If You Can't Beat Them, Hire Them, Ivan Gomes

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Another dominant force of the Television Era was Ivan Simão da Cunha Gomes, commonly referred to as Ivan Gomes. Ivan was born on Christmas day, 1939 in Fazenda das Lajes, a ranch close to the town of Campina Grande, in the northeastern state of Paraíba. He was born into a wealthy family and was originally interested in following in his father’s footsteps by having a career in the cattle business, but a chance encounter while he was a teenager sent him on a different path.

In 1954, when Ivan was fifteen years old, he visited a weightlifting gym. There, he witnessed two men competing in some kind of combat sport. It is unknown who was fighting or what style of fighting they represented, but my guess is they were likely Boxing. Young Ivan became interested in training in combat sports and connected with a group of local instructors to train himself and his younger brothers, José and Jalido.

There is conflicting information as to who trained Gomes first, if he trained with all instructors at the same time and who actually promoted Ivan to Black Belt. However, according to Ivan’s brother, José:

· In 1954, Ivan and his brothers started training Boxing with a man nicknamed Tatá. The trainer had been based in Rio de Janeiro but relocated to the north. The trainer, realizing Ivan’s potential, began instructing him in Boxing, weightlifting and taught Gomes some rudimentary Jiu-Jitsu techniques.

· In 1957, the Gomes brothers supplemented their Boxing training by studying Jiu-Jitsu formally under Takeo Yano/George Gracie disciple, Osmar "Builson" Mouzinho de Oliveira.

· In 1958, Ivan expressed interest in pursuing a Vale Tudo career. To further develop that skillset, Gomes sought out José María Freire. Ze María was a former student of Nilo Veloso, who was a former student of George Gracie.

· In 1959, the Gomes brothers would also add Agatangelo Braga as a Jiu-Jitsu instructor. Braga was Builson’s brother-in-law, also from the Yano/George lineage and specialized in Vale Tudo.

In 1960, after six years of training, Braga promoted Ivan to Black Belt. Gomes reportedly had forty local, Boxing and Jiu-Jitsu matches under his belt, all without a single defeat. The twenty-one-year-old Ivan was then invited to relocate to Recife to take his career to the next level. At the time, Campina Grande only had a population of around 100,000, while Recife was a major city with around one million residents. The relocation to the major coastal city would give Gomes the opportunity for more and better training partners, bigger fights, bigger paydays and increased visibility.

Ivan had grown rapidly and would develop a very broad frame. He would later be billed during his professional wrestling years as 5’11” and 246 pounds, but my guess is he was actually around 5’10” and usually between 200 and 225 during his prime Vale Tudo years.

While in Recife, Ivan and José trained at Zé Maria Freire’s academy, which at the time had over thirty Black Belts. Ivan signed his first television contract to fight for Vale Tudo promotion, Ringues Torres. The show, sponsored by the clothing company Torres, aired fights on the local television channel weekly on Monday evenings. 

Gomes’ television career formally began on April 10, 1961, when he fought Gracie Academy student Moacir Luzia in a Vale Tudo match. Ivan was the aggressor during the fight against the larger Moacir who weighed 238 pounds (Gomes likely weighed around 200 pounds for this fight). Gomes landed two headbutts which caused Moacir, who was cornered by Helio Gracie, to become defensive and flee for most of the match. As there was no finish, it was ruled a draw.

Ivan would continue to fight Vale Tudo throughout the early 1960’s and never lose. He fought local champions from Paraiba, Ceará, Bahia, Rio Grande Do Sul and Guanabarra. In Recife, he drew with major Vale Tudo stars, Juarez Ferreira and Waldemar Santana. Ivan later won rematches over both with a three-minute armlock submission victory over Ferreira and a corner stoppage while applying an Americana to Santana. 

In 1961, Ivan left Zé Maria’s academy and began teaching at his own location, known as the Academia de Luta Livre, in an attempt to supplement his income. During this time Ivan would also fight in Vale Tudo matches on the television show Bolsa ao Venecdor (Money Bag to the Winner). 

Gomes would also train with noted Judokas Hayashi Kawamura and Masayoshi Saito. The two Judo players helped Gomes develop his signature throw, the fireman’s carry (Kata-Guruma).

It is unknown exactly how many Vale Tudo victories Gomes had during this time period as he often traveled across northern Brazil and had fights in smaller shows against local challengers. Some of these fights were not well documented, but I would estimate that he probably had two to three dozen additional matches between 1961 and 1963. His undefeated streak would cause Ivan to often be referred to as the Luta Livre or Vale Tudo champion of the North or Northeast. Many of his matches were broadcast on TV-Ringue Torre, a popular show that presented fights throughout the 1960’s. Ivan’s unbeaten streak, aggressive style and prominence on television set him on a collision course with the reigning Vale Tudo champion of Brazil, Carlson Gracie. 

