Agenor Moreira Sampaio (
Santos, Brazil, 1891–1962), most commonly known as Mestre Sinhozinho, was a ''mestre'' or master practitioner of the
Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilians ( pt, afro-brasileiros; ) are Brazilians who have predominantly African ancestry (see "Black people#Brazil, preto"). Most members of another group of people, Pardo Brazilians, multiracial Brazilians or ''pardos'', may also have a ...
martial art
Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the preserv ...
of
capoeira
Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th century ...
. He was the main exponent of the fighting-oriented style known as ''capoeira carioca''.
Biography
Early life and training
Some sources name his second surname as Ferreira, but the rest of his life is well documented.
[Many Things at Once: An Introduction to Capoeira]
/ref> He was one of the eight children of Brazilian military
The Brazilian Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas Brasileiras, ) are the unified military forces of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Consisting of three service branches, it comprises the Brazilian Army (including the Brazilian Army Aviatio ...
officer and politician José Moreira, who descended from Francisco Manoel da Silva.[Sinhozinho e Capoeira Carioca]
/ref> An avid athlete, Agenor trained formally in boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
, savate
Savate (), also known as boxe française, savate boxing, French boxing or French footfighting, is a French kickboxing combat sport that uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of English boxing with graceful kicking techniques.
...
, Greco-Roman wrestling
Greco-Roman (American English), Graeco-Roman (British English), classic wrestling (Euro English) or French wrestling (in Russia until 1948) is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first mod ...
and arm wrestling
Arm wrestling (also spelled armwrestling) is a sport with two opponents who face each other with their bent elbows placed on a table and hands firmly gripped, who then attempt to force the opponent's hand down to the table top ("pin" them). The s ...
since his childhood,Crônica da capoeira (GEM). O ‘Chausson/Savate’ influenciou a capoeira?
/ref> and also learned capoeira in the docks of Santos.
When his family moved to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
in 1908, he became a neighbor to fighter José Floriano "Zeca" Peixoto, son of politician Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Vieira Peixoto ( 30 April 1839 – 29 June 1895), born in Ipioca (today a district of the city of Maceió in the State of Alagoas), nicknamed the "Iron Marshal", was a Brazilian soldier and politician, a veteran of the Paraguay ...
, who trained him further in capoeira. Sampaio might have also witnessed the famous vale tudo
Vale Tudo (; en, Everything Goes/Everything Allowed), also known No Holds Barred (NHB) in the United States, is an unarmed, full-contact combat sport with relatively few rules. It became popular in Brazil during the 20th century and would event ...
fight between capoeirista Francisco da Silva Ciríaco and jiu-jitsu
Jujutsu ( ; ja, link=no, 柔術 , ), also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon) that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdu ...
fighter Sada Miyako, in which Ciríaco knocked his opponent out. Sampaio started training the local style of ''pernada'' or ''capoeira carioca
Carioca ( or ) is a demonym used to refer to anything related to the City of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. The original meaning of the term is controversial, maybe from Tupi language "''kari' oka''", meaning "white house" as the whitewashed stone ...
'', an aggressive, violent variation strongly associated to policemen
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
and gangsters
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and r ...
alike, and eventually became a master of the art, receiving the name of Mestre Sinhozinho (''Sinhozinho'' meaning "Little Mister").
He had his first national exposure as a fighter in 1917, when he accepted a challenge by wrestling champion João Baldi to avoid being taken down for five minutes. Sinhozinho passed the challenge with shocking ease, lasting an impressive total of 40 minutes against the champion, although the money prize was revealed to be non-existent because the promoter did not expect the challenge to be broken. He also worked as a teacher, being present in Mario Aleixo's capoeira school in 1920.
Carioca school
Like his contemporaneous Mestre Bimba
Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba (; November 23, 1899 – February 5, 1974), was a Brazilian capoeira ''mestre'' (a master practitioner). He founded the '' capoeira regional'' school, one of the art's two main branches.
E ...
