‘Ice Cold’ in the Tropical Heat: Igor Vovchanchyn at WVC 5

After featuring era-defining fights in the first four editions of his World Vale Tudo Championship tournaments — Jose Landi-Jons vs. Jorge Patino, Fabio Gurgel vs. Mark Kerr and Marco Ruas vs. Oleg Taktarov — Brazilian promoter Frederico Lapenda put on a historic eight-man, single-elimination tournament at WVC 5, bringing three Americans, four Brazilians and one Ukrainian to his hometown of Recife, in the northeast of Brazil.

Besides the Ukrainian, Igor Vovchanchyn, and Ultimate Fighting Championship veterans Pat Smith and Paul Varelans, Lapenda also invited three American VIPs: Hollywood star Don “The Dragon” Wilson and wrestling aces Kerr and Mark Coleman, who brought his new talent Nick Nutter to participate in the tournament.

From 4 Below to the Hottest Vale Tudo Tournament Ever

Winning a vale tudo tournament in Brazil in the 1990s was equivalent to a kind of postgraduate diploma in any fighter’s curriculum vitae. The biggest proof of this is that those who had that diploma, whether from the IVC or WVC, tended to accomplish big things: Wanderlei Silva, “Pele,” Dan Henderson, Kerr, Kevin Randleman and Pedro Rizzo. “Nothing can be harder than fighting three fights in one night, without gloves and with 10-minute rounds,” future Pride Fighting Championships superstar Silva used to say.

In February 1998, Vovchanchyn joined that gallery. In the last week of January of that year, Igor left the harsh Moscow winter — four degrees below zero when he left — to fight at WVC 5, an elimination tournament of 8 fighters without gloves and with 10-minute rounds, which ended up being contested in a 113-degree arena.

Why was it so hot? The outdoor temperature in Recife was 90 degrees, but the problem was the poorly functioning air conditioner at Fun House Night Club, the host venue. During my 30 years in MMA, I’ve covered hundreds of events in the northeast and north of Brazil, the Middle East and Africa and never felt that melting sensation. But if was tough for reporters and audience, imagine how it was for the fighters.

Even with all the adversity, the 5-foot-8, 213-pound Vovchanchyn arrived as the favorite, but he knew the task would not be an easy one. If he won his quarterfinal, he would have a good chance of facing Smith in the semifinal. In the grand finale, everything suggested that he would draw Coleman’s new protégé, 233-pound wrestler Nutter who coincidentally had fought Vovchanhcyn three months earlier in the final of a tournament in Israel (IAFC). In that first encounter the American had dominated the fight, until he was surprised by a head butt at the 25-minute mark. Bleeding heavily, Nutter decided to give up. “This time it will be different, we train a lot and I know that Nutter is superior to Igor and will win,” Coleman told me at the weigh-ins. In order for that rematch to occur, however, the two would have to fight hard.

The Impressive Nick Nutter

In the very first fight, Nutter showed that he wasn't being appointed as a new promise by Mark Coleman by chance. In just three minutes, the wrestler took down local fighter Lucio Carvalho and forced him to give up with a barrage of punches from the guard. On the same side of the bracket, the giant Varelans had no problem knocking down Valdir dos Anjos, who, with a bleeding brow, immediately asked to stop, ensuring an all-American semifinal.

On the other side of the bracket, Vovchanchyn had his first fight against 165-pound sniper Tulio Palhares. The Chinese boxing representative even started well, hitting the Russian a few times, but soon Vovchanchyn printed his game and, after hitting some low kicks and a good cross, forced Palhares to stop. In the last quarterfinal, Smith had no problem beating local Marco Selva, who in 1988 had tied with Ruas in an event in Manaus. Ten years later, however, a visibly unprepared Selva showed only bravery as he endured the blows of Smith, who even broke his hand after hitting the Brazilian from the mount. At 4 minutes, 35 seconds, Selva withdrew, but Smith, injured, would not be able to fight Igor in the semifinals.

‘The Master of Death’ Challenges ‘The Smashing Machine’

Backstage at the event, the atmosphere was tense. As if the poorly functioning air conditioning wasn't enough in the heat of Recife’s summer, the “Master of Death,” martial arts charlatan Sebastiao Lacerda, and his disciple Edson Carvalho shared the same VIP area with American guests Wilson and Kerr. Lacerda was a rich man from the North of Brazil who appeared in Rio de Janeiro in 1996 claiming to have spent a long period in Japan learning “the deadly art of Yawara.” Behaving like a Thomas Green Morton of martial arts, Lacerda was able to bring some real fighters to his sect, including Ruas and Edson Carvalho, who was a respected judo national team member and a Carlson Gracie black belt. Ruas soon fell out, but Carvalho kept on participating in Lacerda’s challenge, always attacking not only jiu-jitsu but all fighting styles. According to Lacerda, nothing could be compared to the real “deadly technique” of Yawara.

