Originally Posted by
Chairib
Pentagon Combat is an event that happened in Rio back in 97 or so. It was promotion that was bankrolled by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and featured the big Jiu-Jitsu vs Luta Livre match featuring Renzo Gracie and Eugenio Tadeu. Renzo is one of the Sheikh's BJJ instructors. They hyped the hell out of it and pretty much all the big names in Brazilian MMA came out. Rio is the home of BJJ, all the major Gracie schools were founded there. Also, Eugenio Tadeu was a legendary Luta Livre fighter, next to Hugo Duarte there wasn't a bigger name.
Unfortunately, the only thing they didn't spend money on was security so by the time the Renzo/Eugenio fight started the area around the ring was crazy. It was only a matter of time but a fight broke out. So when Ryan Gracie and Luta Livre guy got into it out in the audience, it only took a split second for it to erupt into a full scale riot. Sucks too because that was such a great fight, very few come close to even rivaling the intensity of that match.
Though, they really should have known better to not have any security down there, putting BJJ guys together with Luta Livre guys back then was just asking for trouble. Those two schools hated each other back then, it was like the Bloods and the Crips. You had Luta Livre guys on the outside of the cage trying to kick, punch, and stab Renzo during the fight. It was nuts.
MMA matches were illegal in Rio after the riot and it wasn't until 2008 that they finally started allowing legitimate events again. It's also why UFC Brazil had to be held in Sao Paulo as well. Interesting side note about that UFC Brazil, right after Vitor beat Wanderlei, his camp rushed the Octagon and jumped the fence to celebrate and I'm told the UFC execs nearly shit their pants.
Oh that Sheikh, ended up just focusing his ADCC no-gi grappling tournament until just recently when he bought a small percentage of the UFC last year.