Vale tudo

History

Early 20th century–1980s

Public fighting exhibitions and intermodality contests involving different fighting styles were held in Brazilian circuses and theaters during the early 20th century. These events formed part of a broader international tradition of combat-sport exhibitions and challenge matches associated with circuses, fairs, and theaters, which also included boxing and wrestling (in particular, catch-as-catch-can, a precursor of professional wrestling). In Brazil, Japanese immigrants practitioners of "jiu-jitsu", a term that at the time was often used broadly for Japanese grappling arts, in particular Kodokan Judo, incorporated demonstrations and challenge matches into their public performances, sometimes facing practitioners of other fighting styles.

In 1908, Japanese jiu-jitsu practitioner associated with the Kodokan Sada Miyako arrived in Brazil aboard the Brazilian Navy training ship Benjamin Constant, together with another Japanese practitioner, M. Kakiora. He was subsequently employed by the Brazilian Navy to teach jiu-jitsu to its officers. In 1909, as part of public demonstrations intended to showcase the effectiveness of jiu-jitsu, Miyako began publicly challenging practitioners of other fighting styles and offering prizes to anyone who could defeat him. Among those who accepted his challenges was the Portuguese wrestler Arnaldo José Ferreira, who had previously defeated the Japanese wrestler Raku in Lisbon. Another was capoeirista Francisco da Silva Ciríaco defeated Japanese jiu-jitsu fighter Sada Miyako in one of the earliest documented confrontations of this kind in Brazil. Examples of such bouts were described in the Japanese-American Courier on October 4, 1928:

One report from Brasil declares that Jiu Jitsu is truly an art and that in an interesting exhibition in the side tent to the big circus a Bahian of monstrous dimensions met his waterloo at the hands of a diminutive Japanese wrestler. The man was an expert at Capoeira, an old South American style of fighting, but after putting the Japanese on his back and trying to kick his head ... the little oriental by the use of a Jiu Jitsu hold threw the Bahian and after a short struggle he was found sitting on the silent frame of the massive opponent.

In 1914, Mitsuyo Maeda, also known as Conde Koma, a Japanese judoka trained at the Kodokan, arrived in Brazil with a group of Japanese martial artists. Before coming to Brazil, Maeda had already gained international experience through challenge matches and contests against practitioners of different fighting styles, including professional wrestling, particularly catch-as-catch-can wrestling (at the time, professional wrestling generally referred to competitive grappling prizefighting rather than the scripted entertainment form associated with the term today). Like Miyako, Maeda and his companions incorporated demonstrations and challenge matches into their public performances. In Rio de Janeiro, the group performed at theaters and other entertainment venues, where they demonstrated techniques, fought among themselves, and occasionally challenged members of the audience. Maeda later settled in Belém, Pará, where he taught what was then commonly called jiu-jitsu to Carlos Gracie and other students.

1993–2000s

In the 1970s, Rorion Gracie of the famous Gracie family emigrated to the United States and introduced Vale Tudo to a new market when he, together with American entrepreneur Art Davie, helped found the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1993. The event was advertised as a competition where fighters would each represent different martial arts in a single-elimination tournament without weight classes and no rules—although there were three rules: no biting, eye-gouging or fish-hooking. To pitch the event for TV executives, Gracie and Davie used the footage of the Gracie Challenges and Vale Tudo events in Brazil where the family had participated. The first event was named The Ultimate Fighting Championship (later retroactively renamed to UFC 1). Rorion's younger brother, Royce Gracie represented Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and won the event after submitting three opponents in succession. The event was a success and attracted some attention from the public and the media, and more editions were realized. The UFC also pioneered the "promotion" model for Vale Tudo/Mixed Martial arts, instead of promoters arranging one-off events like before.

