Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (18 page)

Mosquito versus Mastodon

After many delays and postponements, the evening of fights and demonstrations took place, beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday November 19, 1931 at Theatro Republica in Rio.

In addition to Oswaldo versus Baldi, George Gracie would meet family friend and business partner Jayme Ferreira. Capoeira Andre Jansen would engage in a five-round capoeiragem contest
against Bahiano.in what was anticipated as the most spectacular fight of the evening. Caio Mendo
nç
a and Zeca would perform a demonstration of capoeiragem. There would also be a demonstration of
acrobatas olympicos
by “Les Grecs”.
84

The event was marketed as jiu-jitsu versus capoeiragem.
Luta romana stylist Jayme Ferreira represented capoeiragem, despite having few or no qualifications.
A Noite
published three photographs of Ferreira in a demonstration of capoeireagem. One simply showed him flexing his muscles (he seemed to be in very good shape for a middle aged man). Another showed him doing a handstand, and the last showed him in a
rasteira
(crouching position). According to the accompaning article, Jayme would use a mixture of luta livre and capoeiragem.
85

The main event was Oswaldo versus J
oã
o Baldi. “How long can Oswaldo Gracie hold out againstJ
oã
o Baldi?” the headline in
Diario de Noticias
asked.
86
Whether he weighed 138 or 120 kilos, or in between, Baldi was still considerably heavier than Oswaldo at 62 kilos (even if he understated his weight, as most jiu-jitsu proponents tended to do). Writers called Oswaldo a “mosquito” and Baldi a “mastodon”.
87

Baldi was also more than 20 years older, and
probably not in top athletic condition, even though he continued to compete (if that is the right word), in professional luta romana.
88
He may have retained much of his extraordinary strength and he may have had some knowledge of luta livre, and he may have already resisted chokes [
collar de fo
rç
a
] attempted by men much larger than Oswaldo. He didn’t mention that he had been choked out by Antonelli in August. Despite his strength, he was shaped like a pear. Scrambling on the ground could not have been his ace in the hole.

Nonetheless, as
Diario de Noticias
pointed out, luta livre is a sport that is always full of surprises [
comoo spor
t
é sempre cheio de supresas
]. Anything could happen and sometimes did. Baldi was confident.
Diario de Noticias
predicted that Oswaldo would need to draw on all his reserves of strength and technique to avoid a devestating loss [
para evitar um re
vé
s fulminante
].
89

After squashing
Oswaldo, Baldi wanted to fight Carlos, Helio, and George, and after that Benedicto Perez. After dispensing with this small and bothersome swarm of mosquito-like jiu-jitsu representatives, he wanted revenge against a serious adversary, a big man, his nemesis Romulo Antonelli.
90

Baldi
originally said that he would only fight in shoes and without kimono. He was finally pressured into wearing a heavily reinforced kimono. The public protested and demanded that he take it off. But he wore the kimono. Neutral observers had no doubt that it worked greatly to his disadvantage.
91

The fight was scheduled for eight rounds. Baldi didn
’t make it past the first. Oswaldo, in no apparent awe of Baldi’s great bulk, made several feints before attacking Baldi’s foundation. Somehow he was able to apply a choke [
golpe de estrangul
a
ç
ã
o
]. Baldi struggled and then fell heavily outside the limits of the ring. Baldi got up and tried to take off his kimono. After a period of confusion they restarted and Baldi wrestled Oswaldo to the ground
.
They started again and Oswaldo took Baldi down again. This time Oswaldo finished him off with a choke [
chave de pesc
oç
o
], “confirming the efficiency of the powerful Japanese method of defense”.
92

Diario
da Noite
reported that Oswaldo initiated with a choke. Baldi fell out of the ring, taking Oswaldo with him; Baldi was injured in the fall [
ficou em
má
o estado
] but was helped back in. Baldi then tried to choke Oswaldo (with a
golpe ao pesc
oç
o
), but Oswaldo managed to free himself and applied a counter throat-lock [
chave na garganta
]. Baldi gave the signal of defeat early in the first round.
93

A Noite
reported that the disproportion between the fighters’sizes was
chocante
[shocking]. Oswaldo was a
mignon
[half-pint], Baldi was
mastodontico
[like a mastodon]. They looked like David and Goliath. After several feints [
fintas
] Oswaldo managed to apply a
golpe de estrangul
a
ç
ã
o
. Baldi, confidant about the muscles in his bull-like neck, tried to resist. Baldi fell heavily out of the ring [
caiu pesadamente
fó
ra a dos limites do ring
]. It was the beginning of the end. Led back to the center of the ring, the luta romana champion complained loudly about the kimono. Oswaldo hadn’t released his choke. Baldi finally managed to free himself. The fight re-started. Seconds later Baldi fell again to the canvas, victim of Oswaldo’s powerful
chave de pesc
oç
o
[choke].
94

Although
highly confident publically, Baldi had some misgivings about the kimono and complained about it. He wasn’t a jiu-fighter and the fight was luta livre, so why should he have to wear a jiu-jitsu costume, he asked? Oswaldo retorted that the kimono compensated for Baldi’s enormous weight advantage. Baldi ended up wearing a kimono, and as he had feared, it was partly responsible for his loss. The kimono unquestionably made it easier for the jiu-jitsu men to apply their techniques, to Baldi’s disadvantage,
Diario da Noite
commented, and recommended that in the future the jiu-jitsu people should let their opponents wear what they prefer, to more convincingly demonstrate the efficiency of their art.
95

Treason

Carlos Gracie declared that to fight without a kimono would be treason to the sport of Japan. But Geo Omori, who was Japanese, didn’t think so. He was ready to fight anyone, with or without a kimono.

