Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Kimura's vale tudo against Santana

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Kimura's vale tudo against Santana

    Here is an very interesting excerpt from Kimura's my judo book. Also included is Carlson Gracies view on Santana. It is amazing that Kimura could draw with the Brazil No. 2 VT champion when he was past his prime. This is a great excerpt and I would like to hear your comments on it.

    "My opponent Adema (Valdimar) Santana was a 25 year old black man, and was a boxing heavy weight champion. He was 4th dan in judo, and a capoeira champion as well. He was 183cm had a well proportioned impressive physique. His weight was close to 100kg. Bahia, where the match took place, is a port city where black slaves were unloaded. The slaves were forbidden to carry a weapon. As a result, many martial arts were developed by them, I heard. Vale Tudo is one of such martial arts. In the south of Sao Paulo, pro wrestling is popular. But the farther one goes to the north, the more popular Vale Tudo becomes. Helio Gracie, whom I had previously fought, was the champion in Vale Tudo. But Adema Santana challenged him the previous year (Note: 1957), and after 2 hours and 10 minutes, Helio got kicked in the abdomen, could not get up, and got knocked out. Thus, Adema had become the new champion. In Vale Tudo, no foul is allowed. 1 foul results in an immediate disqualification. No shoes are allowed. When the fighters are separated, they are not allowed to strike with a fist, and they have to use open hand strikes. But once they get in contact with each other, every type of strike is allowed but groin strikes. All types of throws and joint locks are legal. The winner is decided when one of the fighters is KO'd or surrenders. Biting and hair pulling were illegal. Since bare-knuckle punches are traded, taking direct 2 or 3 hits in the eye means the end of the fight. I was told there have been many cases in which a fighter got hit in the eye with an elbow, and the eyeball popped out from the socket by half, and got carried to the hospital by an ambulance. Therefore, there were always 2 ambulances at the entrance of the arena.
    "I have no choice. I will fight." I said. Then, the promoter grinned, took out a form and told me to sign it. Yano translated the content, which said, "Even if I die in this match, it is what I intended, and will not make anyone accountable for my death." I nodded, and signed the form. On my way to the ring, someone raised his arm and waved at me. It was Helio Gracie, whom I had not seen for several years. Helio was at the radio broadcast seat. He was the commentator of the match. The gong rang. Adema and I circled the ring first. I lightly extended my fingers in a half-body posture, and prepared for his kicks. Adema, also in a half-body posture, had tucked his chin, tightened his underarms, as he would do in a boxing match. Once in a while, he delivered high kicks to my face.

    "I blocked the kicks with my hands, and returned a kick with my right leg. Adema started to deliver right and left roundhouse kicks. I stepped back and dodged them, but suddenly, I received a fire-like impact on my face. It was an open hand strike. I had overlooked his hand motion, paying too much attention to his kicks. When I got hit in the temple, and the core of my head became a blur, left and right roundhouse kicks came. When I blocked his right kick with my left hand, a tremendous pain ran through from the tip of the little finger to the back of the hand. I had jammed the finger. I traded kicks with him. The entire audiences were standing with excitement. Even in this situation, I was able to think clearly. While I was thinking 'Adema is one level higher than I both in kicks and open hand strikes. In order to win, I must take the fight to the ground,' another fast kick flew at my abdomen.

    "I struck the kick down with left knife hand, and jumped in to deliver a head butt on his abdomen with a momentum that could penetrate through his body. This must have had an effect on him. He covered his abdomen, and stepped back while wobbling. I wanted to get close to him, throw him, get on top of him, and use Newaza. If I succeed in this, I could use elbow strikes and head butts. Adema recovered from the damage, and delivered a kick to my face again. I ducked the kick, and jumped in for a clinch. I got in a tight clinch to prevent him from using knee kicks or elbow strikes. We traversed along the rope. All of a sudden, I received a head cracking impact. I experienced a tremendous ear ringing, and got momentarily unconscious. I received a head butt on my left temple. It was a head butt from a side. I had thought that all the head butts would come from front. I never knew a side head butt. 'I cannot lose here. I must win even if I may die,' I thought. Driven by this will power, I tried to find a way to fight back. The referee then came in between to separate us. We were already covered with blood. The fight was brought back to the center of the ring again. Adema threw a right open hand strike. I caught the arm and attempted Ippon-seoi. It seemed like I could score a clean throw. However, it was a miscalculation. We were both heavily covered with sweat as if a large amount of water had been poured onto our heads. Moreover, he had no jacket on. There was no way such a technique could have worked under these conditions. His arm slipped through, and my body rotated in the air once forward, and landed on my back. 'I screwed up!' I shouted in my mind, but it was too late. Adema immediately jumped at me. If he got on my chest, he could freely strike my eyes, nose, and chest with his elbows."

    I caught him in a body scissors. I squeezed his body with full force hoping to sever his intestine. Adema crumbled momentarily, but did not surrender. Since the body scissors did not finish him, I realized that I was in a disadvantageous position. When I lifted my head, hundreds of stars flew out of my eyes. I took a straight punch between my nose and my eyes. It was an accurate intense punch. The back of my head got slammed onto the mat.

    "Moreover, an intense head butt attacked my abdomen. 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." - (From My Judo, by Masahiko Kimura , 1985)

    Carlson Gracie Comments on his fights with Valdemar Santana:
    "Valdemar was a student of the family for twelve or thirteen years. 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 Valdemar won. In fact, I was a friend of his, and told him: "look Valdemar, we are friends, but now I can't let it pass, you beat Helio, now your going to have to fight me. I have nothing against you, but in the ring, I'm going to beat the shit out of you!" And I did. I fought against him six times. I won four times, and two were a draw. He was tough shit. If it were today, he would be one of the best fighters". (From O'Tatame magazine (Brazil) Translated by Tatiana Andres, 1997)

  • #2
    Great Post

    CDK. Very interesting......actually I thought that Santana Kicked Helio in the head and KO'd him (kinda suckered him).

    I think it is interesting that Kimura referred to Sanatan as a Judoka. Also, I think it is interesting the discussion of what worked and what did not. I think that best part was the explanation of a true warriors mentality. Oh and I agree Kimura was nearly twice the age of santana to tie in his first VT amazing....ppl could learn from Kimura about heart, mental discipline, technical knowlege, conditioning and no steriods

    Comment


    • #3
      I thought that the kick happened too. But Kimura might have misheard or something. Santana indeed practiced judo I believe, along with bjj. I think Kimura basically considered BJJ Judo. It basically is what judo was like before the Olympic thing. I heard that Kimura invited Helio over to Japan to teach because he was keeping the "old" techniques alive.

      Comment


      • #4
        Great

        Excellent article, I think some things were lost in the translation, thats why there are some possible inaccuracies. Santana must have a sharp head if he could split Kimura's intestines

        Comment


        • #5
          What is makes this fight even more amazing was that Kimura had a one day notice and did not get to prepare while Sanatan spent a while preparong for this moment and Kimura had an injury in his ankle that was so bad that his doctor said he could not fight or train.

          Comment

          Working...
          X