Vale Tudo Japan

Vale Tudo Japan

Native name	ヴァーリ・トゥード・ジャパン
Industry	Mixed martial arts promotion
Founded	Japan (1994 (1994))
Founder	Satoru Sayama
Parent	Shooto (1994-1999) Vale Tudo Japan Executive Committee (2009-Present)
Website	http://www.valetudojapan.com/

Vale Tudo Japan (VTJ) is an annual mixed martial arts competition held in Japan. Arranged by promoter and former professional wrestler Satoru Sayama, he had previously created a hybrid martial art organization named Shooto in 1985. He arranged VTJ in 1994 with the objective of creating a more rules-free event similar to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the United States and Vale Tudo competitions in Brazil, previously to this tournament, Shooto did not feature striking in ground position. The fighters were composed by the best Japanese MMA fighters drawn from Shooto as well as foreign invitees, one of them and most famously begin the older brother of UFC champion Royce Gracie, Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Rickson Gracie.^[1][2] Vale Tudo Japan events ran from 1994 to 1999, a pair of tournaments were held in 1994 and '95, both of which were won by Rickson Gracie. VTJ returned in 2009, now organizing by the "Vale Tudo Japan Executive Committee" with semi-annual events and three reunion events in 2009, 2012 and 2016.^[2][3]

Early Vale Tudo Japan events were a huge success, and together with Rickson Gracie's impressive victories in the tournament, it led to a boom of the popularity and development of MMA and Shooto in Japan, serving as a predecessor to PRIDE Fighting Championships in 1997. VTJ's format and rules would later serve as a basis for PRIDE.^[2]

Events and Results[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1994[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1994 was held on July 29, 1994, at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall in Urayasu, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Bud Smith	Chris Bass	TKO (Straight Punch)	1	0:54
2		Kenji Kawaguchi	KO (Punch)	1	3:59
3	David Levicki	Kazuhiro Kusayanagi	KO (Punches)	1	1:20
4	Rickson Gracie	Yoshinori Nishi	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	1	2:52
5	Rickson Gracie		Submission (Punches)	1	2:40
6	Naoki Sakurada	Yasushi Warita	Draw	3	5:00
7	Rickson Gracie	Bud Smith	Submission (Punches)	1	0:39

Vale Tudo Japan 1995[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1995 was held on April 20, 1995, at the Nippon Budokan Hall in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Craig Pittman	Wayne Emons	Submission (Arm Triangle Choke)	1	2:12
2	Yuki Nakai	Gerard Gordeau	Submission (Heel Hook)	4	2:41
3	Todd Hays	Koichiro Kimura	Submission (Guillotine Choke)	1	2:55
4	Rickson Gracie	Yoshihisa Yamamoto	Technical Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	3	3:49
5	Yuki Nakai	Craig Pittman	Submission (Armbar)	2	7:32
6	Koichiro Kimura	Wayne Emons	Submission (Guillotine Choke)	1	6:05
7	Rickson Gracie	Koichiro Kimura	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	1	2:07
8	Kenji Kawaguchi	Tommy Walkingstick	Submission (Armbar)	1	6:29
9	Enson Inoue	Rene Rooze	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	1	6:41
10	Rickson Gracie	Yuki Nakai	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	1	6:22

Vale Tudo Japan 1996[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1996 was held on July 7, 1996, at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall in Urayasu, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Alex Cook	Tomoaki Hayama	Technical Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke)	2	6:23
2	Mushtaq Abdullah	Sanae Kikuta	Submission (Forearm Choke)	1	6:27
3	Yumiko Hotta	Margot Neyhoft	Submission (Keylock)	2	4:14
4	Ed de Kruijf	Joe Estes	Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)	1	0:53
5	Todd Bjornethun	Eric Lavigne	KO (Punches)	1	6:53
6	Dan Severn	Doug Murphy	Submission (Keylock)	1	3:23
7	John Lewis	Rumina Sato	Draw	3	8:00
8	Igor Zinoviev	Enson Inoue	TKO (Punches)	1	0:44
9	Royler Gracie	Noboru Asahi	Submission (Rear Naked Choke)	1	5:07

Vale Tudo Japan 1997[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1997 was held on November 29, 1997, at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall in Urayasu, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Jutaro Nakao	Steve Nelson	Submission (Triangle Choke)	2	5:31
2	Hayato Sakurai	Marcelo Aguiar	Draw	3	8:00
3	Kenji Kawaguchi	Jan Lomulder	Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)	3	3:49
4	João Roque	Uchu Tatsumi	Draw	3	8:00
5	Carlos Newton	Erik Paulson	Submission (Armbar)	1	0:41
6	Tom Erikson	Ed de Kruijf	TKO (Punches)	1	0:37
7	Rumina Sato	John Lewis	Submission (Armbar)	2	1:23
8	Frank Shamrock	Enson Inoue	DQ (Egan Inoue Ran Into the Ring)	2	7:17

