Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (23 page)

The Gracies could not rely on paper credentials and some people doubted Carlos’ story of having studied three years with Conde Koma, which was undoubtedly a fabrication.
42

Carlos in fact, rarely mentioned Conde Koma after his debut in
São Paulo in 1929. If Koma’s name came up, it was as a hero, rather than personal teacher. By 1932, apparently, the Gracies (or Carlos) were claiming to have introduced jiu-jitsu to Brazil. The claims were refuted by Jose Brigado among others. Brigado mentioned that it was widely assumed that Carlos learned jiu-jitsu from Donato Pires, who in other articles was referred to as the Gracie’s jiu-jitsu teacher.
43

Since the Gracies lacked credentials, they had to get their point across with fights and marketing. Carlos was in charge of marketing. Oswaldo, Helio, and especially George did the fighting. There were two problems with fighting. One is that you need opponents. The other is that you might lose. One solution is to pick your opponents carefully. Another is to agree to co-operate. Another is to interpret the outcome of a lost fight in such a way that it seemed to be a victory of some sort.

There was still one more problem, which became acutely evident in 1934, when the American catch wrestlers led by Wladek Zbyzsko arrived in Rio. “Real” fights could be boring. A defensive fight in which a small man survives against a big man may be a good demonstration of the merits of jiu-jitsu, but it tends to displease fans, who want action and decisive victories.

These were problems that every professional faced and the Gracies faced them. They attempted to solve them using the standard techniques of professional fighting. But they also had self-inflicted problems that most fighters didn’t have.

Among the jiu-jitsu fighters Jose Brigado mentioned in his article refuting the Gracie’s claim to be the originator of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Mineyoshi Fukushima was exceptional. He was “a Japanese who preferred capoeiragem to jiu-jitsu!” [
Um japonez que preferiu a capoeiragem ao jiu-jitsu!
]. According to Mineyoshi Fukushima, capoeiragem was more attractive and effective than the traditional Japanese fight [“
mais seductora e mais efficaz que a tradicional luta nipponica
”]. He knew jiu-jitsu but chose to back his grappling up with the “national game” which he studied with Sinhôzinho.
44

Agenor Moreira Sampaio Sinhôz
inho was a self-taught capoeiragem instructor but had a back-ground in every combat sport and most sports in general. He appreciated the virtues of jiu-jitsu but believed that there were few skilled practitioners in Brazil. Sinhôzino commented that only Omori and the Gracies know how to use the “
thesoura”
effectively [“
com excepção dos Gracie e de Omori, ninguem sabe applicar com efficiencia uma tesoura
”]. Accompanying his comment was a photograph of catch wrestler Jim McMillan applying a head scissor [
tesoura a cabeç
a] on Ray Steele, who was trying to bridge out, at Madison Square Garden in New York. According to Sinhôzino, the
tesoura
is part of the
jogo de pés e de pernas
[game of feet and legs], and if executed with some skill, can render a man semi-conscious.
45

Sinhôzinho was promptly refuted by Salamiel de Oliveira, a luta livre teacher and student of Manoel Rufino dos
Santos. Luta livre fighters know the
tesoura
, Salamiel said, but they use it differently. Jiu-Jitsu fighters use their legs for defense, while luta livre fighters use them for offense. Irrelevantly, Salamiel pointed out that Rufino’s student Jose Alvaro da Cunha (65.5 kilos) beat Sinhôzinho’s student Vico Tadey.
46

Sinhôzinho replied again, mentioning that Akitaro Ono won many matches with a strong
tesoura
[“
com a applicação da formidavel tesoura
”]. It was not clear what his point was but it was evident that people were not unaware that the legs can be used for both defense and offense.
47

Fukushima
fought successfully several times and then faded away. Perhaps he had better things to do or perhaps the catch wrestling boom left smaller, less entertainment-oriented fighters out in the cold. He wasn’t the only one. Many fighters had to chose between fighting “combinations” and not fighting at all. Most had no choice and some probably found pretending to fight a less painful way of earning a dollar.

