![]() ![]() Ī peculiar incident happened three days before the bout when a newspaper published a headline saying Kimura was not a Japanese martial artist, but a bluffer of Japanese-Peruvian descent (or Cambodian, according to Kimura's account). Expectation was such that, according to Georges Mehdi, Kimura was warned by the Japanese embassy that he would not be welcomed back in Japan if he lost the match. Until then, Hélio trained at the Gracie Academy, while Kimura trained at Yasuichi and Naoichi Ono's academy. It was announced that Yamaguchi rejected the challenge for fear of injury and that he would be replaced by Kimura, and the match was set in October 23. Yamaguchi accepted, but Kimura volunteered himself to fight in his place. Gracie's students paraded through the streets carrying a coffin, symbolizing Kato's defeat, and Hélio challenged next Toshio Yamaguchi, the second in rank and experience of the three Japanese men. While newspapers immediately questioned Hélio’s victory, with Diário de Notícias pointing out the illegality of his action, the loss still affected the troupe's reputation among the Japanese population of Brazil, who now saw them as phonies. ![]() ![]() Although Kato, whom the ropes impeded from repositioning, tried to counter it by resuming his hold, he lost consciousness, forcing Kimura to throw the towel. At that moment, Kato froze in the belief the referee would stop the action to disentangle them and drag them away from the ropes, but it didn't happen, which allowed Hélio to lock his choke during Kato's mistake. After half an hour of fighting, Kato decided to take the bout to the ground and attempted to choke Gracie with juji-jime, which caused them to become entangled with the ring ropes when Hélio tried to counter with his own. Again, Kato dominated the early rounds and threw Hélio several times, even tossing him out of the ring at one point. The match took place on September 29 at the Ginásio do Ibirapuera in São Paulo. As the crowds were unsatisfied, Kato offered Hélio a rematch, this time without time limits. The three-round match was controlled by Kato thanks to his superiority at throwing, but the mats were too soft to make his throws decisive and thus Hélio was able to perform ukemi-waza until the end of the time, ending the match in a draw. Kato and Hélio faced off on Septemat Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. As Kato was relatively inexperienced in challenge matches, while Gracie had several on his record, the bout was advertised as a special fight between a professional and an amateur. After some negotiations, Hélio accepted and trained to fight Kato. In response, the troupe demanded Hélio face Yukio Kato, the lowest ranked member of the group and the most similar to him in size, weighing both around 70 kg (154 lbs). As expected, Hélio Gracie challenged the alleged champion to a match, though demanding Kimura to fight Gracie's apprentice Pedro Hemeterio first in order to prove he was a true champion. The newspapers also hailed the three judokas as legitimate black belts in the art of jiu-jitsu while deriding the Gracie brothers as fake black belts. When the troupe arrived at São Paulo, Kimura was bestowed with the fictional title of "world's jiu-jitsu champion" by the Brazilian press, which saw it as an opportunity to draw attention. Expecting Kimura's troupe to attract Gracie's interest for a challenge match, Yano and his partner Yasuichi Ono helped Mizuno to bring them to Brazil. Yano had competed against Hélio in a jiu-jitsu match in 1937, dominating the bout but being unable to avoid a time draw, so he had asked for a rematch over the years to no avail (he had also worked extensively in catch wrestling events with George Gracie, who wasn't considered to be at Carlos' and Hélio's side at the time). The idea had been proposed by resident judoka Takeo Yano due to his very public enmity with the brothers Carlos and Hélio Gracie, practitioners of " jiu-jitsu" (as judo was called in Brazil at the time). In 1949, after competing in Hawaii, Kimura and his professional wrestling troupe formed by 6th dan Toshio Yamaguchi and 5th dan Yukio Kato traveled to Brazil by invitation of Ryo Mizuno from the São Paulo Shimbun newspaper. The result of the fight was a victory for Kimura by technical submission. It was held as a special challenge, with no titles on the line: Gracie was the self-proclaimed national jiu-jitsu champion, seen as a regular judo 6th dan by Kimura, while Kimura himself was coming from a career in professional wrestling and teaching of judo. The fight between Japanese judoka Masahiko Kimura and Brazilian jiu-jitsu founder Hélio Gracie was held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on October 23, 1951. Martial arts fight between Kimura and Gracie Date ![]()
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