, Sinhozinho opened a school in 1930 to teach capoeira carioca to wealthy middle class citizens. However, his carioca school was not based on a single place, as Sinhozinho taught in several sport clubs and terrains borrowed from his benefactors, usually around the rich neighborhood of Ipanema beach
Ipanema () is a neighbourhood located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between Leblon and Arpoador. The beach at Ipanema became known internationally with the popularity of the bossa nova jazz song, "The Girl from Ipane ...
. Also, unlike most capoeira mestres, Sinhozinho favored combat effectiveness over artistic expression, ditching entirely the art's music and rituals and mixing it liberally with wrestling and other fighting styles. It has been proposed Mestre Bimba decided to emphasize the most traditional aspects of capoeira as an answer to pragmatic, combative variations like those taught by Sinhozinho and Anibal "Zuma" Burlamaqui. Nevertheless, he is credited with developing the practice of capoeira in Rio de Janeiro. He was also a hand-to-hand instructor of the Polícia Especial created by President of Brazil
The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
.
Moreira approached capoeira in a scientific way, tailoring his training methods individually for every apprentice.[ He would even build his own training gear and tools to drill the art's movements, and subjected his students to heavy ]weight training
Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the strength, size of skeletal muscles and maintenance of strength.Keogh, Justin W, and Paul W Winwood. “Report for: The Epidemiology of Injuries Across the Weight-Traini ...
.[ He modified the traditional ''ginga'', making it more similar to boxing footwork, and also introduced techniques from wrestling and judo, especially through his partnership with judo teacher Augusto Cordeiro. Sinhozinho also cultivated the ]psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
aspect of self-defense
Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in ...
, instructing his students to laugh at their attackers before fighting in order to confuse them and dissipate their own fear. Finally, capoeira carioca also taught the use of weapons like the ''sardinha'' or ''santo christo'' (razor
A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, safety razors, disposable razors, and electric razors.
While the razor has been in existence since before t ...
s) and the ''petropolis'' (cane
Cane or caning may refer to:
*Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking
*Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance
*White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are b ...
s, sometimes tricked), and among the few traditions it preserved there might be an ancient combat game similar to batuque named ''roda de pernada'', where capoeiristas would exchange leg blows.
Sinhozinho was known himself as an excellent athlete and fighter. Aside from his mentioned challenge with João Baldi, he was reportedly unbeaten in arm wrestling, and he often showed his trainees how to lift heavy weights by doing it himself even at his advanced age. There's also an anecdote about how, upon witnessing a donkey
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...
being run over and left agonizing on Arpoador street, Moreira put the animal out of his misery with a single move. However, as he never created a standardized way of teaching, his fighting style died with his own passing in 1960. Sinhozinho ended up being more influential as a physical education
Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...
teacher whose training methods benefitted many Brazilian athletes benefitted of, like future judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
champion Rudolf de Otero Hermanny, wrestlers Reinaldo Lima and Paulo Paiva, athletes Paulo Amaral
Paulo Lima Amaral (18 October 1923 – 1 May 2008) was a Brazilian footballer and coach. He is most famous for his time as a coach of Juventus of Italy. He was also a Fitness Coach of the Brazilian 1958 FIFA World Cup
The 1958 FIFA World Cu ...
and Paulo Azeredo, musician Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...
and future Olympic Committee president Sylvio de Magalhães Padilha.[
]
Challenge on the Regional school
In February 1949, Sinhozinho launched a challenge to the rival ''capoeira regional
Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th century, ...
'' school led by Mestre Bimba
Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba (; November 23, 1899 – February 5, 1974), was a Brazilian capoeira ''mestre'' (a master practitioner). He founded the '' capoeira regional'' school, one of the art's two main branches.
E ...
, who was touring Sao Paulo
SAO or Sao may refer to:
Places
* Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD
* Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso
* Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...
. Bimba and his students had been forced to work only exhibition matches and were eager for real fighting (''pra valer''), so they quickly accepted to travel to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
to answer the challenge. A two-day fighting event was hosted by the Federação Metropolitana de Pugilismo in the Estádio Carioca, including also a team of catch wrestlers who had similarly challenged the Regional academy.
