Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (44 page)

The first of George Gracie’s three matches with Russell between August 2 and November 9 was a luta livre contest at Estadio Brasil, Tuesday August 2 consisting of two 20
-minute rounds (with a 2-minute break). Pins and chokes were permitted and thus each man could use the ultimate weapon in the arsenal of his respective art.
39

Chokes were permitted in catch.
40
But catch wrestlers did not wear kimonos in their regulation matches. The kimono added a different dimension to the choke game however. The no-gi wrestlers used it as a bargaining chip. In any “mixed styles” fight, rules had to be negotiated, especially when, as was invariably the case, there were large weight disparities. One side could bargain chokes for pins, weight for kimono, and so on. While such case-by-case rule modifications could be confusing, they added novelty and permitted more matches to be presented, as the Jack Russell versus George Gracie series illustrated.

George was not worried about Russell’s brute force. Technique is capable of overcoming bruth force, he explained, and promised to demonstrate that to the fans. Russell had less to say. He simply affirmed that he would win [“
vencerá
”]. Perhaps he was counting on his 30 kilo weight advantage to get the job done.
41

Russell was known as a “
palhaço
” not because his fights were fake (which isn’t to say that they weren’t), but because, like American ex-heavyweight champion Max Baer (who was described as the clown prince of boxing), he enjoyed entertaining the fans. Both Russell and Baer offered comedy in addition to violence. But on the night of the fight, there would be no clowning, only violence. Jack Russell would be fighting for real. At least, that’s what one newspaper thought.
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Russell thought George was deluded [“
eu convencido que George Gracie é un bobo
”]. The cowboy Yankee described George as an ant [
formiguinha
] and promised to crush him [
Jack Russell promette esmigalhar George Gracie
]. It wasn’t personal, he said. An elephant doesn’t go out of his way to crush an ant, but if the ant gets in the way, it will get stepped on.

George rejected Russll’s promise, saying with an ironic smile [
com um sorriso ironico
] that he would not be crumbled [
estraçalhar
] and that he would keep the fight on stand-up until the end of the final round, until Russell tasted the bitterness of defeat.
43

Joe Campbell, who George would meet soon, was also on the card, facing the Hungarian Ede Ebner.
Campbell was thought to be more technical, but anything is possible in catch wrestling, the paper observed.
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Despite the disproportion in their sizes, the fight started actively [
iniciado com movimentação
].

After several minutes, the spectators felt like they were watching an exhibition. George went for two chokes, but Russell freed himself dexterously [
livrou-se bem
]. At the start of the second round, George again went for a choke, Russell again extricated himself, but this time, he threw George to the floor, fell on him and held him down.

George was unable to keep his promise. He succumbed to a pin after 23 minutes.
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Diario Carioca
was not impressed with George’s performance. He was a toy in Russell’s hands [
George Gracie foi um brinquedo nas mãos de Jack Russell
]. Russell played with George in a fatherly fashion [
paternalmente
], letting the “red cat” [
gato ruivo
] think that he had a chance to apply one of his “scientific” techniques. But the fans knew that Russell, with one swipe of his powerful arms, could send George to a cold hard slab in the city morgue [
marmore frio da mesa de um necroterio
]. At 5 minutes into the second round, Russell, irritated more than intimidated by one of George’s pathetic choke attempts, lifted him up and slammed him to the floor, and with his 103 kilos, pinned the tiny body [
corpo minisculo
] of George Gracie to the floor. Russell calmly waited while the referee counted the regulation three seconds. The referee could have kept on counting. George couldn’t move.
46

Some writers seemed to think that the match was more like a comedy routine than a genuine fight. Columnist Jota Efege made fun of the match, deliberately exaggerating the weight difference. George, he said, weighed 42 kilos, Russell weighed 274 kilos. He described one of George’s chokes as a “
gravata borboleta
” [butterfly headlock]. The fight, he said, playing on George’s nickname “
gato ruivo
”, was more like a matador killing a mouse [
rato
] than a red cat.
47

The August 2 encounter had been catch
-as-catch-can match, with chokes. Catch is a sport in which weight is a very important factor, George explained. But as everyone knows (he continued) jiu-jitsu is the Japanese sport that was created to compensate for differences in size. He promised to enter the ring with his customary bravery and seek out and exploit the smallest mistake that Russell might make and hand him an unquestionable defeat. The paper sided with their compatriot. Russell would not be able to resist the jiu-jitsu knowledge of George Gracie,
A Batalha
predicted.
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The Federation was not sure Russell could handle a jiu-jitsu match. They required him to undergo a
prova de sufficiencia
. He breezed through it, choking his opponent out in two minutes with mathematical precision, leaving no doubts about his knowledge of jiu-jitsu, according to Federation director-technico Maurity de Freitas.

In the first match he had played with George, Russell said. He would not be so friendly next time, he ominously warned. Russell promised that even with a kimono, George would not last 10 minutes [“
Gracie será ‘liquidado’ em dez minutos…com kimono eu esmagar elle em dez minutos
”].
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The rematch took place at Estadio Brasil and was four rounds of 10
minutes each. It was a jiu-jitsu match and both men would wear kimonos. George weighed 68.5 kilos, Russell was 105.33 kilos.

Russell’s promise to crush George proved to be just hot air. Russell used his strength to resist George’s
technical superiority but surprisingly could not mount any effective offense. Referee Maurity Freitas awarded the decision to George on points in view of Russell’s inferiority.
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Jiu-Jitsu
sem
Kimono

Two weeks after defeating Jack Russell by points, George took on another catch wrestler, Joe Campbell.
Campbell was from England and like Russell was also a veteran of the Zbyszko troupe. Russell was not far away. He would be facing Schroll in a preliminary match.

