IVC 10 & 11: Wanderlei Silva Bids Farewell to Brazil on the Night of the Bloodiest Tournament in MMA History

Wanderlei Silva, Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons, Eugene Jackson, Johil de Oliveira, Carlos "Carlao" Barreto, "The" Pedro Otavio, Milton Bahia, Nilson "Nilsao" de Castro, Alexandre Barros, Claudionor da Silva Fontinelle, Haroldo “Cabelinho” Bunn and Flavio Luiz Moura. With so many talents gathered, International Vale Tudo Championship promoter Sergio Batarelli knew he could easily produce two events in one. That would become IVC “Double Impact,” held in Maceio, Brazil, on April 28, 1999. In an era when many fight fans bought cassette tapes at video rental stores, this permitted Batarelli to produce two and double his profits. IVC 10 delivered four super fights: Silva vs. Jackson, “Carlao” vs. “The Pedro,” Bahia vs. Bunn and Silvio Urutum vs Augusto Menezes. The IVC 11 tape contained the rematch between “Pele” and de Oliveira, in addition to eight fights in the 80kg (176-pound) tournament.

Wanderlei: Two Knockouts in Nine Days

What fighter would book a fight at a regional event in his home country, knowing that he was scheduled to make his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in America in nine days? Add to that the fact that the local fight was for a belt and it was against Jackson, who was on a streak of seven impressive wins. The pressure on Silva was compounded by the presence of UFC matchmaker John Perretti, who had promised Batarelli that his champion would debut at UFC 20 in nine days—if he won and didn't get hurt, obviously.

The high stakes had only one effect on Silva: an exponential increase in aggression. The Curitiba native needed exactly 32 seconds to knock down and ground-and-pound the American, driving the crowd crazy. Nine days later, Wanderlei did not disappoint Perretti in his UFC debut, knocking out Tony Petarra in 2:53 of his first international fight. Four months later, Silva would make his target="_blank">Pride Fighting Championships debut, which would lead to the longest reign of a middleweight (93kg) during the decade in which the Japanese promotion existed.

“Carlao” Defeats “The Pedro”—and Almost Punches the UFC’s Matchmaker

In one of the most awaited superfights of the night, “Carlao” Barreto gave a real grappling lesson to the luta-livre representative, Otavio. The Carlson Gracie black belt took Otavio down, passed his guard, took the back and, after a barrage of punches, forced “The Pedro” to give up at 6 minutes, 19 seconds. The fight was so easy that Perretti told “Carlao” that the fight had been fixed when Barreto came to greet him. “F*** you,” replied the Brazilian, as he was restrained by Batarelli.

“Thanks to that IVC, ‘Carlao’ never set foot in the UFC again,” Perretti told me after the episode.

“This guy should respect the vale tudo history in Brazil. I’m from the lineage of Carlson Gracie. ‘Marmelada’ [a thrown fight] would never be accepted by us. If he doesnt know the origin of the sport that feeds him, he should at least respect our history,” a revolted Barreto told me after he had cooled down.

Johil x “Pele” 2: A Fight that Started in the Airport

It was no secret that Pele’s defeat by Oliveira in the semifinal of WVC 4, when he was disfigured by the luta-livre representative with many headbutts in 30 minutes of combat, has not sat well with him. What no one expected is that the two would run into one another in the middle of the airport. That's what happened on the landing of the flight that took the entire delegation to Maceio. Thanks to the authoritative presence of their coaches, Rudimar Fedrigo and Joao Ricardo, the fight ended up only taking place in the ring.

Contrary to the first confrontation, when “Pele” came from nine minutes of war with Jorge Patino, in the opening of the IVC tournament he arrived much more prepared physically and dominated the action on the feet. On the only two occasions that the Budokan representative managed to take the fight to the ground, Oliveira was not as effective in headbutting as the first time. At the end of 30 minutes, the judges declared the unanimous victory of “Pele,” who took the under-80kg belt for the main national MMA event back to Curitiba. Nine months after this fight, “Pele” would show the world why he was being named No. 1 in the world under 80 kg, beating UFC champion Pat Miletich by technical knockout in the United States and winning the WEF belt.

Another representative of Chute Boxe who stood out in the IVC 10 was Silvio "Urutum." Three months after being defeated by The Pedro at IVC 9, the capoeira fighter showed why he was part of Chute Boxe's team A by defeating the tough Sergipe Augusto "Monstro" with punches from the mount at 8:25.