Controversy

As some cynics might have guessed, the controversial March 12 disqualification loss for Ruhmann at the hands of Geo Omori led to a prompt rematch. It was held on April 18 at Theatro Republica in Rio. This time, in was expected to be an extremely violent fight. The loser would go home empty handed.

History repeated itself. Ruhmann again lost by disqualification. Again Ruhmann disputed the result, insisting that he had defeated Omori according to jiu-jitsu rules (referring to Hancock’s book cited above) by pinning him for almost 20 seconds. He would have one more chance later that year to settle scores with Omori. He was so confident that he offered to fight Omori and Carlos Gracie both on same night.
48

Dudú,

Orlando Americo da Silva, the new Du
d
ú
,
arrived from São Paulo to Rio to challenge the Gracies, with or without kimono, Roberto Ruhmann under any conditions, and Manoel Fernandes or Geo Omori in either jiu-jitsu or luta livre. And anyone else who could draw a paying audience.

Dudú had more than 80 fights in luta livre and jiu-jitsu
, he claimed. In addition to his 2 hour draw [
empate
] with Geo Omori, he defeated Ismail Maky [sic, Haki] in jiu-jitsu in 10 minutes, M. Gotto in 16 minutes, and Arthur Riquetto in 7 minutes, and in luta livre he defeated William Toupsou and Theodurio Antonelli, both within 3 minutes, and Archimedes Rogerio in 2 minutes.
49
Unlike most challengers, Dudú was looking for more than 15 minutes of fame. He would be a fixture on the professional fight scene in Rio. He was an impressive presence in the ring, defeating jiu-jitsu super star Geo Omori and drawing with George Gracie, both in 1934. He allegedly broke Oswaldo Gracie’s leg in a rough sparring session.

Du
dú
never ducked the behemoths. But his toughest challenge came when he climbed into the ring with a skinny kid in 1935.

In the News

Roberto Ruhmann was in the news again, with a large double biceps pose picture in the eye-catching center of the page. He was responding to some critical remarks made by Helio Gracie. Ruhmann basically dismissed Helio however and focused his ire on Geo Omori and Carlos Gracie. He promised to beat both on the same night, jiu-jitsu versus catch-as-catch-can, providing that he could use all of the techniques permitted in his “modality” [“
Lutarei com elles, e mais o Helio, na mesma noite, jiu-jitsu x catch-as-catch-can, isto é, valendo-me das cabaçadas, soccos e tudo que permitte esta modalidade de luta
”].

He offered to fight Helio too, just for the heck of it. He had unkind words about Omori. Referring to their previous fight, he said Omori cried every time Ruhmann touched him [
“
chorava quando eu o tocava dizendo para o juiz: ve, sr. juize “o sr. juiz meu boca, meu dedo
”]. Ruhmann mocked Omori for “forgetting” that he had lost by “KO” to Ruhmann in São Paulo.
50
Ruhmann had grabbed Omori in a “
gravata
” (the headlock that was Ruhmann’s trademark move) and then twisted his arm [“
peguei-ihe justo uma gravata e torci lhe o braço
”]. If Omori and Carlos declined his challenge, it could only be for one reason: They were afraid of him.
51
Carlos and Helio never did fight Ruhmann. George and Omori did however.

Jiu-Jitsu
versus Capoeiragem

Oswaldo had been teaching several dozen young people at the Theatro Capitolio in
Petropolis, operated by Empresa Roldão Barbosa, since February of 1932. He had earned some name recognition in November 1931, and took advantage of that now. It helped that his opponent on November 19, João Baldi, was well-known. Oswaldo was described as the same man who defeated the powerful Baldi in a spectacular fashion” [
mesmo homem que derrotou, de modo espectaculo, o fortissimo João Baldi
]. He and his brothers were dedicated body and soul and [
corpo e alma
] to the dissemination of the Japanese method of personal defense.
52

By April he had found a more permanent location for his lessons, at
avenida 15 Novembro, no. 856. He named his school “Academia Petropolitana de Jiu-Jitsu.” The school had been open about two months where he had been teaching the children of Petropolis’s elite [
moços da élite petropolitana
]. The school referred not to the physical location but to Oswaldo himself. In general, an academy referred to any place where a teacher taught (or offered to). Whether he had qualifications or students was a different matter.
53

There were not many ways a martial arts school could get free advert
ising in the 1930’s. Demonstrations and fights essentially exhausted the possibilities. Demonstrations had the benefit of being planned so that they could be maximally impressive. Real fights had a different advantage. People were sometimes willing to pay to see them. If the opponent could be judiciously chosen, it was a no-lose deal.

