“As real as it gets” is the slogan of the UFC, and it is true. But there was a time when Sergio Batarelli’s 14 editions of the International Vale Tudo Championship (IVC) was was real it got. There were no gloves. There were three rules: No eyegouging, no biting, and no fishhooking. And there was the birth of many notable fighters.
Wanderlei Silva, Pele, Pedro Rizzo, Mark Kerr, Chuck Liddell, and many others rose to fame in the IVC ring (with a net at bottom so no one would slip out.
And now it is coming back.
The seminal fight promotion which propelled the careers of Wanderlei Silva and many others is primed to return to Brazil after a 12-year absence.
This week, in an interview with Brazilian TV channel Combate’s Face to Face program, Batarelli discussed plans to revive the organization he started in 1997.
I was the first one to bring the UFC to Brazil, and since then, I’ve kept an excellent relationship with the UFC people, explained Batarelli, 51, who was instrumental in arranging Ultimate Brazil in 1998. They said the UFC needs a top event in Brazil to select fighters, like I used to do in the ‘90s. After talking with them, I got together a group of top sponsors, and the IVC will be back in the middle of the year with a new name, IVC MMA, and new rules.
Along with the new moniker and as-yet-unannounced guidelines, IVC MMA will trade its vale tudo-era net-lined ring for a cage upon its return.