The match between Carlson and Ivan was set for December 28, 1963. Ivan had just turned twenty-four and weighed 199 pounds. Carlson was thirty-two and weighed 168 pounds. The Vale Tudo fight occurred in Recife and was scheduled for three rounds of ten minutes each. Ivan was considered the aggressor throughout the fight, taking Carlson down six times to zero. Carlson was forced to go completely defensive, but Ivan was unable to finish his opponent. The match was ruled a draw, but his dominating performance over Carlson catapulted Ivan into super stardom.

While there was tremendous public interest in a rematch to decisively demonstrate who was Brazil’s best fighter, it never occurred. The reason for that is quite interesting.

It is true that Carlson and Ivan became good friends after their match, but that is not why the rematch failed to materialize. Carlson was good friends with Waldemar Santana too, but that did not stop Carlson from fighting Waldemar six times. Interestingly, Ivan would actually help Carlson prepare for some of his matches against Waldemar in 1965.

The real reason the rematch never occurred may be unique to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu history. While the below information is impossible to confirm with certainty, I believe it is quite credible and supported by evidence. 

Carlos and Helio appear to have been genuinely afraid of the damage Ivan could do the Gracie brand. A loss to Gomes would devastate the Gracie Academy’s claims of having a superior product and producing the best fighters.  Ivan was physically larger than their other major rival, Waldemar Santana. And unlike Waldemar, Ivan had no direct connection to the Gracie Academy. If the Gracies lost to Waldemar, they could (and did) spin it as a victory for the Gracie Academy as they had trained Santana. However, Ivan, with a George Gracie/Takeo Yano lineage, could not be claimed as a former student. 

The solution? 

Pay Ivan to be a student. It appears that Carlos and Helio entered into a financial contract with Ivan for him to become a formal student of the Gracie Academy. The exact details of the 1964 contract, I am unable to confirm, but according to Ivan’s brother José, the agreement involved multiple aspects:

· Ivan would agree to never challenge the Gracies again

· Gomes would be considered a student of the Gracie Academy

· He would be awarded a satellite academy in Rio where he and Carlson would teach together

The agreement appears to have remained in place throughout 1964 and 1965. The Gracie Academy published many photos of Carlson, Ivan and Helio (see gallery below) training and socializing. The pictures emphasize that Carlson and Ivan were equals and that both were students under Helio. Indeed, Carlson and Ivan taught jointly at their separate academy until Carlson left in 1965. The two fighters remained friends and Carlson continued to praise Ivan throughout his later years, often mentioning Gomes as his toughest challenge ever in the ring.

The arrangement crafted by Carlos and Helio worked:

· Ivan never challenged the Gracies again and Carlson was able to maintain his unofficial title of Brazilian National Champion.

· Helio could claim Ivan’s future successes as his own as he was publicized as Gomes’ instructor. This allowed Helio to claim to be the instructor to all the top Vale Tudo fighters of the time.

· The Gracie Academy was able to maintain an insurance policy. In the event Ivan did fight and defeat Gracies in the future, Carlos and Helio could claim it was still a victory for their Jiu-Jitsu.

In 1967, Ivan left his younger brother, Jalido, in charge of the Rio academy and returned to Recife to train and compete. Jalido remained at the Rio academy and became the first BJJ instructor of Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti. Jacare would go on to become one of only five Rolls Gracie Black Belts and found the dominant Alliance team. Alliance’s stars would include Fabio Gurgel, Marcelo Garcia, Leo Vieira and Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros.

Ivan would continue to travel Brazil fighting Vale Tudo matches into the early 1970’s. He would win or draw, but still never lose. Ivan would also fight one of the other super stars of the era, Euclides Pereira. Between 1964 and 1974, Gomes and the “Blonde Devil”, as he was called, would have five Vale Tudo fights, all of them ruled draws.

Gomes was sometimes noted in the press as having over 400 Vale Tudo victories. This number is, however, likely hyperbole by promoters to help sell fights. The number of 400 is quite interesting though. Twenty years later the press would once again claim a Brazilian Vale Tudo fighter had 400 wins. His name was Rickson Gracie. Did Helio leverage some of the legend of Ivan Gomes to help promote his son’s international career? Did Helio feel that a Gracie had to have the “record” for most wins?

By 1975, Ivan was thirty-six years old and slowing down. Twenty years of hard training and dozens of Vale Tudo fights were taking a toll on his body. While he maintained tremendous name recognition, he was likely looking for continued paydays with less risk. An opportunity presented itself that year when Ivan met with Antonio Inoki. The Japanese born professional wrestler who had spent some of his childhood living in Brazil had started a new professional wrestling promotion. The show, called New Japan Pro-Wrestling was touring Brazil and Inoki offered Gomes a contract. 

