{"id":914289,"date":"2026-10-03T05:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914289\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T05:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:10:13","slug":"mma-roots-the-forgotten-brazilian-tournament-that-produced-2-ufc-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914289\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA Roots: The forgotten Brazilian tournament that produced 2 UFC champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhat would Brazilian MMA champions have become without the events
\nthat helped launch them internationally during the 1990s and early
\n2000s? Without promotions such as Frederico Lapenda’s WVC, S\u00e9rgio
\nBatarelli’s IVC, Rudimar Fedrigo and Joinha’s Meca, Wallid
\nIsmail<\/a>‘s Jungle Fight, Andre
\nPederneiras<\/a>‘ Shooto Brazil or Tat\u00e1 and Philip Lima’s WOCS,
\nBrazil likely would not have become the dominant force it was in
\nboth
\nPride Fighting Championships<\/a> and the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a>.Rafael dos Anjos and Junior dos Santos won XFC tournaments in
\nRio de Janeiro in 2007
\n
\nYet, when it comes to pure success rate, none of those events
\nmatched the Xtreme Fighting
\nChampionship<\/a>, promoted by former UFC fighter Fabiano Iha<\/a> at
\nGraja\u00fa T\u00eanis Clube in Rio de Janeiro on April 29, 2007.<\/p>\n

Offering a $1,000 purse \u2014 well above the Brazilian standard at the
\ntime \u2014 the XFC gathered many of the country’s top prospects in four
\ntournaments: welterweight (170 pounds), middleweight (185 pounds),
\nlight heavyweight (205 pounds) and heavyweight.<\/p>\n

Iha’s plan was to select one winner from each division to compete
\nat the promotion’s second event, scheduled for July 30 in Los
\nAngeles. Unfortunately, that edition never materialized. Still, the
\ninaugural tournament proved remarkably prophetic: All four
\nchampions eventually reached the UFC, giving the event a perfect
\n100% success rate.<\/p>\n

The winners were Rafael dos
\nAnjos<\/a> (170 pounds), Rafael
\nNatal<\/a> (185 pounds), Antonio
\nBraga Neto<\/a> (205 pounds) and Junior dos
\nSantos<\/a> (heavyweight). As history would show, two of them went
\non to become UFC champions.’I met my wife and won $1,000′
\n
\nRafael dos
\nAnjos<\/a> remembers that he was still at the beginning of his
\ncareer when the opportunity arrived during a difficult week.<\/p>\n

“It was Monday, and I was in a public hospital in Niter\u00f3i with a
\nfever, receiving IV fluids, when my phone rang. My manager said,
\n‘I’ve got two pieces of news for you\u2014one good and one bad. The good
\nnews is you’re fighting on Saturday. The bad news is you’ll have to
\nfight twice in one night,'” RDA recalled.<\/p>\n

“Even though they were two 10-minute fights, when I heard the
\nwinner would receive US$1,000\u2014which was a huge purse by Brazilian
\nstandards back then\u2014I didn’t hesitate.”<\/p>\n

Dos Anjos opened the tournament by submitting Thiago Minu of Boxer
\nTeam with a rear-naked choke before repeating the feat in the final
\nagainst tough BTT representative Maur\u00edcio Souza, who had earlier
\ndefeated Jos\u00e9 Fabiano of Black House via ankle lock.<\/p>\n

“It couldn’t have gone any better. I won US$1,000 and met my wife,”
\nRafael said, referring to Cristiane, who was working as a
\npromotional model for one of the event’s sponsors when they met
\nbackstage.<\/p>\n

Representing Gracie Barra Combat Team, led by his coach Roberto
\nGordo, Dos Anjos soon won the Fury tournament and then made a
\nsuccessful international debut in Japan’s Pancrase, quickly
\nsubmitting local fighter Hirayama. Those performances earned him a
\nUFC contract in 2008.<\/p>\n