Before the final fight of the tournament, the owner of the nightclub, Edsa Sampaio, called Lacerda for a tribute in the center of the octagon. Carvalho stepped in the cage with the master, asked for the microphone and made his challenge: “I didn't understand why Mark Kerr gave up fighting me at the last minute. I've been training for three months and I want to challenge him again in front of all of you.”

Kerr, at the time the most respected fighter in the world, didn't even go up to the octagon to answer Carvalho, but he talked to me backstage and explained the situation. “Who is this guy? Where did he fight, has he fought someone you know? I heard he had a problem with [Wallid Ismail], so fight Wallid then before challenging me. If He beats the winner of tonight's tournament I’ll be glad to return here and make him my bitch,” Kerr told me, revealing in the sequence another reason that prevented him from fighting in Brazil. “I'm being sued by the UFC because I was going to fight [Royce Gracie] at Pride 2, so my lawyer advised me not to fight in another event. For now, my goal is to fight a Gracie, Royce or Rickson, when I can. I’ll be happy to come to Recife and break this Edson in two. I don’t like being challenged in this way at all.”

A 14-Second Knockout and a Lesson for the ‘Master of Death’

In the first semifinal Nutter literally ran over “The Polar Bear” Varelans, in under four minutes. After knocking Varelans down, he took mount and forced the referee to interrupt the fight due to a heavy bleeding in the giant's eyebrow, caused by ground punches. In the other semifinal, as Smith had broken his hand, local Elias Rodrigues “Black Devil” took his place to face Vovchanchyn in one of the best matches of the event.

It was almost 11 minutes of a lot of striking. With the support of the crowd, Rodrigues started hitting the Ukrainian, but soon Igor's experience started to make the difference. Combining low kicks with jabs and straight punches, Vovchanchyn took down the Brazilian four times. In one of these opportunities, Igor mounted and forced Elias to give up with a barrage of punches, guaranteeing the final with Nutter.

After the war in Israel, the rematch between Nutter and Igor had been expected as another long and hard battle of the tournament, but that was not what happened. In the very first move of the fight, Coleman's disciple telegraphed his double leg and Vovchanchyn received him with a well-aimed knee. The American fell unconscious after just 14 seconds of combat. While Vovchanchyn celebrated with his trainer, Coleman climbed the nearly three meters of fence to go and help his pupil.

In addition to the WVC heavyweight championship belt, Vovchanchyn would leave this tournament as one of the most feared fighters in the world, with a record of 32 fights and only 2 losses to that point. One year later, Vovchanchyn would return to Recife to defend his belt and shut up the “Master of Death” by knocking out Carvalho in 3 minutes, 16 seconds.

The Ukrainian would fight for another seven years before retiring in 2005 with a record of 66 fights and 55 wins. Unfortunately, the prospect Nutter would never be seen in MMA events again.

Twenty-Eight Brazilian Vale Tudo Events

In the 1990s, two events were of fundamental importance as platforms for launching new talent: WVC (World Vale-Tudo Championship) and IVC (International Vale-Tudo Championship). Conceived by Lapenda, the WVC launched in November 1996 the career of Ruas’ disciple, Pedro Rizzo, winner of the WVC 2 tournament. At WVC 3, held in January 1997 at the Maksoud Plaza hotel in Sao Paulo, it would be Kerr’s turn to consecrate himself after beating Varelans, Sidney Goncalves Freitas and Gurgel in the same night, while in the superfight, Rizzo knocked out the WVC 1 tournament winner, Richard Heard. WVC 4, in March 97, would be marked by a historic tournament where “Pele” would beat “Macaco” for the second time, but would lose to Johil de Oliveira in a bloody 30-minute final. In the superfight, Ruas beat Smith.

A disagreement between promoters Lapenda and Sergio Batarelli at WVC 4 would lead to the creation of the IVC, which had 14 editions between 1997 and 2001. Lapenda would continue running WVC. After this fifth edition, there would be 10 more: five in Recife, three in Havana and one in Aruba. La Penda and Batarelli held a total of 28 events in the 1990s, which were of fundamental importance for Brazilian vale tudo.