Omori’s career was winding down. Yano’s was just beginning.
.Chapter 15 Notes
Chapter 16
1936
Jiu-jitsu was being disseminated throughout the land. It wasn’t entirely intentional. George Gracie was restless. He liked to move. Where George went, jiu-jitsu went. In January 1936 he was offered a contract to teach the Guard Civil in Bello Horizonte. He accepted and relocated there.1
On April 2, George engaged in two luta livre matches at the Academia Loanzi in Bello Horizonte. He defeated Barthowiak (German, 98 kilos) with a carotid compression [“compresseão carotideana”], and Eberle also German (weight illegible) with a Japanese neck-tie [“gravata japoneza”]. It took George, who weighed 70 kilos, a total of 12 minutes to dispose of both of the German giants. Most likely, given the circumstances, these were sparring sessions, but were described in the one newspaper that mentioned the incident as “a sensational fight of George Gracie”.2
Jose Detti was already a known name in São Paulo. He was the Arab jiu-jitsu champion of São Paulo who had fought Geo Omori twice, losing once and drawing once.3 Due to his size (85-95 kilos), Detti went by the nickname of “The Mastodon.” He met Bergomas, the Italian catch champion, on April 4 at Casino Antarctica on rua Anhangabahu in São Paulo. It was a preliminary to the Roberto Ruhmann versus Adelberto Trenka fight.4
The first publicized jiu-jitsu (or lucta japoneza) match of 1936 took place April 18 at Casino Antarctica as a preliminary (or semi-final) to the 16 Roberto Ruhmann versus Ivanoff luta livre match. The jiu-jitsu competitors were Jose Detti, weighing 85 kilos, and the minisculo [tiny] Francisco Ioshika of Japan, weighing 65 kilos.
Detti defeated Iosika in the third round.5 Ruhmann won his match as well, with a second round choke [com terrivel golpe de estrangulamento].6 Ruhmann was famous for his chokes. It was rumored that no man could survive once Ruhmann got his hands around his neck.
In May, Empresa Pugilisitca Brasilera (EPB) announced its line-up of fighters for the 1936 season. All were boxers and “catchers”. But EPB was also considering offering contracts to four jiu-jitsu fighters. They were George and Helio Gracie, Yassuiti Ono, and Takeo Yano.7
As in a Hollywood movie studio, a contract guaranteed a performer a certain number of projects, at a certain fee, for a specified period. The performer didn’t necessarily have to accept a given a project, but he wouldn’t be paid if he didn’t. Management and labor had overlapping but not identical interests. The overriding concern shared by both sides was making money. Management and labor sometimes disagreed about how to go about doing it. As far as management was concerned, performers were in one sense unique, but in another sense “fungible” (that is, functionally equivalent to any other star who could draw an equal number of people to the theater).
The performer had a different point of view. One or two sub-par performances could end a career, or at least substantially reduce one’s fees. Moreover, for those operating schools, their brand was important. And for some, but not all, winning or losing was a matter of pride.
The point is, by 1936, the majority of professional fighters worked under contract, and most were either boxers or catch wrestlers. Jiu-jitsu fighters were largely an after-thought.
Luta Livre com Kimono
Estevan Jirkus8 challenged both Ruhmann and Detti. Ruhmann didn’t reply, but Detti immediately accepted.
Jirkus was 25 years old, from Lithuania, stood 192 cm., and weighed between 118 and 128 kilos, depending on the source. He was exceptionally strong [dotado de physico excepcional…extraordinaria força muscular]. Detti had gained 10 kilos since April, if reports were accurate.9
The fight was eight rounds of 5 minutes, with one minute breaks between rounds. It was either a “luta livre com kimono” (luta livre with gi) or catch as-catch-can match, depending on the source. It was scheduled for Saturday May 23, 1936 at Casino Antarctica.10
Roberto Ruhman, already famous as a strongman and pro-wrestler, had been learning jiu-jitsu. He wanted to convince the public of his capacity as a jiu-jitsu player [jogador de jiu-jitsu]. Ruhmann believed that his new knowledge of the Japanese sport combined with his prodigious muscle power, qualified him to face a top opponent [um adversario de classe] and even defeat the best rivals [melhores rivaes]. George Gracie, with the proverbial valor for which he was famous [valentia proverbial que o fez famoso] fit the bill. George was known for never refusing a fight. Their fight was first set for June 13 and then postponed to September 5. They were both undefeated [dois invictos do jiu-jitsu] and would try to remain that way.11
At the end of May, EPB revealed more specific information about the fighters, both foreign and Brazilian, contracted for the upcoming “season” [temporada]. There were boxers, catchers, and jiu-jitsu men.
