Issue 079

September 2011

Brazilian MMA has come a very long way over the past decade, now the spotlight is on Rio to decide its future

While Brazil is widely considered the cradle of the mixed martial arts world, underpinned today by widespread global interest and intrigue in the Gracie family dynasty, along with a host of current icons in Anderson Silva, José Aldo, Wanderlei Silva et al, it has been a rocky decade for the sport in its homeland.

 Few fans realize that the main media outlets in that country turned their back on the sport after UFC: Ultimate Brazil on October 16th 1998. Yet it was not the UFC event itself which brought about opposition to the sport in Brazil. Significant events have taken place this year giving clear signals that a sea change in perspective on MMA has occurred, and there is the sense of a wave crashing for the homecoming at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro on August 27th, at the HSBC Arena. 

 Some of the issues, however, come down merely to semantics, and how MMA has replaced vale tudo, which had became a “bad word” in Brazilian society by the late ‘90s. To comprehend on the surface what has happened in the intervening 13 years since the UFC was last there, you have to look at the backdrop at the time. Prior to the UFC going to Brazil 13 years ago, there had been major struggles between luta livre and jiu-jitsu practitioners, ideological and physical struggles which are well-documented [see our Tales of Brazil feature on page 84].

 Throughout the ‘90s, there had been tension in areas of Rio, and a culture had developed where there were fights, often outside nightclubs, between rival practitioners. It had grown to widespread proportions. It had also started to give the image of martial arts a bad name. In 1997, a year before the UFC event, that came to a head at an event featuring Renzo Gracie against Eugenio Tadeu called Pentagon Combat, staged at Tijuca Tennis Club in Rio. For that time, this was a major event, even by American standards.

The show went off as expected with major names such as Murilo Bustamante, Jerry Bohlander and Oleg Taktarov featuring on the undercard and all was well until midway through the final fight, between Gracie and Tadeu. They had a full-on battle in the first round, but in the second, when the fighters were pressed up against the fence, some spectators got past the security and began kicking the fence. Rival fans, outraged, set upon them. Moments later, dozens of fans were brawling and fighting.

 Sports broadcaster Fernando Kallas, today one of the leading color commentators for the UFC on television in Brazil, was at the event as a spectator. “I was there, but left 30 minutes before the end,” he explained “You could see it was getting ugly. I was 19 at the time and was with my uncle. He suggested that we leave as he only lived three blocks away. There was a problem for us now. We had made it a sport in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and then we destroyed it.”

The ugly brawl led the Mayor of Rio to ban vale tudo from the city, and indeed, following that, it was also banned from television, notably from Globo TV, the major media conglomerate in Brazil. The only way to watch MMA after that was on fight channel Combate, which was later created for fans. It forced the sport behind a screen and into a media wilderness.

The UFC event headed for Brazil – to Sao Paulo, not Rio – in 1998, in that sense, could not have been coming at a worse time, in spite of there being no direct link between the American-run event and what had transpired in Rio. Yet two fights on that UFC event in 1998 were deeply important to Brazilian MMA. The first was the contest between Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort. It was, and remains, a major rivalry.

Silva was knocked out in 44 seconds that night and admitted only six months ago that their rivalry remains bitter and personal. And that is coming from one of the most gracious, humble men in the sport. Silva admits that defeat haunts him to this day.

Indeed, Rafael Cordeiro will not allow Silva to fight Belfort again until he believes his charge is fully ready. Behind the scenes, there are many whispering in Portuguese that the fight with Belfort is the most important fight in the late career of Silva. It is a huge fight for Brazilian eyes and ears.

Pat Miletich, who won the welterweight title that night in Sao Paulo, recalled to Fighters Only: “A lot of people won’t know this, but I had just finished my fight [vs Mikey Burnett, victory by split decision] and one of Vitor’s coach came to me in my dressing room and said, ‘Vitor’s not doing too well, he’s in the locker room, he’s very scared, will you come and speak to him?’ He was young, 18, 19, it was a big deal for him at a major event. They got me to give him a pep talk and so I told him how good he was and pumped him up… I told him to go out there and tear his opponent up. And he did. He went out there and… [44 seconds later, it was all over with a Belfort victory].

“Back then, it was amazing, they weren’t as strict as they are now. Having been a fighter on the card, I could go anywhere I wanted to after I was done fighting. So I went right up and knelt down next to the cage, even though the arena was packed. In those days it was still so raw, so new to everybody. There was so much energy in all the events. So I watched Vitor win that fight from a few feet away.”

The second fight on that UFC Brazil event which had a huge impact with the fans was Pedro Rizzo’s performance against Tank Abbott. It was the first of 14 performances in the UFC for Rizzo, up to the year end 2003. “That night Rizzo became the man the fans in Brazil loved. He is still amongst the top five most loved fighters in my country. These two fights are historically significant in Brazilian MMA,” Kallas told Fighters Only.   

