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Anyone sick of Olympic judo (etc) coverage around here? Yeah, me neither.

In fact, whenever I feel like I’m burning out on MMA (like lately), I try and catch some jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai (etc.), and I would encourage anyone to do the same.

The cold fact is that fighters in MMA’s shallow talent pool are all trying to learn a variety of techniques, leading to more and more amatuerish fights making TV, and sometimes you end up feeling like you’re watching the same sloppy stalemate fight over and again. Sloppy boxing. Clinch. Knees to the body. Someone gets tripped. Groundwork that goes nowhere. Standup. Zzzzzzz… been there?

Of course, now and then an MMA bout seems to have it all… and as you can see from this video, it appears that they have been happening for more than 50 years. This is one of six fights between Carlson Gracie and Waldemar Santana which took place in the 1950’s. Props to Andreh Anderson( himself a Carlson Gracie black belt) for posting this to Underground Forum. What I’d give for the full version!

In the 1950’s the Gracie Academy was flying high, with Helio Gracie at the helm. Helio recently recalled to Gracie Magazine, “We had 600 students per month for over 20 years… Sometimes, people would wait a whole year to sign up for their class. Everything was full, from seven in the morning to seven at night. The teachers ate in the gym, there was no time.”

On of those instructors was Helio’s nephew Carlson Gracie, whose students, and students’ students, would eventually make up the majority of top Brazilian jiu-jitsu players in MMA.

One of the students was Waldemar Santana.

“Waldemar was a student of the family for twelve or thirteen years,” Carlson Gracie recalled in a 1997 interview. “He fought more than 20 times for our academy. What happened was, he had a disagreement with Helio Gracie, and they decided to fight vale tudo, and Waldemar won. In fact, I was a friend of his, and told him: ‘Look Waldemar, we are friends, but now I can’t let it pass, you beat Helio, now you’re going to have to fight me. I have nothing against you, but in the ring, I’m going to beat the s–t out of you!’ And I did. I fought against him six times. I won four times, and two were a draw. He was tough s–t. If it were today, he would be one of the best fighters.”

So, by the time of this bout (and sadly I’m still unclear which of the six this is), Helio Gracie had already fought his famous match with Masahiko Kimura and of course, what would be his final vale tudo; the titanic struggle against this former student, mostly forgotten in jiu-jitsu circles, Waldemar Santana. Santana’s victory took several hours to earn — some accounts say the fight lasted 3 hours, 45 minutes, others two hours and ten minutes.

The bout between Carlson and Waldemar looks more like a modern one than one might expect. There’s a low kick exchange to begin. Santana spins in for a go-behind, and gets a takedown. Gracie fights to his feet, works an overhook, and launches a series of uchi matas. He ends up in guard, then out of the ring in a scramble. Santana with a double leg and Gracie works for a Kimura in the guard. Santana stands out of the guard.Another double leg, and we appear to hit the time limit and reach a draw.

It’s easy to look at this clip, as well as the fantatic Jiu Jitsu is More Than You Think! newsreel promo from the 1950’s, and see the Kodokan judo influence. (You’ve also got to love the Charles Atlas story at the end of that clip.) We also get several of the hallmarks of modern MMA, with the low kick exchange to begin and a nice Kimura attempt from the guard by Gracie. One thing I didn’t get was the kind of tenacity I’d expect from Santana having read Masahiko Kimura (himself)’s account of his vale tudo bout with the man:

“…it felt like my organs would be torn into pieces. Once, twice, I hardened my abdominal muscles to withstand the impact, and waited for the 3rd attack. At the moment the 3rd head butt came, my right fist accurately caught Adema’s face by counter. It landed between his nose and eyes. Blood splattered. I had also already been heavily covered with blood. The blood interfered with my vision. “Kill him, kill him!” the devil in my mind screamed. Adema wobbled, and stepped back, and tried to run with the ropes on his back.

“I chased him throwing kicks and open hand strikes. He returned head butts and elbow strikes. But, neither of us was able to deliver a decisive strike. Maybe we were both exhausted, or maybe the blood in our eyes prevented us from aiming clearly at the target. After all, the 40 minutes ran out, and the match ended in a draw. It was my first Vale Tudo experience. That night, my face was badly swollen. I had a number of cuts on my face. Every time I breathed, an excruciating pain ran through my belly, and I could not sleep. I received an injection from a doctor, and cooled my belly with a cold towel all night. However, I learned a very important lesson in this fight. That is, one must never fear death. If I had not had the iron will to fight despite the possibility of getting killed, his head butts would have torn my intestine into pieces.”

Regardless, the video is a great find, to me anyway. Typical of great finds, it raises questions of its own. Were headbutts, which Sanana clearly used to great effect against Kimura, disallowed or did they simply not make tape? Zulu claims rule changes marred his second fight against Rickson. What’s Santana’s side of this story, including the grudge with Helio?

I don’t know, but fights like this remind me that I know a good fight when I see one, and I’m ready to see some more.