The foreign boxers were Francisco Magnelli, Jorge Azar, Amado Azar, Schiaraffia, Antonio Rodrigues, and Annibal Prior. With the probable exception of Al Pereira, “catchers” would be announced later. National fighters (or already living in Brazil) included luta livre men Roberto Ruhmann and Dudú, and boxers Jack Tigre, Virgolino, and Loffredo. The jiu-jitsu men were Brazilians George and Helio Gracie, and the Japanese Takeo Yano and Yassuiti Ono.12
Kodokan Jiu-Jitsu versus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Helio Gracie was being described as the top jiu-jitsu fighter in Brazil. He had beaten a lightly regarded Miyaki and managed to survive against Takashi Namiki and Yassuiti Ono. Against Ono especially, that was testimony to Helio’s defense on the ground (while being an indictment of his lack of defense on stand-up). But to claim to be the best, something more than mere defense was needed. Takeo Yano was still looking to make a name for himself. He was still undefeated after his fight with George in 1935. He had thrown George at will, but couldn’t subdue him on the ground. Helio thought he could do better than his older brother did against Yano.
Carlos Gracie promised that his brother Helio would defeat Yano in the first round [“Helio vencerá Yano no 1 round”]. George came all the way from Bello Horizonte to serve as Helio’s sparring partner [Helio treinando com Jorge que veiu especialmente de Bello Horizonte para server com seus sparrings]. Rio would be witness to a great jiu-jitsu match [O Rio assistirá a maior peleja de jiu-jitsu].13
On the day of the fight, Helio predicted that Yano would be defeated but stopped short of naming a round [“Yano será vencido“].14
Yano’s manager, Macedo Soares (who also managed Yassuiti Ono), quaranteed that Yano was in condition to beat Helio Gracie. Yano and Soares emphasized that Yano had trained especially for this fight, because he recongizied the Helio was a worthy foe [“um adversario, sob todos os pontos, digno e respeito”]. But Yano was confident. Without exaggeration he considered himself to be in exceptional condition and for this reason vowed to beat Helio [“em condicões excepcionaes e por isto affirma que vae derrotar Helio Gracie“]. Yano was training with Yassuiti Ono, and both men appeared to be in magnificent form.15
The fight took place at Estadio Brasil. It was three rounds of 20 minutes each. Helio Gracie weighed 65.7 kilos, Yano weighed 69.3 kilos. Helio was the Brazilian champion [campeão brasileiro], Yano was an authentic black belt [authentico faixa negra]. The referee was Gumercindo Taboada. The preliminaries consisted of seven boxing matches. The first four were amateur fights, disputed for places on the Brazilian Olympic team.
The boxing contests were magnificent and pleased the crowd [essas pelejas agradaram]. Three were professional boxing bouts, the best being a six-round middleweight bout between Gonçalves da Cunha of Portugal and Schmelling of Germany, which ended in a draw.
The much anticipated jiu-jitsu match however, was a let-down [não satifez á expectiva geral]. It was expected that the two jiu-jitsu professionals would demonstrate their skills and provide the public with an exciting contest.
