Ordinary people felt that such bloody spectacles were neither entertainment nor sports and called for them to be banned (as would happen again repeatedly in the future).
8

The
Federação Carioca de Box
[Rio Boxing Federation] organized a program of nine amateur boxing matches on February 21, called the
Campeonato Brasileiro de Amadores
, held at Feira de Amostras. Representatives of Geo Omori’s jiu-jitsu academy also participated in a jiu-jitsu match.
9
Omori’s last contest had been an exhibition with Manoel Fernandes in November of 1934. He was anticipating a match with another big Portuguese wrestler named Manoel Grillo.

Like most wrestlers, Grillo was middle-aged and on the
plump side. He weighed 90 kilos, with an ample belly, and stick-like legs. He had (it was claimed) trained with, fought, and defeated the legendary Raku, in Portugal. He had also defeated Travaglini and ex-world champion Myaki (Taro Miyake), and was the jiu-jitsu champion of Portugal.
10
Everything considered, he was probably as competent at luta livre and jiu-jitsu as Dudú.

The fight was scheduled for Saturday April 12 at Stadium Brasil. Grillo vowed to beat Omori in the first 10 minutes [“
Vencerei Geo Omori nos primeiros dez minutos
”]. Omori was training with a younger Kodokan graduate who had recently arrived in São Paulo and was just beginning what would be a long career in the rings of São Paulo, Rio, Bello Horizonte and other cities in Brazil.

His name was Takeo Yano. Yano had landed a job teaching the Japanese game at the Club Naval, and that is where he and Omori conducted their training.
11

The fight didn’t happen. The Boxing Commssion heard rumors that a “work” was planned, and prohibited the fight from being held.
12

The fight happened later,
in October. Evidently the Commission’s concerns were well founded.

On Thursday March 28, in
Porto Alegre, at Estadio Paysandú, a student of Oswaldo Gracie named Dante Carvalho, defeated Paulo Salvaterra in a luta livre match. It was one of two preliminaries in the Angelo Ledoux versus Waldemer Moraes boxing contest.
13

Dante Carvalho had been one of Oswaldo’s most promising students in
Porto Alegre. But as sometimes happened, their relations had soured. The pupil challenged his master in the pages of the local newspaper to a winner-take-all luta lvre without limit of rounds.
14

Jiu-Jitsu
Lessons
Gratis

Takeo Yano found work as a jiu-jitsu instructor at
the Club de Regatas do Flamengo (CRF). Classes were held Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. Classes were free and open to the public [
a inscripções acaham-se abertas, sendo inteiramente gratis
]. Omori and Yano gave an exhibition of techniques on Tuesday July 9, 8:30 p.m., to promote the new boxing, luta livre, and jiu-jitsu program.
15

In
Porto Alegre, Dante Carvalho’s best friend Souza was preparing to meet Barata (Miranda Netto, Oswaldo Gracie’s top student). Dante had been a boxer before he hooked up with Oswaldo. Now due to lack of interest on the part of promoters and lack of opponents, he decided to challenge boxers to mixed fights. Ceará, “
O Homem Borracha
” [The Rubber Man”] accepted the challenge. It wasn’t their first fight. They engaged in a boxing match in Rio before. Ceará knocked Dante down three times in the first three rounds. Dante barely made it back to his feet. But he managed to pull himself together and win on points. The rematch, with mixed rules, would be August 4. Dante promised to end it before the seventh round.
16

Barata had been away, in the “frontier” areas of his home town of
Alegrete. Mostly he was resting. But he accepted the opportunity to engage in some fights as well. Muniu Burg was a professor and ex- Hungarian champion of luta romana. He weighed 85 kilos.

The fight was set for three 10-minute rounds with 2
-minute rests between rounds. Barata didn’t need 30 minutes or any breaks. He defeated Burg in 2 minutes of the first round with a choke. The choke was combined with a “kidney lock” [
estrangulamento acompanhado de chave de rins
].

Barata took time out to give some demonstrations of jiu-jitsu self-defense with a student named Euripedes Dorneles
.

Barata also confronted Marcos Platcheck, a 75 kilo Lithuanian ex-professor of luta romana. There was no limit in number of rounds of 5
minutes each, but as before the fight didn’t last long. Within 3 minutes, the luta romana stylist had been choked out.

Back in
Porto Alegre, Barata declared that he had no fear of Dante or any other jiu-jitsu man. But he wanted the match to take place in his hometown of Alegrete, where there was already keen interest in the fight. He and Dante were both natives of Alegrete.
17