Two bouts were fought between the two capoeira schools. In the first match on April 2, Sinhozinho's apprentice Luiz "Cirandinha" Pereira Aguiar fought Bimba's student Jurandir (also a practitioner of judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
), knocking him out in the first round with a body kick. Jurandir claimed it to be a low blow, but as witnesses and the ring doctor stated otherwise, the result was kept. In the second on April 7, 17-year-old Carioca fighter Rudolf Hermanny defeated Regional student Fernando Rodrigues Perez in two minutes, dominating the bout and eventually injuring Perez's arm with a kick. It's said Bimba was so impressed that he learned some movements he saw in the fight to assimilate them into his own style.[
]
Challenge on the Gracie family
In 1953, Sinhozinho next challenged the Gracie family
The Gracie Family () are a prominent martial arts family originally from Belém, state of Pará, Brazil whose ancestors came from Paisley, Scotland. They are known for creating the self-defense martial arts system of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, also kn ...
, inviting them to send two of their Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ; pt, jiu-jitsu brasileiro ) is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting (ne-waza) and submission holds. BJJ focuses on the skill of taking an opponent to the ground, control ...
representatives to a vale tudo
Vale Tudo (; en, Everything Goes/Everything Allowed), also known No Holds Barred (NHB) in the United States, is an unarmed, full-contact combat sport with relatively few rules. It became popular in Brazil during the 20th century and would event ...
charity event in the Vasco da Gama stadium on March 17. His own carioca fighters would be again Hermanny and Cirandinha, coached by his usual judo consultant Augusto Cordeiro, while the Gracies sent Guanair Vial Gomes and Carlson Gracie
Carlson Gracie (August 13, 1932 – February 1, 2006) was a practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A member of the Gracie family, he was the eldest son of Carlos Gracie, and nephew to Hélio Gracie, founders of Gracie jiu-jitsu.
Carlson Gr ...
.[
The first match pitted Hermanny against the gi-clad Gomes, who was significantly heavier and had a wrestling background. The Gracie fighter dominated the first minutes, taking dominant position on the ground and executing ]ground and pound
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...
, but Hermanny escaped to his feet. After removing his gi jacket, Gomes took him down again, but the Carioca now started defending actively from his guard
Guard or guards may refer to:
Professional occupations
* Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault
* Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street
* Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning
* Prison ...
with punches, knifehand strike
In martial arts, a knifehand strike is a strike using the part of the hand opposite the thumb (from the little finger to the wrist), familiar to many people as a karate chop (in Japanese, ''shutō-uchi''). This refers to strikes performed with ...
s and heel kicks to the back, capitalizing on his superior conditioning to wear Gomes down. After one hour and 10 minutes, with Gomes heavily battered and a fresher Hermanny looking to finish him off on the feet, the former's cornerman Carlos Gracie
Carlos Gracie (September 14, 1902October 7, 1994) was a Brazilian martial artist who is credited with being one of the primary developers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Along with his younger brother Hélio Gracie and fellow students Luis França and ...
called for the match to be stopped and ruled a draw. Although Hermanny and the crowd wanted to continue to a finish, the judges eventually acquiesced to Gracie's demands. The audience loudly chanted for Hermanny through and after the affair.
The second bout had Cirandinha fight Carlson Gracie, featuring almost the opposite narrative. Dominating the early moments, the stronger Cirandinha punished Carlson standing with a variety of strikes and kicks, followed by a hard throw
Throwing is an action which consists in accelerating a projectile and then releasing it so that it follows a ballistic trajectory, usually with the aim of impacting a remote target. This action is best characterized for animals with prehensile l ...
and a heavy hook
A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved or indented, such that it can be used to grab onto, connect, or otherwise attach itself onto another object. In a number of uses, one e ...
that almost finished Gracie. However, Carlson managed to survive the beating, and gradually took over the fight with hit-and-run
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Additional obligation
In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...
strikes over Cirandinha, who had become fatigued noticeably quickly. The jiu-jitsu fighter pulled guard and achieved dominant position, from which he landed punches and elbow strike
An elbow strike (commonly referred to as simply an elbow) is a strike with the point of the elbow, the part of the forearm nearest to the elbow, or the part of the upper arm nearest to the elbow. Elbows can be thrown sideways similarly to a hook, ...
s and looked for an armlock
An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that Anatomical terms of motion#General motion, hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow, elbow joint or glenohumeral joint, shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the ...
