Vale tudo

History

Early 20th century–1980s

Fighting sideshows called vale tudo became popular in Brazilian circuses during the early 20th century. In 1909, capoeirista Francisco da Silva Ciríaco defeated Japanese jiu-jitsu fighter Sada Miyako in one of the first 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.

However, this circus term did not enter popular use until 1959–1960, when it was used to describe the style-versus-style bouts featured in a Rio television show called Heróis do Ringue ("Heroes of the Ring"). The matchmakers and hosts of the show included members of the Gracie family, including Carlson Gracie and Carley Gracie. The participants were all legitimate practitioners of their styles. The Gracie family, which had origins in the circus business, devised the "Gracie Challenge", where they would invite or be challenged by opponents from other martial arts to a Vale Tudo match to prove the effectiveness of their Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. The Gracies would hold their challenges behind closed doors at their gyms, but in some cases they also held public events.

Euclydes Hatem, known as Mestre Tatu, was the creator of Luta Livre, a Brazilian submission wrestling, variant of catch wrestling. In 1942, he defeated George Gracie in a historic match. Years later, in 1968, one of his students, Euclides Pereira, also defeated Carlson Gracie.

One night during the show, João Alberto Barreto (later a referee for UFC 1) was competing against a man trained in Luta Livre. Barreto caught his opponent in an armbar and the man refused to submit. Barreto broke the man's arm. Consequently, the show was canceled and soon replaced by a professional wrestling show called Telecatch.

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.