Oswaldo Fadda: The OG Gracie Rival

[Joshua Jarboe]

So, I just learned some cool stuff: my gym traces it's lineage to Fadda. That makes me silly-happy for some reason.

It appears Jose Aldo and Nova União do as well.

That's pretty cool. It's not like this guy's line just disappeared.

[Joshua Jarboe]

Thanks again for sharing this.

[Kfalls]

From what I've been told, the leg lock stigma also comes from Luta Livre using them. It was seen as something used by the rivals of the jiu jitsu academies.

[DCurrie]

There is a thread on the UG BJJ forum about the origin of BJJ, I found this first post interesting:

"According to Roberto Pedreira's new BJJ history book, 'Choque', he states that there is no evidence Carlos Gracie ever trained with Maeda, which surprised me. I knew the other four brothers didn't train with Maeda, but I thought at least Carlos did.

Apparently, Carlos actually learned from Maeda's student, Donato Pires dos Reis. He also didn't start the Academia Gracie in 1925, according to Pedreira's book: instead, he took over Pires dos Reis' academy a couple of years after that, having previously been one of his assistant instructors"

[Ross Davidson]

Yea, the Gracie conspiracy is very interesting, yet kind of disappointing at the same time.

[DCurrie]

Interesting with the leg lock thing, Maeda studied some catch whilst in the UK and fought some catch guys so you would have thought he would have had a bunch of leg lock stuff. Fadda side were certainly proficient with them but Gracie's looked down on them. I remember Erik Paulson saying that he subbed a guy in Brazil with a knee bar and the crowd all booed him.

So early BJJ could be seen as a Judo/catch fusion but so was luta livre? Did the luta livre guys train with Maeda too? Would make sense.

Makes me even more happy that I have the Machado lineage, they always seemed a little more open minded with the training than most.

[Gener jaimes]

Rolls gracie is someone I recently started reading up on he seems like the last of the OG Gracie's that were open mind. I wonder what BJJ would have been like if he had not have passed away. He trained in multiple disciplines and was thought to be the best... Even better than rickson. http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighter...gracie-profile