To most fans,
Pride Fighting Championships is the name most associated with
Japan as a destination for the world’s top fighters to test their
mettle against one another. However, well over a year before PRIDE
opened its doors in 1997, an enterprising Japanese promoter held a
star-studded one-night event in Tokyo, pointing the way the sport
was going over the next decade.

A Familiar Name

Unsurprisingly, it was a particular representative of Brazilian
jiu-jitsu’s first family that inspired Universal Vale Tudo Fighting
1: Rickson
Gracie, whose six consecutive victories in the Vale Tudo Japan tournaments led the Japanese to
idolize his family and Brazilian fighters.

Eighteen months before the creators of Pride invited the Gracie to
face Nobuhiko
Takada in the first edition of Pride in October 1997, the
Japanese promoter Hideki Miura, who had already held two editions
of the Gaisey Challenge in Brazil, with the help of master João
Alberto Barreto (Helio Gracie disciple and referee in UFC 1), had
the idea of bringing a group of eight Brazilian fighters,
representatives of luta-livre and jiu-jitsu, to perform for the
Japanese public.

Held on April 5, 1996, at the Komazawa Olympic Gymnasium in Tokyo,
UVF 1 featured eight Brazilians from three distinct groups: one
from jiu-jitsu and two from luta-livre. The jiu-jitsu group
included Wallid
Ismail and Carlos
Barreto, with Carlson Gracie (coach), Ricardo
Liborio (corner) and Jooo Alberto Barreto (organizer and
referee); the luta-livre group included Jooo Ricardo (Budokan
Luta-Livre) and his students Pedro Otavio,
Ebenezer
Fontes Braga and Johil de
Oliveira. The second luta-livre group included Carlos
Brunocilla and his students Hugo Duarte,
Marcelo
Mendes, Antonio Bigu and Marcelo Bertolucci (corner).

The Japanese promoter also brought three American fighters:
Todd
Medina, Dieuseul
Berto and Michael
Stam; one Russian, Mikhail
Ilyukhin and one Australian, Dennis
Kefalinos. Three Japanese fighters completed the card: Koji Kitao,
Naohisa Kamamura and Akira
Nagase.

At a time when the rivalry between different schools and styles was
still intense and simple encounters in Rio de Janeiro streets and
beaches often ended in confusion, imagining Hugo Duarte
(famous for the fight with Rickson in Pepe beach) and Carlson
Gracie pupil Wallid
Ismail, on the same plane would naturally be a cause for
concern, but the fact is that at that moment, after so many years
of war, everyone was finally traveling professionally. And more
than that, representing a kind of Brazilian team that would face
athletes from all over the world. Obviously, the leadership of
masters João Alberto, Carlson Gracie, Carlos Brunocilla, and João
Ricardo was a major factor in ensuring that everything ended
well.

“Carlao” and Wallid Finish with Rear-Naked Chokes

The two jiu-jitsu representatives did their part at the event.
Facing Australian Dennis
Kefalinos, who had nine knockouts in 12 wins on his record,
Wallid
Ismail had the fastest fight of the night, taking down his
opponent, mounting him, and managing to lock in a rear-naked choke
at 2 minutes and 10 seconds of the first round after a few punches
from the mount.

At the time still a brown belt, the heavyweight world champion,
Carlos
Barreto, was invited to replace Vitor
Belfort, facing the Russian sambo champion, Mikhail Iloukhine,
or “Yuri Micha,” whose only defeat had been to the giant Ricardo
Moraes in the final of the historic AFC 1 tournament in Russia,
when the Brazilian ended the fight deformed by the Russian’s
punches from the guard in his fifth fight that same night.

As expected, “Carlao” started pullind “Micha” to his guard, but
with his master Carlson and Liborio in his corner, he remained calm
and imposed the tactic of letting the Russian tire himself out by
trying to hit him from the guard. During the entire 10-minute first
round, Barreto remained calm on the bottom, defending against the
Russian’s attacks.

In the second round, Barreto defended a takedown attempt, landed on
top, and after landing punches from mount, took his back and locked
in a rear-naked choke, to the delight of Carlson, Wallid and
Liborio, who rushed into the ring to celebrate the victory that
would elevate Barreto from an inexperienced brown belt to the main
heavyweight of Carlson’s team.

Budokan Luta-Livre Dominates

Mixing the ground fighting taught by Joao
Ricardo with the muay thai of Luiz Alves, the Budokan
representatives impressed the Japanese with the traumatic way they
defeated their opponents. After knocking down Naohisa
Kawamura, Ebenezer
Fontes Braga beat the Japanese fighter so badly that he
collapsed in the ring with a deformed face at 3 minutes and 17
seconds into the fight.

Johil
de Oliveira followed the same playbook, having no difficulty
taking down, taking the back, and beating Akira Nagase
so badly that he broke two fingers on his own hand. Faced with the
Japanese fighter’s face, at the end of the first round, the doctors
did not allow him to return.

In the main event of the night against the local idol, 6-foot-7,
375-pound sumo representative Koji Kitao,
Pedro
Otavio ended up on the bottom. But not knowing what to do on
top, the Japanese fighter tried to poke his finger in the
Brazilian’s eye, who yelled for the referee Joao
Alberto Barreto to stop his behavior. Gradually, Kitao tired
and allowed the Brazilian to get to his back. In an advantageous
position, “The Pedro” landed a series of elbows and forced the
Japanese fighter to give up at 5 minutes and 49 seconds of the 1st
round.

Hugo Challenges Rickson, Makes Peace with Wallid

While everyone in Joao
Ricardo‘s group won, in Carlos Brunocilla’s wrestling group,
only Hugo
Duarte managed to finish his opponent. In the penultimate fight
of the night against the American Dieuseul
Berto, Hugo had no trouble taking down his opponent and
finishing him with a kimura from the side mount, his favorite
technique.

Aware of Rickson’s fame in Japan after winning two editions of the
Japan Open, Hugo used the post-fight interviews to challenge Gracie
to a trilogy on Japanese soil. Eighteen months later, Rickson would
return to Japan, but to face Takada in the first edition of Pride.
With the exception of Hugo, all the representatives of his team
were defeated. Antonio Bigu started fighting well against the much
heavier American Todd Medina,
but after gaining an advantage in the initial minutes, he ended up
being submitted at 6:06 with a guillotine choke.

In the worst fight of the night, Marcelo
Mendes, who had been defeated by Murilo
Bustamante in the Jiu-Jitsu vs. Luta-Livre Challenge in 1991,
couldn’t find his rhythm against the towering American Michael
Stam, who literally made him run out of the ring on two
occasions. On the last one, the Brazilian didn’t return to the
fight.

After four days of tense atmosphere between the Jiu-Jitsu and
Luta-Livre teams backstage at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, the
general of Luta-Livre, the day after the event, took the first step
to end the war between the two disciplines that had lasted for more
than ten years in Rio. After greeting the entire Jiu-Jitsu group,
Hugo hugged his biggest rival, Wallid: “Give me a hug, let’s end
this rivalry.” Two years later, in 1998 at Pride 4, Carlson would
reciprocate Hugo’s gesture by standing in Hugo’s corner during his
fight against Mark Kerr.