Ivan would join the pro-wrestling league and travel throughout Japan, Greece, Korea and Surinam competing in worked (scripted) matches. During his time with the wrestling troupe, he would teach the other grapplers his Luta Livre style, in particular, leglocks. There is some poetry to Ivan teaching Japanese grapplers techniques that were taught to Gomes’ instructors by Takeo Yano. 

In 1976, the promotion returned to Brazil to put on several more shows. On August 7 of that year, Gomes was involved in an extremely controversial incident. As the incident took place inside a pro-wrestling show against another pro-wrestler, people’s accounts of the incident are suspect. The pro-wrestlers had incentive to lie to protect the business (also known as kayfabe) and journalists and spectators, not well versed in legitimate fighting, were often unable to determine real from fake fighting. By analyzing all available information, I believe the following occurred.

Gomes was set to work a pro-wrestling match against champion Judoka, Willem Ruska. The Dutch Ruska had twice won the Judo world championships (1967 and 1971) and had two Olympic gold medals (1972 weight class and open weight) at 205 pounds. While Ruska was absolutely a legitimate threat to Gomes, he was clearly working as a professional wrestler at this time. After the incident, Ruska would continue to compete for New Japan Pro Wrestling for four years, often performing as part of a tag team with American Judoka Allen Coage (known to American audiences as “Bad News Allen or Bad News Brown”).

As Gomes had never lost a shoot (legitimate) match in Brazil, I do not find it credible that Inoki would schedule Gomes to lose. It would not have been what the crowd wanted, and it would have not been financially beneficial to the promotion. 

So, if it was clearly a worked match, with two pro-wrestlers inside a pro-wrestling show, why all the controversy? In my opinion, it is due to the match devolving into a shoot and the referee making a costly snap decision in an attempt to get the situation under control. 

As I discussed in my article on faked fights, sometimes a work turns into a shoot. This appears to be what happened. During the course of the worked match, Ivan accidently poked Ruska’s eye while trying to land an open palmed slap to the Judoka’s face. In pro-wrestling, when these kind of accidents occur, sometimes the victim gets revenge upon the other party by giving what is known as a “receipt”. Usually, after the receipt is given, the wrestlers consider themselves even and the worked match continues. In this case, Ruska issued the receipt by legitimately punching Gomes in the face. Either Gomes did not feel the receipt was fair or was not aware that he had injured Ruska’s eyes. Regardless, Gomes retaliated against Ruska by headbutting him as hard as he could. The match immediately morphed into a shoot Vale Tudo fight with both elite fighters attempting to genuinely hurt each other. Gomes then went for a guillotine and the match went to the ground. Ruska escaped the choke and ended up in mount. Ivan then escaped and took Ruska’s back sinking in a rear naked choke. Ruska grabbed the ropes attempting to get the fight stopped by the referee. As Ivan was not fighting under pro-wrestling rules, he ignored the referee and continued to apply the choke. The referee panicked and in an attempt to get the match under control, disqualified Gomes and awarded Ruska the victory.

The Brazilian crowd, not aware of the nuances of what was occurring thought their hero was defeated for the first time and a near riot ensued. Worse, they felt he was cheated and disqualified without proper justification. The Brazilian community remained so upset that after the show was over, the Rio athletic commission expelled the referee and Ruska from Brazil. 

While some people count this as a shoot loss for Ivan Gomes, I cannot. It was merely a pro-wrestling match that spiraled out of control and was halted. It was not a shoot Vale Tudo match from start to finish. Footage of the match is available on YouTube, but it only shows the beginning of the match (clearly a work) and the resulting chaos in the ring after the match is stopped. The shoot part of the match has been edited out by the promotion, in attempt to maintain kayfabe. 

Ivan would go on to have two more pro-wrestling matches with the promotion, winning both. After the tour ended, Gomes would return to Japan, teaching his style of Luta Livre until 1977 before once again returning to Brazil. Due to his time spent in Japan, Brazilians would often refer to Ivan as the “Samurai”. He would no longer compete but continued to maintain an academy in Campina Grande and spend his days as a rancher. Ivan passed away on March 2, 1990, at the age of 50 due to renal failure. 

Ivan’s legacy lives on. In addition to having a street named after him in Campina Grande, a handful of academies throughout the Brazilian north and northeast can trace their lineages to Ivan and his brothers. Brother José along with José’s son Ivan, run a BJJ federation in Recife and have affiliate academies in the United States and Europe. Most importantly, generations of Brazilian and Japanese fighters were directly and indirectly influenced by the teaching, the fighting and the tale of the “Samurai”.