Omori
’s reasons weren’t philosophical. He wanted to work. There were simply too few jiu-jitsu fighters around to fight. If he wanted to fight regularly, he had to face luta livre opponents, and almost always that meant without a kimono. In time, George Gracie came to the same conclusion, for the same reason. In addition, fans preferred no-kimono contests because they tended to be more action-packed. But that was all hypothetical. On Thursday November 19, 1931, Baldi wore a kimono. He got choked and lost.

Jayme Ferreira couldn
’t blame his loss on his kimono. He didn‘t wear one. It didn’t matter. George took Ferreira immediately to the
tapete
[ground] and applied a choke [
chave de estrangulomento
]
.
Ferreira resisted but not for long. Feeling that he was about to be asphyxiated, he signaled defeat.
96

Although the fight didn
’t go past the first round, it left a magnificent impression [
deixou elle magnifica impres
sã
o
]. In general, unlike Oswaldo’s previous fight, the entire program was a success. Andre Jansen defeated Bahiano, a bit less impressively than he did Ma
né
the month before, but enough to earn the decision. Caio and Walter, who like Jansen, were students of Sin
hô
zinho, gave a seven-round demonstration of capeoiragem that was warmly received. The public also enjoyed the Olympic acrobats.

The referee for Oswaldo Gracie versus J
oã
o Baldi fight was Mario Aleixo, assisted by Hugo Italo, both selected by representatives of the press. Aleixo was a professor of capoeiragem and had his own appointment with George Gracie just two weeks in the future. He was sure that a real capoeira would have little trouble defeating jiu-jitsu.

That is about what
Ferreira said before the capoeirgem versus jiu-jitsu show in July. But even Carlos Gracie stopped short of claiming that Ferreira was a competent capoeira or qualified teacher of the art. The most Carlos was willing to say was that Ferreira was a “professional luta romana man who is said to know capoeiragem”.
97

Mario Aleixo, on the contrary, was hghly respected. Moreover he wasn
’t an ordinary capoeira. He was also a master of the Japanese game. In fact, he had been teaching jiu-jitsu since 1913, before the Gracies came to town, and even before Carlos allegedly met Conde Koma.
98
Aleixo felt secure that the Gracie brother wouldn’t spring any technical suprises on him.

Aleixo did not approve of Jayme Ferreira
pretending to represent capoeiragem. It made the national game look bad. Capoeiragem and luta livre people had no illusions about what Carlos Gracie was trying to do, which was to elevate the status of his product at the expense of theirs. The problem was that he recruited patently unqualified people to represent rival styles so that he (or rather his brothers) could impressively defeat them. The ill-will this created was tempered by the fact they he was creating interest in public fights that other styles could get paid to participate in, and providing newspaper editors with free content. As a consequence, opinions about Carlos Gracie ranged from love to hate, with ambivalence in between. No sports fan could be indifferent to Carlos Gracie. He was like a bad penny. He just wouldn’t go away.

When Ferreira was tapped for the role of
Mario Aleixo’s substitute, veteran capoeira Reynaldo complained that Jayme Ferreira “knows nothing about capoeiragem” and he would “only demoralize those who genuinely practice it”.
99

Before the Oswaldo versus Baldi fight rumors had circulated that the fight had been
“fixed” to let Baldi win. Carlos Gracie assured the fans that there was absolutely no foundation to the rumors. The fans were not entirely convinced and remained on high alert ready to raise hell if they were displeased with the fight.
100
After the fight, the public was still not convinced that there hadn’t been some sort of funny business. Baldi lost suspiciously easily, they thought.
101

The Grand Equation

Fixed fights were not rare in Brazil but it was unusual for genuinely fixed fights to attract attention (although it did happen). Rather, rumors were part of what Tex Rickard called the Grand Equation: Rumors = Interest, and Interest = Money.
102
Jack Dempsey was news in Rio, and few articles about Demspey did not mention Tex Rickard, his methods, and the sums involved in his promotions. Carlos read about Jack Demspey and therefore he read about Tex Rickard.
103

Rickard
’s stratagem of planting a rumor about a possible “fix” and then firmly and indignantly denying it was a technique that Carlos Gracie used on more than one occasion. Not only Carlos, of course, all promoters big and small who wanted to sell tickets. It was too easy and too effective not to use.

If you were in the fight game, you could not do better than study and emulate Tex Rickard. With five
“million dollar gates” in seven years (1921-1927), at a time when a million dollars was still worth something, Tex Rickard could not have failed to inspire people like Carlos Gracie. Whether Carlos was aware of it or not, Rickard was the man who pioneered and fine-tuned the promotional techniques that made boxing a big business. Carlos had vaguely similar aspirations for his jiu-jitsu.

The Flavor of Defeat

On Wednesday November 25, 1931 Geo Omori was in Rio again looking for fights. Accompanied by Carlos Gracie, Omori explained to
Diario de Noticias
that he lived in
Sã
o Paulo and had fought many times in the United States and had “never tasted the flavor of defeat” [
“sem vencido a
t
é hoje,
nã
o conh
eç
o o dissabor de uma derrota
”].

Carlos
had visited the day before as well and insisted that the kimono is part of jiu-jitsu just like gloves are part of boxing, neither more nor less” [“
O kimono faz parte integrante do jiu-jitsu, como as luvas fazem parte integrante do box. Nem mais nem menos
”].