In April it was announced that Oswaldo would face capoeira Octavio Alves “Dentinho de Catumby”, May 3 at Theatro Capitolio in
Petropolis. The program of mixed fights [
competições mixtos
] would also include a capoeiragem match between Velludinho and Corisco (four 3-minute rounds), a luta livre match between Jose Soares and Jayme Ferreira (eight 3-minute rounds) and some demonstrations by students of the academy.
54

Adepts of the national game did not regard Dentinho as worthy to represent them. José Brigado emphasized that point by describing Dentinho as a “’capoeira’ (?)” in quotation marks, foll
owed by a question mark. He also quoted a previous letter by Manoel Rufino dos Santos complaining the the Gracie brothers were doing everything in their power to demoralize capoeiragem by setting up these sham contests. Luta livre people resented the Gracies’ campaign to eliminate the “shoulder pinning” rule in luta livre fights. That was a legitimate way to win in luta livre. Why should they give it up, they asked? Are the jiu-jitsu representatives giving up their best techniques, they rhetorically asked? The Gracie brothers simply wanted to stack the deck in their own favor by banning or ignoring everything that their opponents were better at doing, they alleged.
55

On the other side, one could argue that when the rules are open to negotiation, the fight actually starts when the rules are negotiated. Carlos had few peers at that aspect of the game.

As the doubters had suspected, Dentinho did not put up a good fight. According to
A Noite
, Dentinho quickly showed that he didn’t have the elements to resist jiu-jitsu.

Oswaldo and Dentinho went to the ground early in the first round. Dentinho was saved by the bell. In the second round, professor Oswaldo Gracie applied an armlock that Dentinho couldn’t resist. He succumbed, clearly defeated.
“The fans were not satisfied with Dentinho’s performance as he showed little capoeiragem capability”.
56

However spectators enjoyed the demonstration of jiu-jitsu by students Roger Gouvéa, Roldão Barbosa Junior, O. Finkennauer, Sr. Gusmão, and a 6 year old child, as well as the two preliminary fights in which Velludinho defeated Corsico by points, and Jayme Ferreira defeated Soares in the 2
nd
round.

Fighters came out of retirement to challenge Omori, the Gracies, and others, and perhaps just hit the spotlight one more time. Salim Yossouf came to
Rio in 1915 as part of a troupe of luta romana wrestlers. He had been away from the ring for five years. Now, in 1932, he wanted another go at it, and he didn’t want to start back at the bottom. Instead he challenged the best jiu-jitsu fighter in Brazil [
o expoente maximo do jiu-jitsu no Brasil
], Geo Omori, in a luta livre or jiu-jitsu match.
57

Youssuf was from
Syria and had been in Brazil 20 years. He was married and lived in Teresopolis, where he had a successful business. He wasn’t fighting for money, he said, he was simply complying with the requests of friends and fellow Syrians who wanted to see him in action again. He invited anyone who wanted to fight him to visit his home on rua Particular n. 82, Varzea de Therozopolis.
58
Unlike so many others, Youssouf’s challenge was not just hot air.

The Better Man

Roberto Ruhmann and Dudú had both fought Geo Omori. Now they would fight each other. Omori predicted that Dudú would win before the fifth round. Manoel Rufino predicted that the better man would win [“
Ao melhor ha de vencer
”] and thought that Ruhmann would be the better man.
59

Their confrontation took place
Saturday June 11, 1932. Ruhmann’s strength proved to be too much for Dudú’s luta livre and jiu-jitsu technique. Dudú desisted in the fourth round. Also on the show were other luta livre and capoeiragem matches, and Annibal Prior knocked out Bruno Spalla in a boxing match.
60