I just saw that Helio Gracie fought a guy Waldemar Santana in 1955.. I had no idea mma type matches were taking place that long ago. So what happened from then to the debut of the ufc? Carlson Gracie Jr and the lutu livre camp had to prove themselves somehow
Btw why did Brazil stop hosting mma events? I remember Brazil vale tudo, world vale tudo and pentagon combat had some pretty good events but then just stopped
Gene LeBell had one in the 60s:
Iād imagine thereās a few reasons that these contests werenāt very common:
Mostly, not many martial artists would have wanted to risk embarrassing themselves and their style.
Especially in the West, pro wrasslin was thought to be real for a long time so it kinda filled the niche.
The all time greatest match was the macao mauling, featuring white crane vs tai chi. I laughed, i cried.
1955
In 1905 professor renie , a student of taro miyake and yukio tani, fought a savate master named dubois and took him down and gave him a juji in the first minutes. Ive posted many pictures and newspaper articles documenting the above.
Some answers here
lOOks Like A Shoop
Thatās a real photo of Muhammad Ali vs Inoki
It was pretty much a work of sorts. There were so many rules put in place by Aliās people that Inoki wasnāt able to do much. So, Inoki fought off his back hoping to lure Ali to the ground. So, the fight was a debacle.
Originally, Ali was willing to mix it up more but with the Ken Norton ribber match scheduled they didnāt want to jeopardize it by getting injured.
Ironically, Ali did suffer injuries that caused the Norton fight to be pushed back a couple of weeks as Inokiās kicks to Aliās legs caused deep bruises that swelled up & become painful on the flight back home. Ali had to spend a couple days in the hospital.
I think most of the mma style fights were happening in Japan but they were a hybrid of pro wrestling with realistic moves in New Japan Pro Wrestling, the UWF etc. Sakuraba came from that system and was trained under Billy Robinson who was an old catch wrestling champion. Yes there were fights in Brazil but they seemed less organized. Pancrase held their first event in September of 1993 and UFC held their first event in November of ā93.
K1 also launched in 1993 and many people donāt remember but they also boasted (correctly) about āmixingā martial arts. They invited the best fighters from multiple disciplines and had them all fight in a ln awesome tournament. K1 never got the love and respect it deserved.
Shooto was formed in 86. Tigermask was the founder and fought the wka #1 contender mark Costello in 75 or 76. Costello was also a Idaho state folkstyle high school champion so he was able to stuff some of the takedowns, he still suffered a few suplexes.
ahhhhh Yes Ive Heard of that , just that photo looks Tampered.
Itās good to see you posting here
Isnāt it interesting though that karate and other striking arts still became very popular in the 70s and 80s? We truly looked at karate black belts or kickboxing champions as being the most deadly fighter .. it took us to about ufc 4-5 to realize just how ineffective those disciplines were
I remember reading an interview with one of Aliās training partners. They went to go watch Inoki train and they were quite impressed with how good he was at it - they immediately knew that Ali didnāt stand a chance in a real fight so they asked for a few quick rule changes lol
Same here,
Holy fuck this is gold, never heard of this fight, thanks!
