Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (48 page)

Some observers felt that Yano and Pereira put on an entertaining show, drawing after four “lively” rounds.
22
Others were less impressed, calling the fight as “a feeble display by both fighters” [“
exhibição fraca de ambos os contendores
”].
23

El Campeón was ambivalent. The Yano versus
Pereira match was more an exhibition that a fight, due to Yano’s overwhelming superiority. The only reason Yano didn’t finish Pereira was that he didn’t want to [
O japonez demonstrado manifesta superioridade technica e se não venceu foi porque não quiz
]. However, he thought that Pereira had great potential to one day become a good fighter [
Alias o joven lutador brasileiro possue predicados excepionaes para, algum dia , chegar a ser um valor positivo do nosso sport
].

George Gracie versus Fritz Weber was something of a joke, El Campeón felt. Weber wore a kimono so oversized that it looked like a straight
jacket [
Camisa de força
]. Weber was even more clueless in jiu-jitsu than he was in catch and luta livre and was finally done in by his own exhaustion [
atrapalhando-se com o seu propio cascação
].

El Campeón thought that Weber weighed 126 kilos. He might have. Under the circumstances, the extra weight probably hurt rather than helped, if it mattered at all. George played with Weber [
brincou com os 126 kilos de seu adversario
] for two rounds before deciding to finish him in the third with an efficient and fatal armlock.

Jack Russell
and Sarquiz Budip did not escape El Campeón’s scorn. The only reason their clown show [
palhaçada
] was not more successful was that Budip had not yet perfected the art of acting [
ainda não ser um artista perfeito
]. The performance featured some take-downs [
quedas
], nothing more [
apenas isso, nada mais
].

Unlike some writers who dwelled at length on the catch results, El Campeón had little to say. It seemed almost beneath him, as a serious fight reporter, with his own column and byline, to dignify such shenanigans with straight-faced commentary.
24

Catch matches could usually be relied on to offer some thrills, reasonably, as one opponent did nothing to prevent the other from attempting spectacular moves, and indeed would help him to do it. The problem was that the performers were too often inept.

Kodokan Judo versus American Catch

After the George Gracie versus Fritz Weber and Takeo Yano versus Carlos Pereira fights, Brasil Box prepared another night of thrills. It was a grand spectacular of “jiu-jitsu”
. Yassuiti Ono and George Gracie took on Jack Russell and the Sarquiz Budip. Neither Russell nor Budip had ever demonstrated any knowledge of jiu-jitsu, but that didn’t matter. Wearing a kimono made it a jiu-jitsu match.

The first preliminary fight would be between two genuine jiu-jitsu representatives, Oninho
(Naoiti Ono) and Carlos Pereira.

The event took place Saturday April 27, at Estadio Brasil. All three fights were six rounds of 10 minutes.
25

The main event was Yassuiti Ono versus the “King of Fouls” [
Rei dos Fouls
], the gigantic Jack Russell. Russell promised to beat Ono before the second round. Ono guaranteed that it wouldn’t happen, for the very logical reason that Russell was going to lose [
Ono garante que tal
nã
o aconteceir, pois o vencido se
rá
, forcosamente, o ‘gigante
’]. The Japanese jiu-jitsu men were out-gunned in the hyperbole wars. As Geo Omori had said, they preferred to do their fighting in the ring. In consequence they needed people like Jack Russell and his fellow “artists.” Their fighting skills were dubious but they knew how to build up a fight.

Oninho previously choked out Manoel Grillo (December 25, 1937). The victory was significant because, not only was Grillo vastly bigger, he was also (supposedly) the jiu-jitsu champion of
Portugal. He had (allegedly) studied with and then defeated the legendary Raku. He also (ostensibly) beat Taro Miyake. He wasn’t an ordinary catcher, at least not if the newspaper accounts were reliable. Oninho had proven his valor by beating a much larger and apparently equally skilled jiu-jitsu fighter. But then, Grillo was old and the quality of his opposition was suspect (Raku and Taro Miyake were also old when they confronted Grillo). Oninho in contrast was anything but an unknown quantity. His fights had been recent and in plain view. Most fans had probably seen at least some of them. And no one could question the quality of the instruction he had received. His teacher was his brother. There was no one better in Brazil in 1940 than Yassuiti Ono.