Vale Tudo Japan 1998[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1998 was held on October 25, 1998, at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall in Urayasu, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Caol Uno	Ricardo Botelho	Submission (Punches)	3	2:03
2	Vladimir Matyushenko	Kenji Kawaguchi	KO (Punches)	1	3:10
3	Branden Lee Hinkle	Masanori Suda	TKO (Upkicks)	1	5:26
4	Frank Trigg	Jean Jacques Machado	TKO (Corner Stoppage)	3	0:20
5	Noboru Asahi	João Roque	Draw	3	8:00
6	Hayato Sakurai	Sergei Bytchkov	Submission (Armbar)	1	4:59
7	Andre Pederneiras	Rumina Sato	KO (Soccer Kick and Punches)	1	4:20
8	Enson Inoue	Randy Couture	Submission (Armbar)	1	1:39

Vale Tudo Japan 1999[]

Vale Tudo Japan 1999 was held on December 11, 1999, at the Tokyo Bay NK Hall in Urayasu, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Rumina Sato	Rafael Cordeiro	Submission (Kneebar)	1	0:58
2	Tetsuji Kato	Angelo Sergio	Submission (Punches)	1	7:45
3	Takanori Gomi	Johnny Eduardo	Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)	3	1:43
4	Hisao Ikeda	João Roque	Draw	3	8:00
5	Uchu Tatsumi	Alexandre Franca Nogueira	Draw	3	8:00
6	Caol Uno	Andre Pederneiras	Draw	3	8:00
7	Hayato Sakurai	Haroldo Bunn	TKO (Punches)	3	1:31

Vale Tudo Japan 2009[]

Vale Tudo Japan 2009 was held on October 30, 2009, at the JCB Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
1	Masato Sannai	Kosuke Eda	Draw (Majority)	2	5:00
2	Jung Min Kang	Yoichiro Sato	KO (Punches)	1	2:48
3	Mamoru Yamaguchi	Jesse Taitano	TKO (Punches)	1	4:41
4	Willamy Freire	Kenichiro Togashi	TKO (Doctor Stoppage)	1	2:05
5	Tito Jones	Tenkei Oda	Decision (Unanimous)	3	5:00
6	Rumina Sato	Corey Grant	TKO (Punches)	1	3:20
7	Takeshi Inoue	Alexandre Franca Nogueira	TKO (Punches)	4	2:58
8	Takanori Gomi	Tony Hervey	Decision (Unanimous)	5	5:00

Vale Tudo Japan 2012[]

Vale Tudo Japan 2012 (also known as VTJ 1st) was held on December 24, 2012, at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
Welterweight	Daisuke Hoshino	Kuntap Weerasakreck	Submission (armbar)	1	2:19
Middleweight	Keita Nakamura	Nobutatsu Suzuki	Submission (rear naked choke)	1	2:09
Bantamweight	Kenji Osawa	Takeshi Inoue	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Women's Strawweight	Megumi Fujii	Mei Yamaguchi	Decision (unanimous)	2	5:00
Bantamweight	Kyoji Horiguchi	Ian Loveland	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Flyweight	Darrell Montague	Mamoru Yamaguchi	Decision (split)	3	5:00
Lightweight	Kuniyoshi Hironaka	Carlo Prater	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Bantamweight	Hideo Tokoro	Rumina Sato	TKO (punches and elbows)	1	0:39

Vale Tudo Japan 2013[]

Vale Tudo Japan 2013 (also known as VTJ 3rd) was held on December 6, 2013, at Ota City General Station, station #7, Ota, Tokyo, Japan. The Main Event featured longtime # 1 ranked Megumi Fujii in her retirement bout.

Match	Winner	Loser	Method	Round	Time
Featherweight	Taiyo Hayashi	Yuji Kurogane	TKO (punches)	2	2:18
Flyweight	Seiichiro Ito	Taku Kajikawa	Submission (armbar)	1	1:35
Strawweight	Ryuto Sawada	Hiroyuki Takahashi	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Welterweight	Koshi Matsumoto	Kengo Ura	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Featherweight	Akiyo Nishiura	Shigeki Osawa	Decision (split)	3	5:00
Bantamweight	Yuta Nezu	Motonobu Tezuka	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Lightweight	Brodee Hudson	Daisuke Hoshino	Submission (flying triangle choke)	3	3:57
Featherweight	Yuta Sasaki	Geun Do Park	Submission (rear naked choke)	1	1:36
Featherweight	Yusuke Yachi	Takeshi Inoue	Decision (unanimous)	3	5:00
Flyweight	Will Campuzano	Hideo Tokoro	Decision (split)	3	5:00
Featherweight	Caol Uno	Daniel Romero	Submission (inverted triangle choke)	2	2:23
Women's Strawweight	Jessica Aguilar	Megumi Fujii	TKO (doctor's stoppage)	2	5:00

References[]

External links[]

• Official Website
• Vale Tudo Japan Results on Sherdog.com