Wanderlei
Silva,
Jose "Pele"
Landi-Jons,
Eugene
Jackson,
Johil de
Oliveira,
Carlos "Carlao"
Barreto,
"The" Pedro
Otavio,
Milton
Bahia,
Nilson
"Nilsao" de Castro,
Alexandre
Barros,
Claudionor da Silva Fontinelle,
Haroldo
“Cabelinho” Bunn and Flavio Luiz Moura. With so many talents
gathered,
International Vale Tudo
Championship promoter
Sergio
Batarelli knew he could easily produce two events in one. That
would become IVC “Double Impact,” held in Maceio, Brazil, on April
28, 1999. In an era when many fight fans bought cassette tapes at
video rental stores, this permitted Batarelli to produce two and
double his profits.
IVC 10 delivered four super
fights: Silva vs. Jackson, “Carlao” vs. “The Pedro,” Bahia vs. Bunn
and Silvio Urutum vs Augusto Menezes. The
IVC 11 tape contained the
rematch between “Pele” and de Oliveira, in addition to eight fights
in the 80kg (176-pound) tournament.
Wanderlei: Two Knockouts in Nine Days
What fighter would book a fight at a regional event in his home
country, knowing that he was scheduled to make his
Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in America
in nine days? Add to that the fact that the local fight was for a
belt and it was against Jackson, who was on a streak of seven
impressive wins. The pressure on Silva was compounded by the
presence of UFC matchmaker John Perretti, who had promised
Batarelli that his champion would debut at UFC 20 in nine days—if
he won and didn't get hurt, obviously.
The high stakes had only one effect on Silva: an exponential
increase in aggression. The Curitiba native needed exactly 32
seconds to knock down and ground-and-pound the American, driving
the crowd crazy. Nine days later, Wanderlei did not disappoint
Perretti in his UFC debut, knocking out
Tony Petarra
in 2:53 of his first international fight. Four months later, Silva
would make his target="_blank">Pride Fighting Championships
debut, which would lead to the longest reign of a middleweight
(93kg) during the decade in which the Japanese promotion
existed.
“Carlao” Defeats “The Pedro”—and Almost Punches the UFC’s
Matchmaker
In one of the most awaited superfights of the night, “Carlao”
Barreto gave a real grappling lesson to the luta-livre
representative, Otavio. The Carlson Gracie black belt took Otavio
down, passed his guard, took the back and, after a barrage of
punches, forced “The Pedro” to give up at 6 minutes, 19 seconds.
The fight was so easy that Perretti told “Carlao” that the fight
had been fixed when Barreto came to greet him. “F*** you,” replied
the Brazilian, as he was restrained by Batarelli.
“Thanks to that IVC, ‘Carlao’ never set foot in the UFC again,”
Perretti told me after the episode.
“This guy should respect the vale tudo history in Brazil. I’m from
the lineage of Carlson Gracie. ‘Marmelada’ [a thrown fight] would
never be accepted by us. If he doesnt know the origin of the sport
that feeds him, he should at least respect our history,” a revolted
Barreto told me after he had cooled down.
Johil x “Pele” 2: A Fight that Started in the Airport
It was no secret that Pele’s defeat by Oliveira in the semifinal of
WVC 4, when he was disfigured by the luta-livre representative with
many headbutts in 30 minutes of combat, has not sat well with him.
What no one expected is that the two would run into one another in
the middle of the airport. That's what happened on the landing of
the flight that took the entire delegation to Maceio. Thanks to the
authoritative presence of their coaches, Rudimar Fedrigo and Joao
Ricardo, the fight ended up only taking place in the ring.
Contrary to the first confrontation, when “Pele” came from nine
minutes of war with
Jorge
Patino, in the opening of the IVC tournament he arrived much
more prepared physically and dominated the action on the feet. On
the only two occasions that the Budokan representative managed to
take the fight to the ground, Oliveira was not as effective in
headbutting as the first time. At the end of 30 minutes, the judges
declared the unanimous victory of “Pele,” who took the under-80kg
belt for the main national MMA event back to Curitiba. Nine months
after this fight, “Pele” would show the world why he was being
named No. 1 in the world under 80 kg, beating UFC champion
Pat Miletich
by technical knockout in the United States and winning the WEF
belt.
Another representative of Chute Boxe who stood out in the IVC 10
was Silvio "Urutum." Three months after being defeated by The Pedro
at IVC 9, the capoeira fighter showed why he was part of Chute
Boxe's team A by defeating the tough Sergipe Augusto "Monstro" with
punches from the mount at 8:25.
