guys, vale tudo is very different from mma
bare knuckle fights with headbutts, puling hair and groin strikes make the fight uglier, but much tougher, see the old wandy videos or the igor or even chuck fighting in vale tudo
wandy- you tought that pride was brutal, wandy literally explodes some faces
igor - well let's say that is a mystery how he didn't killed anyone in the ring
Chuck- against pele he had to go to the ground because pele was owning him.
Not every vale tudo guy goes that well in mma, nor vice versa
After all how many people would fight with no $$, no medical assistance nor safety?
sao paulo alwayas was a mess in that issue
even in legal vale tudos
see this match
YouTube - Alessandro "Alemão" Steffen Vs Jorge Pereira
1995 hkd guy vs bjj guy (the one who created rio heroes), style vs style, the bjj gets owned and the ref, being his friend, stops the fight and give the victory to the bjj guy. (rules- gloves, hair pulling and finger twisting allowed)
From there? more weird stuff, vale tudo became illegal and underground matches are made every 6 months or so
How? it as challenge, mma, or mixed martial event
Sometimes in hkd tournaments we hold some old style vale tudo, i saw people biting and headbutting the hell of each other
An old student of mine went from hkd to bjj and to vale tudo
in one freaking match his jaws simply fell
The guys he was training with were simply stupid, he went and recieved a purple in bjj but trained with some guys who sparred full contact bare knuckled...result? loose jaw, two destroyed shoulders and a destroyed knee at 23, and beginning his career, wich, sadly i think it's already over.
Fighting in vale tudo is not worth, it's brutal, no $$$, no drug test (some guys fought without any insurance, medic or salary, believe it or not) and lot of injuries, mot of vale tudo fighter 's career last some few fights, mma on the other hand is safer more techical and has $$$.
But surely vale tudo fighters are toghger than most mma fighters remember that some of the tougher guys from the mma came originally from vale tudo
now vale tudo has a lot of dirty tricks very vry useful in a self defense situation, if you don't care about being sued or arrested