Like Manoel Grillo, Carlos Pereira was from
Portugal. He wanted to avenge the insult to their national honor. Oninho wanted to prove that his victory over Grillo wasn’t a fluke. Pereira, from the Gracie Academy, planned to fight with his head [
pra cabeça
], or in the Rio slang, “spiritually” [
espirituosamente
]. His objective was to stamp a clear defeat on Oninho’s record.
26

George Gracie was uncharacteristically quiet. Budip had little to say. The newspapers were generally silent. According to one, George Gracie was well enough known that nothing needed to be said, while Budip also was well enough known not to need introduction [
não cansaremos o leitor com
‘
biografias
’]. It was enough to say that it would be one of the most electrifying combats of the evening [
será um dos combates mais eletrizantes da noite de amanhã
].

The Ono brothers were training at their academy in
São Paulo on avendia Celso Garcia.
27

Oninho’s and Pereira’s weights were not reported but
Pereira weighed 76 kilos two weeks earlier, and Oninho generally weighed 56 kilos, give or take a kilo. Pereira’s 20 kilo weight edge was not enough to overcome Oninho’s skill and speed. According to
Diario Carioca
, it was only due to his weight advantage and the fact that Oninho hadn’t prepared well for the fight [
falta de treino
] that Pereira was able to avoid defeat.
28

Reporters were not favorably impressed with
Pereira, saying that he had evidenced a complete lack of knowledge of jiu-jitsu. But at least, unlike Russell and Budip, he was a genuine fighter. His lackluster performance was due to the fact that he had only been learning jiu-jitsu a short time.
29

It was a weak exhibition that ended in a draw.
30

George Gracie versus Budip did not prove to be as electrifying as some had anticipated. George weighed 70 kilos to Budip’s 108 kilos. Not surprisingly, Budip displayed rudimentary jiu-jitsu skills [
conhecimentos rudimentares
]. However, George did not allow him to turn the match into a farce. With no other option, Budip made a real effort to defeat George, using brute force [
bruta força
] and some catch techniques. But to no avail. The “Blond Cat”
31
George Gracie, won in the first round by a armlock.
32

Yassuiti Ono, weighing 68 kilos, and Jack Russell, at 118 kilos, put on a lively show. Russell, the “
clown americano
” however did not demonstrate that he had any business wearing a kimono in a ring with Yassuiti Ono. Ono finished him with an armlock in the third round.
33

The fights probably entertained the fans. At least Brasil Box and other promotional companies must have thought so. The rest of the decade was dominated by fights exactly like them, if not indeed, even more clownish. Fight analysts however, did not like them, understandably. They were viewing them as sports, not as theater. As sports, they failed to measure up. All three fights were described as “tedious and uninteresting“.
34

Another paper despaired that world of ring sports was falling apart, asking “From where will come the new leader of our ring sports? [“
vamos dar nova orientação aos nossos sports de ring
?”], and blaming the sad state of current affairs squarely on Brasil Box’s director Renato Gardini. Gardini was making a grave mistake in allowing clowns like Jack Russell to participate in fights, if they could be called “fights”. It was an insult to genuine fighters, like the inestimable Yassuiti Ono. The solution,
Diario Carioca
believed, was to have Jack Russell and others of his own “modality” “fight” each other. The few honest fighters still remaining should not participate in the sham fights.
35

But as usual, the promoters were listening to the sounds of the cash registers.