Miletich recalled: “It was a culture shock going there. Sao Paulo is a huge city, and it was amazing how far out it spreads. They treated us very well. We were going back to one of the original homes of the sport and a lot of people didn’t realize in the US at the time that it had been big in Brazil for a long time. We were told if you leave the hotel, go in groups, and don’t leave the hotel at night. We did though… we went out after the fights.”

Since 1998, the major change is that Brazilian fighters – rather like the very best soccer players from South America seeking their fortune – were forced to make their names outside their homeland.

Globo TV, the equivalent if not bigger than ESPN in the USA, or BBC Sport in the UK, completely banned coverage of MMA on its networks from 1998 until this year. Well after the tag of ‘human cockfighting’ had died down and been eradicated from the US market. Since Globo is the fourth largest media conglomerate in the world, the withdrawal of its support was significant.

Kallas was the first television journalist from Brazil to record an in-depth interview with Dana White, the UFC president, five years ago. “What caught my attention was that although Zuffa [parent company of the UFC] were not even thinking of taking an event to Brazil at the time, they were so aware of the situation in Brazil. Also, so aware of Globo’s power in Brazil. Dana was telling me the importance of leaving vale tudo behind. In Brazil we try not to talk about vale tudo, and we talk about MMA instead. The mention of vale tudo brings up lots of unhealed scars in our society at that time. It is easier to introduce an extreme sport like MMA to a crowd who have never seen it than to change the mentality of a group of people who have experienced something similar.”

But things did change in the last decade. It was the end of the rivalry, other martial arts groups began to train together, to enjoy cross-training, and people realized they could not fight in the streets. The thugs were left behind. Mixed martial arts began to create professional athletes. Most of that came about, however, through the exemplary behavior of so many of Brazil’s MMA exports, who today have gyms and training groups all over the world.

‘Minotauro’ Nogueira, for example, changed the way The Ultimate Fighter coach could be viewed. He was the first coach to go inside the house, have dinner with his team, and show that in Brazilian MMA there is a ‘family’ mentality. Today, two of the greatest champions in MMA come from a very humble backgrounds. When Vitor Belfort was UFC champion, Anderson Silva was working as an attendant in McDonalds. And Jose Aldo, indeed, used to live in the jungle-surrounded city of Manaus. Let’s not forget, he slept on the mat at the Nova Uniao gym when he got started in MMA. 

The sport has been evolving as a craze again in Brazil in the last five years, with a crescendo over the last three. Perhaps one of the most significant shifts came in February this year, on the cover of O Globo, the biggest Brazilian newspaper, with Anderson Silva featured. The headline reads: ‘Phenom’s star!’ That is not in reference to Vitor Belfort, but to Ronaldo, one of the most influential international soccer players of all time. Ronaldo, having retired from football as one of wealthiest sportsmen in the world, had opened what the story referred to as “a very exclusive sports agency, which is expected to have no more than 20 clients and generate around US $30 million in four years.”

Ronaldo’s associates were none other than WPP Group, the world’s leader in advertising and marketing services. They had already secured a US $5 million investment from Bozzano, one of the biggest brands in Brazil in men’s grooming. And Ronaldo had chosen Anderson Silva for his first client.

The association had immediate effect. Silva was featured on Fantástico, the biggest Sunday night news show on Brazilian TV, a week after his last contest with Belfort. MMA was depicted in a positive way, with Silva presented as an international superstar, like any Brazilian football player would have been were he playing abroad. Silva has since appeared on all the major TV shows which are part of the Globo conglomerate. A sea of change indeed.

“In Brazil, we are seeing history being made here for our sport,” explained Kallas. Those inside Brazilian MMA and the media expect even more changes as UFC Rio comes into focus. “I never thought that I would say this, but we are expecting broad coverage of the event from the Brazilian ‘big’ media. This event could change MMA nationally in Brazil forever,” he adds.

From the Mayor of Rio prohibiting MMA in that city in 1998, the sport it has come full circle. One of the biggest, sponsors of UFC Rio, ironically, is today’s Mayor of Rio, along with the Governor of Rio municipality. 

Kallas believes Brazil owes a debt of gratitude to the fighters who have gone abroad to ply their trade. “The most important thing that people have to understand is that this change is not really because of politicians. It is because of the fighters themselves. They have behaved themselves as professional athletes, earned international respect and created such strong international pressure outside Brazil that they made the decision makers in the Brazilian media think about MMA again, and in a positive light.”

In many ways MMA is returning to its spiritual home. We can expect a great outpouring of emotion. Along with the World Cup in soccer going to Brazil, the Olympics and Paralymics heading to in Rio in 2016, it could be the beginning of a Golden Age decade for the place, the people and sport. Mixed martial arts should be along surfing that wave.