. Although Cirandinha did not concede the hold, his corner threw the towel due to his damage and sapped resistance, declaring Carlson the winner to the crowd's cheers.
Praising the fights, the press considered the event to be a highlight for both schools. Newspaper ''O Popular'' called both winners "impressive" ("Rudolf Hermanny e Carlson Gracie -- Impressionantes!"), while magazine ''O Cruzeiro
''O Cruzeiro'' (initially just ''Cruzeiro'') was a Brazilian illustrated weekly magazine, published in Rio de Janeiro from 1928 until 1985, with the exception of the period from August 1975 to June 1977.
History and profile
The publication, subt ...
'' proclaimed, "brave men's blood soaked a concrete square in the Vasco estadium" ("O Sangue dos Valentes Ensopou a Quadra de Cimento do Estádio do Vasco").
Clash with Arturo Emídio
In June 1953, Sinhozinho's school was challenged by Artur Emídio de Oliveira, Capoeirista Regional from Bahia and a popular vale tudo fighter himself.[ Due to the ideological clash between Emídio's traditional capoeira and Sinhozhinho's utilitarian version, there was anticipation for a fight, so a bout between Emídio and usual Carioca fighter Hermanny was slated to be fought on June 29 in the Palácio de Aluminio. It was disputed under Burlamaqui's capoeira rules, only including a modification that allowed groundwork, and it featured Carlos and ]Hélio Gracie
Hélio Gracie (October 1, 1913 – January 29, 2009) was a Brazilian martial artist who together with his brothers Oswaldo, Gastao Jr, George and Carlos Gracie founded and developed the self-defense martial art system of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, also ...
as spectators.
Hermanny controlled the first round, landing roundhouse kicks
A roundhouse kick (also known as round kick or turning kick) is a kick in which the practitioner lifts the knee while turning the supporting foot and body in a semicircular motion, extending the leg striking with the lower part of the shin and/ ...
and palm strike
A strike is a directed physical attack with either a part of the human body or with an inanimate object (such as a weapon) intended to cause blunt trauma or penetrating trauma upon an opponent.
There are many different varieties of strikes. A ...
s while defending with a boxing guard, which forced Emídio to take refuge on the ground. From there Emídio attempted kicks and '' rasteiras'', managing to take Hermanny to the ground as well with a '' rabo de arraia'', but the Carioca answered to this strategy by holding his legs, circling him and throwing stomp
Stomp may refer to:
*Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel
Music and dance
* ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013
*Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s
*Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive ph ...
s to the face and chest when possible.
At the second round, Hermanny came with increased aggression and knocked Emídio down several times with kicks, after which he landed his own ''rasteira'' and timed a decisive stomp
Stomp may refer to:
*Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel
Music and dance
* ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013
*Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s
*Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive ph ...
on Emídio's face while the latter was getting up. The Carioca fighter then punished the stunned Bahiano with strikes and a throw, driving referee Jayme Ferreira to stop the match before Emídio was fully rendered KO. Despite the victory, there was the perception among critics that Hermanny had fought while limiting himself in order not to finish the fight too early, which was corroborated by his coach Cordeiro.
Death
Sinhozinho died in 1962. His cultural legacy is obscure, but he has been considered in modern times the mainstay of capoeira in Rio de Janeiro. He was one of the first to popularize capoeira as a legal, sanitized art before Mestre Bimba
Manuel dos Reis Machado, commonly called Mestre Bimba (; November 23, 1899 – February 5, 1974), was a Brazilian capoeira ''mestre'' (a master practitioner). He founded the '' capoeira regional'' school, one of the art's two main branches.
E ...
.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moreira Sampaio, Agenor
Capoeira mestres
Brazilian capoeira practitioners
1891 births
1962 deaths
People from Santos, São Paulo