The Sound of Money

The Brasil Box troupe of fighters moved to
São Paulo to open the “season” on Saturday May 11. The gymnasium of Associação Athletica São Paulo was chosen as the venue. Various delays were encountered. The featured fight was George Gracie versus Oninho. Sarkissi Budip was selected as Jack Russell’s opponent. Director Renato Gardini decided to substitute Yassuiti Ono for Budip. There would also be two matches of “Luta Greco Romana,” in which Hungarian ex-olympic champion Paulo Stern would participate. The opening day was postponed to May 18
and then again to on Saturday, May 25.
36

By that time, the Temporada Internacional de Lutas had already been underway since May 18, when Charles Ulsemer of
France defeated Spanish Andres Castanho at Estadio do Pacaembu, in a somewhat unsatisfactory way. Ulsemer’s victory was not the fruit of his superior knowledge of luta livre, observers complained, but rather the inadequate technical knowledge of referee Righetto (probably Arthur Riquetto, the jiu-jitsu man). Ulsemer’s next fight was scheduled for Saturday May 25, a six 10-minutes round contest against the Brazilian Martino Jose Dyonisio. There would also be five boxing matches.
37

The Ono brothers were
still training at their academy on avenida Celso Garcia. George was training at Academia Delauney on avenida Brigadeiro Luis Antonio. Russell was training with the Stern brothers at C. A. Iparanga.

The day before the fights, the match-ups were revised again. Now it was George Gracie versus Yassuiti Ono (replacing his brother) in a
luta livre match of six 10-minute rounds. The original match-up of Santiago (Sarkissi, Sarquiz) Budip versus Jack Russell was back on and had been upgraded to the main event. Also on the card were Jose Gonçalves versus Antonio Cadete in a three round (of 2 minutes, with 3 ounce gloves) amateur boxing match, and a luta livre match between Maximino Bento and Luis Kian, (three 5-minute rounds). Reserve fighters were Fritz Weber, Takeo Yano, and Oninho.
38

There obviously had been complications in getting the season off the ground
. It finally began on fight night Saturday May 25. But not without controversy.

Yassuiti Ono left the facility without explanation. So did his brother Oninho, who had been a reserve fighter [
os irmãos Ono…inexplicavelemnte deixaram de comparecer ao local da Ponte Grande para lutar com Gracie
]. Even more mysteriously, Takeo Yano, who had been a reserve fighter, also did not enter the ring to face George Gracie. The incident has never been explained but had all of the markings of a contract dispute.

A fighter (or individual) named Jung Meri was hastily recruited to fill in for Yassuiti Ono, his brother, and Takeo Yano. Fritz Weber was also a reserve fighter but it is safe to assume that he was not asked to fill in.

George was declared the winner over Yassuiti Ono by “walk-over”. He then fought Jung Meri, defeating him by armlock in the second round. In this way, George notched two victories in one night. Ono lost without fighting.

In the other fights, Budip beat Russell by armlock in round 3. Maximo Bento and Luis Kian (whose name was also written Kiain) drew. Kian was described as “Japanese”
. The referee was Jose Kian. Gonçalves defeated Antonio Cadete by points.
39

George immediately challenged Budip saying that by beating Russell he proved that he was he was good fighter. George also believed that Budip would not try to avoid his challenge. He added that he hoped Budip would not imitate the Ono brothers who demonstrated their fear of him and also at the same time left a poor impression of their sportsmanship.
40

Budip lost no time accepting the challenge. But he wanted five-thousand
milreis
[
cinco contos
, or 5,000$] to fight George.
41

Jiu-Jitsu Denied

The fight was set up for June 8. George would face Budip (sometimes described as “
gigantesco lutador arabe
”). Angelo Orlando, from Italy, and Charles Ulsemer would face off. Takeo Yano had been scheduled to confront Jack Russell again, but didn’t feel that he was sufficiently recovered from his recent fights in Bello Horizonte.
42
Dionysio, the Ebony Adonis [
O Adonis de ébano
] substituted for Yano
.43