George declared that he was in condition to beat Campbell.
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Not everyone believed him.
A Batalha
expected Campbell to win.
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In any case, the match “promised to be sensational” [“
promette ser sensacional
”].

The fight took place
Tuesday August 23, 1938 at Estadio Brasil. It was four rounds of 15 minutes, without kimono.
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Campbell weighed 98 kilos, George weighed 69 kilos. The referee was Manoel Fernandes, who knew from painful personal experience the kind of punishment George Gracie was capable of inflicting.

The first round was monotonous. In the second round things began to get interesting. Gracie ended up winning when Campbell gave up due to the armlock that George administered in the first minute of the
third round.
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The fight was apparently not particularly sensational after all, but at least George kept his promise to win.

Matinee

Every Sunday a matinee of catch was presented at Estadio Brasil at reduced prices, less than the cost of a movie.
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On Sunday August 28, Joe Campbell was sufficiently recovered from his battle with George Gracie three days before to lock horns with Conde Karol Nowina. George performed an exhibition with his student Camillo de Hollanda.
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Work

Takeo Yano and George Gracie seemed to see things eye to eye. Unlike many or most of the luta livre and catch fighters, they had genuine skills. But unlike Helio Gracie, they didn’t have a problem participating in pro wrestling of even the most blatant kind.

To put it another way, they understood the difference between fighting and entertainment. And also unlike Helio, they preferred making a living by pretending to fight rather than
performing unskilled labor on construction sites, which was more dangerous and less glamorous than wrestling and paid less.
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In any event, Yano and George found in each other very compatible “opponents”
. They fought nine times, if not more between 1935 and 1948. They became close personal friends as well.

Their fourth fight took place at Stadium Brasil
September 1, 1938. George weighed 68.5 kilos, Yano weighed 70 kilos. It was a jiu-jitsu match of six 10-minute rounds. The referee was Maurity de Freitas. Also on the bill were two catch matchs: Jack Russell (103 kilos) versus Joe Campbell (96 kilos), and Adencoa of Spain (99 kilos) versus Cernadas of Argentina (101 kilos).

The fight was close [
um combate renhido
], but in the final round George Gracie managed to apply a
chave de pé
[footlock] on Yano, who was forced to give up.
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The next Yano versus George entry occurred on Saturday September 24 at Estadio Brasil. George weighed 69.8 kilos, Yano weighed 70 kilos. It was again a jiu-jitsu contest in six
10-minute rounds. George hoped to confirm his recent victory over Yano. Yano wanted to avenge his defeat. It was for the supremacy of jiu-jitsu in Brazil. Both were skilled [
habeis
], well-trained [
em perfeita fórma
], and aggressive [
dotados de grande aggressividade
]. The referee was Armando Jagle. Karol Nowina and Jack Russell would also be on hand disputing for the supremacy of “catch-as-catch-can”.
59

The match was big but there was bigger news that day. “HITLER MARCA O DIA DA INVASÃO!” the headlines screamed. The day set by Hitler for the invasion of
Czechoslovakia was October 2.
60
It turned out to be unnecessary to invade. Czechoslovakia’s allies, England and France, settled with Germany in the hope that Hitler would be satisfied with his acquisition of the Sudetenland portion of the country and that there would then be no repetition of the insane violence of the First World War.
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A major war in
Europe would have potentially serious repercussions for Brazil. But it looked as though the problem had been solved. Cariocas could turn their attention to more local concerns.

The fight started promisingly for George and it seemed that he would, as he predicted, confirm his previous victory. He even out-threw Yano, 5 to 3, and 3 to 1, in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. But Yano surged back in the
third round, out-throwing George 7 to 3, at which point the score was even. George faded in the final three rounds. Yano was in complete control, out-throwing George by 6 to 1 in the fourth round, 5 to 1 in the fifth round, and 8 to 1 in the last round.

Neither man gave up or was knocked out. The decision went to Yano owing to his clear superiority on stand-up.
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George did not explain why he did not keep the fight on the ground in keeping with the philosophy of his family. Perhaps he over-estimated his own stand-up skills. Or perhaps he took a longer term view of the rivalry with Yano. It was after all only one fight. There would be more.

George had his chance to take revenge on Yano less than two weeks later in Bello Horizonte, October 4, 1938. He failed. Yano won again. Bello Horizonte was a bit out of the way, and the pair were becoming over-exposed. Details were not reported.
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The Ono Brothers

Oninho and Benedicto Peres met again on Saturday October 15 at the gymnasium of the Associação Athletica São Paulo. The program included an extra dose of star power. Oninho’s brother Yassuiti would meet Antonio Oliveira in an eight round match (five minutes each with 2-minute breaks). Oninho versus Peres was actually the semi-final and was also eight 5-minute rounds. There were three other jiu-jitsu matches. Jose Roberto Macedo Soares met Jorge Weimesdorf. Zito Gomes encountered Manoel Correa. Nizaki confronted Braz Gomes. All were three-round matches.

Peres trained three months for the rematch in the hope of rehabilitating himself in the eyes of the Paulista public. He attributed his loss to nervousness. The enthusia
sm of the fans made him lose his self-control and he took reckless chances. He wouldn’t repeat that error. He admired Oninho’s calmness under pressure, he mentioned. He claimed that his left arm had been damaged in training before the first fight and as a result he couldn’t put his game plan into effect. Peres also had the chance to train with Yassuiti Ono’s opponent Oliveri [Oliveira]. He felt that Oliveri had a good chance to win [
boas probabilidades de vencer
]. Oliveri was not a new face or pretender. Peres had personally watched him in action against Geo Omori at Pavilhão Queirolo in São Paulo in 1929. Oliveiri drew with the great champion. Yassuiti would not have a great advantage over Oliveiri, Peres concluded.
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