In the other superfight, striker Bahia didn't give the experienced
black belt “Cabelinho” Bunn a chance. Alexandre Paiva's student
started well, taking his opponent to the ground on two occasions,
but the slippery Bahia fell out of the ring on both occasions and
the fight had to be restarted on the feet. On the third attempt,
Bahia blocked “Cabelinho” and, after landing a hook, took him to
the ground. To beat Cabelinho's excellent guard, Bahia started
hitting his feared stomps over the guard, which he named “Tas
Bahia.” On the first attempt, Bahia tried a footlock, but later he
couldn't block the blows anymore, which ended up breaking his rib,
forcing him to give up. With this victory, Bahia became one of the
most feared fighters in the division with four wins in five fights.
His only defeat had been to the champion of the category, “Pele,”
who knocked him out in the final of IVC 5.
A Tournament Marked by the Bloodiest Fight Ever
For those who witnessed the first editions of the IVC and WVC,
marked by one-night, three-fight tournaments where anything was
allowed and the athletes didn't wear gloves, it is very difficult
to pinpoint which was the bloodiest fight ever held. Until IVC 5,
the dispute was even between the final of IVC 2 (Wanderlei and
Artur
Mariano) and the semifinal of IVC 5 (Pele vs
Jorge
Pereira), but the final fight of IVC 11 (
Nilson de
Castro vs Flavio Moura) put an end to all doubts.
The tournament began with veteran Fontinelle knocking out
Andre
Fernandes of Budokan. In the celebration, the man from Maranhao
got the crowd of 8,000 on their feet by rehearsing breakdance
steps, ending the performance with a beautiful finish. On that same
side of the bracket, Flavio Moura from Budokan beat the only
American in the tournament,
Doug Evans in
less than two minutes. After being taken to the ground by the
American wrestler, Moura managed to get up putting Evans down by
force, forcing Batarelli to interrupt the fight after applying a
sequence of punches from the guard.
In the semifinals, as Lucas and Fontenelle both broke their hands
in their matches, Batarelli was forced to pull a local fighter out
of his hat to face Flavio: kickboxer
Carlos
Lopes, who was no match for the Budokan athlete. Moura took him
down, took the back and, after a rain of elbows, applied a rear
naked choke forcing Lopes to tap in 1 minute, 57 seconds.
Mouthpiece Decides Semifinal between Chute Boxe and Ruas Vale
Tudo
Meanwhile, the other bracket began with a 20-minute battle between
two of the main striking schools in Brazil: Ruas Vale Tudo,
represented by
Alexandre
Barros, and Chute Boxe, by
Nilson de
Castro. The fight was a war with Nilson taking advantage
standing and “Baixinho” countering with takedowns. About 15 minutes
later, Castro began to show signs of fatigue. But when things
looked to be looking up for the Ruas representative, he lost his
mouth protector unintentionally. As according to the rules, he
couldn't replace it, “Baixinho” ended up losing a tooth in the
sequence, in another violent exchange of blows. From then on, the
representative of Ruas began to bleed profusely, forcing the
doctors to stop the fight at 19:31. “If the doctors didn't stop
Alexandre he would go all the way. There has to be a rematch next
time,”
Pedro Rizzo
told me as soon as “Baixinho” came down from the ring. Four months
after this historic war in his debut, Baixinho would return to the
IVC winning three fights in one night and earning the IVC 13
title.
“Nilsao” reached the semifinals against
Milton
Bahia's partner, Gilberto “Yoruba” Santos, with a deep cut on
his eyebrow. Santos took advantage of the target to increase the
cut with a hook, taking the Curitiban to the ground in the
sequence, where he managed to open another cut with an elbow. But
Castro managed to return to the fight to the feet, defining his
spot in the final by knocking Yoruba out at 4:25 with a series of
punches and a knee.
After two wars against “Baixinho” (19 minutes, 31 second) and
Santos (4 minutes, 25 seconds), “Nilsao” reached the final with two
huge cuts. Under any current athletic commission rules he wouldn’t
have been let near an event for the next six months—but at the IVC,
honor came first and the need to reinforce the Chute Boxe team as a
new powerhouse in Brazilian MMA led these fighters to go beyond all
limits.
Even though he was badly damaged, Nilsão started the final with an
advantage, knocking Flavio down and attacking him with punches from
the guard. At this time, however, his two huge cuts opened and
blood began to spurt over his opponent. By this time,
photographers, corners and everyone around the ring were already
splattered with blood. There was so much flow that it forced Moura
to close both eyes. Faced with this Dante-esque scene, the doctors
finally decided to interrupt to examine the athlete. Declaring the
end of the fight seemed obvious, right? Not on the IVC. In view of
Rudimar and Nilsao's requests, the doctors, unbelievably, decided
to authorize the continuation of the fight. After a brief exchange,
Flavio went to the clinch and took Nilsao down. With the powerful
attacks from inside the guard, Castro's cuts began to bleed
profusely and the doctors decided to stop it at 4:38.
Flavio Luiz
Moura was crowned champion of the bloodiest tournament in the
history of combat sports.