In the other superfight, striker Bahia didn't give the experienced black belt “Cabelinho” Bunn a chance. Alexandre Paiva's student started well, taking his opponent to the ground on two occasions, but the slippery Bahia fell out of the ring on both occasions and the fight had to be restarted on the feet. On the third attempt, Bahia blocked “Cabelinho” and, after landing a hook, took him to the ground. To beat Cabelinho's excellent guard, Bahia started hitting his feared stomps over the guard, which he named “Tas Bahia.” On the first attempt, Bahia tried a footlock, but later he couldn't block the blows anymore, which ended up breaking his rib, forcing him to give up. With this victory, Bahia became one of the most feared fighters in the division with four wins in five fights. His only defeat had been to the champion of the category, “Pele,” who knocked him out in the final of IVC 5.

A Tournament Marked by the Bloodiest Fight Ever

For those who witnessed the first editions of the IVC and WVC, marked by one-night, three-fight tournaments where anything was allowed and the athletes didn't wear gloves, it is very difficult to pinpoint which was the bloodiest fight ever held. Until IVC 5, the dispute was even between the final of IVC 2 (Wanderlei and Artur Mariano) and the semifinal of IVC 5 (Pele vs Jorge Pereira), but the final fight of IVC 11 (Nilson de Castro vs Flavio Moura) put an end to all doubts.

The tournament began with veteran Fontinelle knocking out Andre Fernandes of Budokan. In the celebration, the man from Maranhao got the crowd of 8,000 on their feet by rehearsing breakdance steps, ending the performance with a beautiful finish. On that same side of the bracket, Flavio Moura from Budokan beat the only American in the tournament, Doug Evans in less than two minutes. After being taken to the ground by the American wrestler, Moura managed to get up putting Evans down by force, forcing Batarelli to interrupt the fight after applying a sequence of punches from the guard.

In the semifinals, as Lucas and Fontenelle both broke their hands in their matches, Batarelli was forced to pull a local fighter out of his hat to face Flavio: kickboxer Carlos Lopes, who was no match for the Budokan athlete. Moura took him down, took the back and, after a rain of elbows, applied a rear naked choke forcing Lopes to tap in 1 minute, 57 seconds.

Mouthpiece Decides Semifinal between Chute Boxe and Ruas Vale Tudo

Meanwhile, the other bracket began with a 20-minute battle between two of the main striking schools in Brazil: Ruas Vale Tudo, represented by Alexandre Barros, and Chute Boxe, by Nilson de Castro. The fight was a war with Nilson taking advantage standing and “Baixinho” countering with takedowns. About 15 minutes later, Castro began to show signs of fatigue. But when things looked to be looking up for the Ruas representative, he lost his mouth protector unintentionally. As according to the rules, he couldn't replace it, “Baixinho” ended up losing a tooth in the sequence, in another violent exchange of blows. From then on, the representative of Ruas began to bleed profusely, forcing the doctors to stop the fight at 19:31. “If the doctors didn't stop Alexandre he would go all the way. There has to be a rematch next time,” Pedro Rizzo told me as soon as “Baixinho” came down from the ring. Four months after this historic war in his debut, Baixinho would return to the IVC winning three fights in one night and earning the IVC 13 title.

“Nilsao” reached the semifinals against Milton Bahia's partner, Gilberto “Yoruba” Santos, with a deep cut on his eyebrow. Santos took advantage of the target to increase the cut with a hook, taking the Curitiban to the ground in the sequence, where he managed to open another cut with an elbow. But Castro managed to return to the fight to the feet, defining his spot in the final by knocking Yoruba out at 4:25 with a series of punches and a knee.

After two wars against “Baixinho” (19 minutes, 31 second) and Santos (4 minutes, 25 seconds), “Nilsao” reached the final with two huge cuts. Under any current athletic commission rules he wouldn’t have been let near an event for the next six months—but at the IVC, honor came first and the need to reinforce the Chute Boxe team as a new powerhouse in Brazilian MMA led these fighters to go beyond all limits.

Even though he was badly damaged, Nilsão started the final with an advantage, knocking Flavio down and attacking him with punches from the guard. At this time, however, his two huge cuts opened and blood began to spurt over his opponent. By this time, photographers, corners and everyone around the ring were already splattered with blood. There was so much flow that it forced Moura to close both eyes. Faced with this Dante-esque scene, the doctors finally decided to interrupt to examine the athlete. Declaring the end of the fight seemed obvious, right? Not on the IVC. In view of Rudimar and Nilsao's requests, the doctors, unbelievably, decided to authorize the continuation of the fight. After a brief exchange, Flavio went to the clinch and took Nilsao down. With the powerful attacks from inside the guard, Castro's cuts began to bleed profusely and the doctors decided to stop it at 4:38. Flavio Luiz Moura was crowned champion of the bloodiest tournament in the history of combat sports.