Inspired by the format of the UFC, many new promotions of Vale Tudo were created. Some of the noteworthy promotions of this time in Brazil include Universal Vale Tudo Fighting, Brazilian Vale Tudo Fighting, Brazil Open, Super Challenge and Mo Team League. Besides the UFC, the United States also saw the introduction of Vale Tudo promotions similar to the UFC, such as the Battlecade Extreme Fighting and World Combat Championship in 1995. Vale Tudo would receive the name No Holds Barred (NHB) in the United States.

In Japan, former professional wrestler Satoru Sayama had created in 1985 a hybrid martial arts organization named Shooto, which featured striking with all limbs, takedowns, groundfighting and submissions. Impressed by the UFC, in 1994 he introduced Vale Tudo to Japan by organizing the Vale Tudo Japan tournament, which was more rules-free compared to previous Shooto rules. Rickson Gracie won the 1994 and 1995 editions of the tournament, making him famous in Japan. In 1997 PRIDE Fighting Championships was founded in order to match Rickson Gracie with popular Japanese shoot-style professional wrestler Nobuhiko Takada. The rules of PRIDE were modelled after the ones from Vale Tudo Japan with some modifications. The first event of the organization had an attendance of 47,000 fans and attracted the attention of Japanese mass media and soon PRIDE became one of the largest and most popular combat sports organization in the world, and it helped to popularize MMA.

2000s and end of Vale Tudo

Beginning in the early 2000s, newer promotions such as Jungle Fight and Bitetti Combat abandoned traditional Vale Tudo rules in favor of the safer mixed martial arts "Unified" rules. However, some promotions continued the use of traditional rules for a time, most notably Meca World Vale Tudo and Rio Heroes.

The latter in particular represented one of the last organized attempts to preserve the old Vale Tudo format. Founded by Jorge Pereira in Osasco, São Paulo, in 2007, Rio Heroes held more than ten editions of largely unrestricted fighting, with no gloves or time limits, and with only a handful of restrictions such as prohibitions on eye gouging, biting, and groin strikes. Headbutts, stomps, soccer kicks and other techniques prohibited under the Unified Rules were permitted. The tournament continued until 2009, when it was shut down, effectively marking the end of the last prominent organized promotion dedicated to the traditional Vale Tudo ruleset.

"Vale Tudo" was still used as a synonym for MMA in Brazil throughout the 2000s, the term started to be dropped as the sport grew and Brazilian media started to cover MMA events, first with RedeTV! covering UFC events in 2009, and in 2011 it was picked by Brazil's largest network Rede Globo.

Today, all major events use MMA rules, according to former IVC and WVC promoter Sérgio Batarelli in an interview to Brazilian online news G1 he affirmed: "But fighting with the rules from before is impossible. It's over. [...] It's the beginnings. There's no way back. Even because there are very few fighters who would venture into something like this."

Although the traditional form of Vale Tudo declined as a competitive format, the name continued to appear in Brazil in contexts associated with the history and identity of mixed martial arts. The expression was also retained in the names of some martial arts schools, competitions, and organizations, reflecting its continued significance in Brazilian combat sports culture. Traditional, no-rules Vale Tudo events continue only as small, informal and underground challenges.

As a fighting style

As Vale Tudo became more popular and common, some fighters started training specifically for Vale Tudo contests rather than fighting with purely one style, taking the most effective techniques from both striking and grappling martial arts and synthesized them for the ruleset of Vale Tudo, eventually billing "Vale Tudo" as its own standalone fighting style.

Marco Ruas is recognized to be one of the first to do so. He was a Muay Thai striker and equally skilled in Luta Livre submission grappling; even before the first UFC event, he was a public proponent of cross-training in multiple martial arts and training specifically for Vale Tudo. Eventually he developed "Ruas Vale Tudo", which he advertised as a martial art. He and other fighters he coached—such as Pedro Rizzo and Renato Sobral—were billed as "Ruas Vale Tudo" fighters.

The Chute Boxe Academy in Curitiba started as a Muay Thai gym expanded their program with BJJ and grappling training in 1991, and eventually branded themselves as a "Vale Tudo" gym.