In 2015, he captured the UFC lightweight championship by defeating
\nAnthony
\nPettis<\/a>. Later, he moved up to welterweight, where he quickly
\nclimbed to the top of the rankings. Now 41, with a professional
\nrecord of 31 wins and 17 losses, Dos Anjos will face Alexander
\nHernandez<\/a> at UFC 332<\/a> and
\ncan proudly say he has shared the Octagon with many of the greatest
\nfighters in the promotion’s history.<\/p>\n

Junior dos Santos steamrolls the heavyweight tournament
\n
\nThe other breakout star of the event was Junior dos
\nSantos<\/a>, a training partner of Antonio
\nRodrigo Nogueira<\/a> and Antonio
\nRogerio Nogueira<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Traveling from Bahia, Cigano claimed the heavyweight tournament
\nafter two grueling fights. He first defeated Edson Paredao of Nova
\nGeracao Para\u00edba by doctor’s stoppage at 8:46. In the final, he
\nfaced Joaquim
\nFerreira<\/a> of Gracie Barra Belo Horizonte, who received a second
\nchance after Andr\u00e9 Mussi injured his arm in their semifinal and was
\nunable to continue.<\/p>\n

Knowing Cigano trained under renowned boxing coach Luis Dorea,
\nBrazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Mamute immediately looked for
\ntakedowns. However, Cigano defended every attempt, kept the fight
\nstanding and punished him with punches.<\/p>\n

Exhausted from his earlier battle and frustrated by Cigano’s
\ntakedown defense, Mamute eventually retired from the fight.<\/p>\n

“Paredao is incredibly strong, and Mamute is a great fighter with
\nexcellent ground skills. Both fights were very tough, but I managed
\nto perform well,” Cigano said afterward.<\/p>\n

Following three more victories on the Brazilian circuit, Dos Santos
\nreceived a late call to make his UFC debut at UFC 90 against the
\nfar more experienced Fabricio
\nWerdum<\/a>. He shocked the MMA world by knocking out his countryman
\njust 1 minute, 20 seconds into the opening round with a devastating
\nright uppercut followed by ground strikes.<\/p>\n

The victory immediately established him as one of the heavyweight
\ndivision’s brightest prospects and marked the beginning of a
\njourney that culminated in his UFC heavyweight title victory in
\n2011.<\/p>\n

Rafael Natal and Ant\u00f4nio Braga Neto complete the sweep
\n
\nAt middleweight, Rafael
\nNatal<\/a>, a student of Vinicius Draculino, delivered an impressive
\nperformance.<\/p>\n

Representing Gracie Barra Belo Horizonte, he submitted Nailson
\nBahia<\/a> of Nova Uni\u00e3o with a textbook armbar from guard before
\ndefeating Gerson Silva of BTT by unanimous decision in the
\nfinal.<\/p>\n

Gerson reached the championship bout after semifinal winner Danilo
\nMotoserra suffered a fractured rib and was unable to continue.<\/p>\n

“I tell people this, and they don’t believe me. I train six hours a
\nday. I’d train even more if I had the time. I’ve waited a long time
\nfor this opportunity to fight internationally,” Natal said.<\/p>\n

Eight more fights in Brazil eventually earned Natal a UFC contract.
\nHe competed for the promotion from 2010 to 2017, compiling a 9-7
\nrecord.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Antonio
\nBraga Neto<\/a>, then a brown belt and reigning IBJJF world champion
\nin both his weight class and the absolute division, entered the
\nevent with only one professional MMA fight.<\/p>\n

The Manaus native submitted Eduardo
\nCamilo<\/a> in less than two minutes with an armbar before meeting
\nCezar Jesus Ferreira of Black House in the final.<\/p>\n

Braga Neto imposed his grappling, secured multiple takedowns,
\nmaintained dominant top position throughout the fight and even
\nthreatened with a rear-naked choke before earning a unanimous
\ndecision.<\/p>\n

He eventually joined the UFC in 2013, going 1-2 before returning
\nfull time to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What would Brazilian MMA champions have become without the events that helped launch them internationally during the 1990s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[4225,64,63,786,247198,785,44,85],"class_list":["post-914289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-https-www-sherdog-com-news-articles-ufc","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}