The International Vale Tudo Championship is planning to hold an event for the first time is nearly a decade, and its bringing back a classic rule set and a sole 30-minute round.
IVC founder and president Sergio Batarelli confirmed to MMA Fighting that he’s targeting a card for around September or October in Sao Paulo, Brazil. IVC hasn’t held an event since 2016, when it shifted from the vale tudo rule set to the unified rules.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while now,” Batarelli said. “I came back [in 2016] but had to use modern MMA rules and it didn’t go as I wanted, so I gave up. After bare-knuckle boxing started to grow [in the United States] and Jorge Masvidal started his bare-knuckle MMA promotion, that excited me again.”
The list of illegal actions is short under IVC rules and includes fish hooking, eye gouging, groin strikes, and pulling of the hair. By IVC rules, several strikes banned by the unified rules are legal, including headbutts. Batarelli said it’s likely IVC will also allow jumping stomps to the head and soccer kicks.
“Headbutts are wonderful. That’s what made the Wanderlei Silva vs. Artur Mariano so iconic,” Batarelli said. “IVC was considered by the American media at the time the world’s most violent and real promotion, and fighters love it. Many fighters reached out to me asking to fight under vale tudo rules. I was as surprised as happy.”
IVC launched in 1997 and held 12 events in just over two years, featuring future MMA stars such as Silva, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Severn. Other names like Gary Goodridge, Mike Van Arsdale, Rafael Cordeiro, and Renato Sobral also competed under the IVC banner in the 1990s. Batarelli said he sold the IVC library to the UFC in the past but still owns the International Vale Tudo Championship name.
Batarelli said IVC will be regulated by the Brazilian Confederation of Vale Tudo Fights, a body founded by him in 1997. The card currently features a match between veterans Jorge Patino (39-19-2, 2 NCs) and Johil de Oliveira (17-16-1, 1 NC). Batarelli said the winner will face Jose Landi-Jons (29-16) on a future event.
UFC veteran Anderson dos Santos, who defeated Paulo Pizzo in a boxing match in April, will rematch him under IVC rules on the card, Batarelli said. Edval Pedroso vs. Allan Popeye is also agreed, as well as Haialas Souza competing in a bare-knuckle boxing match against an opponent to be named.
In
This will be excellent
Fuck yeah!
Wow that’s unexpected but awesome news. We will definitely tune in.
If I read the article right the event will feature Macacao vs Johil De Oliveira with the winner fighting Pele? That’s wild for 2024 under any rule set but vale tudo is even wilder lol
The International Vale Tudo Championships (IVC) is a No holds barred fighting promotion based in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil. The promotion was founded by Brazilian promoter Sergio Batarelli after he parted ways with the WVC promotion where he used to serve mainly as a matchmaker and consultant.
While most of the mixed fight promotions around the world were moving towards sanctioning/regulation and a stricter set of rules, the IVC was a notable exception that clung to the No Holds Barred fighting banner of Vale Tudo with a minimal ruleset. In comparison to the UFC, which at the time of the IVC had begun to get safer formalised rules and weight divisions, the IVC genuinely had almost no rules. The IVC’s tagline, mocking the UFC claim of THERE ARE NO RULES!, was When we say “THERE ARE NO RULES”…we mean it!. However, the IVC did institute weight divisions from the IVC 2 show onwards. Fights were bare knuckle and consisted of one 30-minute round.
The promotion became known for launching the careers of many Brazilian stars into the financially lucrative fight promotions of Japan. The most famous star the IVC uncovered is one of the biggest stars in MMA today, Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva. The UFC’s Chuck Liddell also had one match in the IVC Wanderlei Silva fought in IVC 2, IVC 6, IVC 9 and IVC 10, whereas Chuck Liddell fought in IVC 6. Other fighters worth mentioning who fought in the IVC include Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons, former UFC champion Dan Severn, Gary Goodridge, Carlos Barreto, Wallid Ismael, Mike Van Arsdale, Renato Sobral, Johil De Oliveira, and Eugene Jackson.
Because of the bare knuckles and minimal rules, IVC fights were often brutal and bloody, with broken bones not uncommon. IVC 12 saw Gary Myers submit as a result of a broken leg. Such matches truly lived up to the critics’ view of MMA as brutal fight-to-the-death gladiatorial games, or “human cock-fighting” as it was once infamously put, and are often used as an argument against the much safer and stricter rules style of fighting now known as mixed martial arts, which is now sanctioned and regulated in North America. However, the IVC had medical equipment on standby with trained staff. Supporters of Vale Tudo also argue that the sanctioned mixed martial arts style that developed in America is now so vastly different from true Vale Tudo, that it should be treated as an entirely different sport, just as Muay Thai is considered different from kickboxing for example.
IVC belt champions (vale tudo rules)
- Heavyweight: Carlos Barreto (1999)
- Light Heavyweight: Wanderlei Silva (1999)
- Middleweight: Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons (1999)
- Lightweight: Rafael Cordeiro (1999)
IVC tournament winners
(vale tudo rules)
- Heavyweight: Gary Goodridge (IVC 1, 1997), Pedro Otavio (IVC 3, 1997), Mike Van Arsdale (IVC 4, 1998)
- Light Heavyweight: Artur Mariano (IVC 2, 1997), Ismael Souza (IVC 12, 1999)
- Middleweight: Jose “Pele” Landi-Jons (IVC 5, 1998), Flavio Luis Moura (IVC 11, 1999), Alexandre Barros (IVC 13, 1999)
- Lightweight: Sergio Melo (IVC 7, 1998)
(mixed martial arts rules)
- Light Heavyweight: Alex Stiebling (IVC 14, 2001)
IVC rules
- No biting
- No eye gouging
- No fishing hook
- No holding the ropes
- No kicking if wearing shoes
- No placing hands or feet inside the opponent’s trunks
- The referee can restart the fight
WAYS TO WIN
- By knock out
- By submission
- By disqualification
- By decision
- Corner stoppage (throwing in the towel)
- Referee or Doctor stoppage
MMAP , I do this for this site " All Day"
This Blows Me Away 2024
i’ll be supporting this
Goodridge twisted someone’s junk at one of their event, I forget the opponent.
Totally legal if it’s over the trunks