Nothing of the sort happened. The fight was monotonous, devoid of the slightest interest. It was a charade that disappointed everyone who came in search of excitement. The result was a draw [emp
ate].16
Diario de Noticias’ report was shorter and less critical, but made the same point: Yano dominated Helio on stand-up, and played defense on the ground, effectively impeding Helio’s attack in the process. The result was a boring fight [O assalto inicial foi bastante movimentado, tendo o japonez levado vantagem nas quedas]. The first round was active. Yano had the advantage in take-downs. The second round was monotonous. Helio attempted only one technique [golpe] which Yano escaped masterfully. The last round was no more active than the others [pouco animado]. Yano stayed on defense and Helio couldn’t do anything [O japonez permaneceu a defensiva e Helio nada pôde fazer]. Yano threw Helio six times, but was excessively cautious [demasiado cauteloso].17
The Gazeta de Noticias report differed only in minor details. The reporter saw Helio attempt two chokes in the second round, both easily nullified by Yano. The last round continued with the same monotony as the preceding rounds [com a mesmo monotonia do inicio a peleza]. The result was a draw. The reporter opined that “a sport as boring as this can not please the public” [“O sport e muito monotono e por isso meso não e do agrado da assistencia”].18
One writer blamed Yano for the fiasco. It seemed that Yano didn’t take the fight seriously enough [Yano, ao que parece, não subiu ao ring com a dispocição necessaria para uma luta de responsibilidade]. His fighting spirit left much to be desired [seu ardor agrressivo deixou muito de desejar]. The writer was at a loss to understand why Yano did not try to take advantage of his opportunities on the ground. Yano instead avoided coming to grips with Helio Gracie [permanecendo afastado de seu contendor]. Yano’s inexplicable tactic [essa tactica exquesita] turned what might have been an exciting fight into a boring and monotonous undertaking. The writer had no doubt that Yano’s tactic was motivated by his fear that Helio might apply a decisive technique, such as a choke.19
Yano’s approach to the fight was the same as Ebert’s and Zbyzsko’s. They did not feel comfortable on the ground and simply opted to survive by doing nothing that might open them up to unexpected dangers. No doubt such a fight would be boring for the fans. But Yano’s job was to win or at least not lose. It is precisely what Helio Gracie did when he was in with an opponent who didn’t want to play his game. With Yano, Helio knew that he wasn’t going to be able to advance his attack on the ground. He had the choice of standing up again. He could then have thrown Yano and landed in a dominating position. That is, he could have if he had the throwing skills. Since he didn’t, it was almost unavoidable that the fight would play out exactly as it did.
Helio wanted Yano to fight on the ground. Yano very rationally didn’t want to. He had a large edge on stand-up, and no edge on the ground. It would make no sense for him to voluntarily forfeit his advantage and clash directly in the aspect of the game where Helio had a relative advantage. That is not what jiu-jitsu is about and is a self-handicapping strategy in any conflict situation. Helio lacked the technical resources to make him, or the cleverness to bait him into making a mistake. Conversely, Yano couldn’t force Helio to fight the entire match standing up.
It was problem in almost every professional jiu-jitsu match. It would have been unrealistic to expect the Kodokan people to willingly give up what was a huge advantage. The national (Brazilian) jiu-jitsu representatives (mostly Gracies) didn’t want to invest in developing higher level stand-up skills but couldn’t force anyone to fight on the ground if they didn’t want to. Obviously, unskilled opponents had little choice, and this may have been one reason why most of them were middle-aged former pro wrestlers and capoeiras of questionable qualifications.
In sum, jiu-jitsu fights between jiu-jitsu fighters tended to be boring from the fans’ point of view. No one ever really came up with a viable solution to this problem, other than the obvious ones of selecting opponents who couldn’t fight and choreographing the fights. Yano was foremost among those who adopted the later solution. Helio’s brother George often collaborated with him in doing so, as did Oswaldo. Helio never did. But that may be why Helio retired from fighting in 1937 while George kept fighting as long as anyone was willing to pay him.20
Rivalry
Yassuiti Ono versus Helio Gracie in June 1935 had also ended in a draw. But no one accused Ono of lacking fighting spirit, and no one even tried to pretend that Helio’s “draw” represented equality in fighting skills. Perhaps on the ground, where neither man could make substantial headway, but certainly not on stand-up. Overall, considering both stand-up and ground aspects of their fight, Ono had been in absolute domination (as reports clearly indicated).
But the draw seemed to leave the rivalry unsettled.
In June, Ono came to Rio to challenge Helio to a rematch. Helio accepted.21 Both thought they could do better this time around. The first time Ono had been hampered by a knee injury. Otherwise, he believed, he would have finished Helio rather than merely throwing him 32 times. Helio promised to be better prepared for the rematch. The fight would eventually take place October 3, 1936. In the meantime, Helio needed a tune-up, someone with a low level of jiu-jitsu ability, if any at all.
Jiu-Jitsu versus Olympic Rules
On June 16, 1936 it was announced that on June 18 George Gracie would meet the Portuguese luta livre fighter Mossoró, and Helio Gracie would face not less than two opponents (the headline said three). Helio’s two opponents would be Geronicio Barbosa and possibly Manoel Fernandes, who had been challenging Helio and all of the Gracies and everyone else. Mossoró also had been eager to confront a Gracie.22
The fights eventually took place at Estadio Brasil on Tuesday June 23 in a night of boxing (six fights), catch-as-catch-can (three matches), and six luta livre matches, three of which were fought by George Gracie. Helio and Mossoró were nowhere to be seen. George’s three opponents were Geroncio Barbosa, Antonio Roque, and Jose Amorim
Geroncio Barbosa was a “strongman” who followed the normal course and entered luta livre.23 Antonio Roque was a professional wrestler.24 Jose Amorim was a former amateur boxer.25
The arrangement was unusual. Instead of fighting each one a specified number of rounds, he fought all three in two 20-minute rounds. The plan was to finish one and then move on to the next. This is what almost happened.
George beat Geroncio Barbosa and Antonio Roque, but had his hands full with Amorim. It seemed that everyone thought George lost, except George himself [J. Amorim, um dos adverarios de George Gracie venceu-o nitidamente]. Although George was “clearly defeated,” the referee had neglected to count to “3” as required by Olympic rules, when Amorim pinned him [Depois de o vencer nitidamente, sem que fosse contado pelo arbitro os 3 segundos exigidos pelo Comite Olympico].
George protested. There was some confusion about which rules were in effect, as often happened. Nevertheless, it was obvious that, even if George’s protest was accepted, he had been unable to subdue Amorim (and there was no indication that Amorim was playing defensively). The first round of 20 minutes ended without George getting the better of Amorim [não levou a melhor].
There was also a long disagreement concerning the number of rounds. George wanted to take his ambiguous draw and go home. The others wanted to continue with the second round, as agreed before the fight. George compromised by promising that he would fight and beat them all in a single 20-minute round some other time, when his schedule permitted.26
In August Roberto Ruhmann began his campaign to bolster his jiu-jitsu credibility and pave the way for lucrative matches with one or more of the Gracie brothers. He started by fighting two Japanese, one named Misuki, the other Yamada. Little is known about Misuki other than that he lost to Ruhmann by KO on Saturday August 1, 1936 at Estadio Brasil.
According to one report, Ruhmann defeated Misuki without difficulty [Ruhman venceu Misuki sem difficuldade] and demonstrated his knowledge of the new game that he had recently begun learning.
At the start of the fight, Misuki went for a choke but Ruhmann applied a “gravata” [headlock] that Misuki pulled out of. That seemed to impr
ess Ruhmann, who had been known as “Strangler” [Estrangulador] in São Paulo. A few minutes later Ruhmann applied a leglock [chave de pernas] and then a choke. It was all over for Misuki.27
At least one newspaper was skeptical [Ruhmann não convenceu como praticante de jiu-jitsu]. The fight was a farce. Neither Ruhmann nor Misuki demonstrated any knowledge of jiu-jitsu and Misuki did absolutely nothing in the match [Misuki…não fez absolutamente nada]. He dropped out of sight after this debacle.28
Roberto Ruhmann versus Jiu-Jitsu
After disposing of Misuki, Ruhmann announced that he would fight Helio Gracie on September 5. Ruhmann never fought Helio Gracie. Ruhmann met George instead. On August 7 it was announced that Ruhmann would fight Tageshika Yamada on Saturday August 8. Yamada was only slightly less unknown than Misuki. He may have been among the members of the Ono group that arrived in São Paulo in October of 1934. But Yamada is a common Japanese name.
Yamada was in some way professionally associated with Massagoichi, who would fight Helio Gracie a month later.29 He was a man with “cat-like agility” [é a homem de agilidade feline], which was said about every Japanese “representative” (with the exception of Massagoichi). He had a notable career in sports [um japonez portador de notiveis antecedentes sportivos]30 which suggested to at least one paper that he would be a tougher opponent for Ruhmann than Misurki [sic, Misuki] had been.31 His style was said to be extremely fast and disconcerting [possue um estylo extremamente rapido e desconcertante]32 and to be characterized by extreme mobility [extrema mobilidade de seus movimento].33 He was “considered to be the South American jiu-jitsu champion”.34 On the day of the fight, he was shown in a photograph applying an inverted calf-crush with toe-hold on a training partner.35
Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) Page 30