MMA Roots: Mike Van Arsdale Takes IVC 4 by Storm

A year after Mark Kerr’s victory over Fabio Gurgel in the World Vale Tudo Championship 3 final, the Maksoud Plaza Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil, played host to another openweight tournament won by an American wrestler: International Vale Tudo Championship 4.

Fans flooded the hotel to witness another ground-and-pound class on Feb. 7, 1998, this time taught by Mike Van Arsdale. Even though he had never participated in a vale tudo event, Mark Coleman’s stablemate arrived as the favorite, along with fellow Americans Bob Gilstrap—a protégé of Maurice Smith, who had just beaten Coleman in the Ultimate Fighting Championship—and the experienced Jason Godsey. Brazil would not be represented by renowned martial artists like Pedro Rizzo (WVC 3) or Wanderlei Silva (IVC 2). Instead, four underdogs bore the flag for the host country: luta livre stylist Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira and muay thai practitioner Dario Amorim, along with jiu-jitsu purple belts Francisco Nonato and Marcelo Barbosa.

In the first match, Van Arsdale took down Nonato, passed his guard and submitted him with a keylock at 5:42. He would next face the winner of the fight between grizzled 37-year-old American wrestler Tim Catalfo and Ferreira, who was making his MMA debut at the age of 19. Ferreira defended two takedowns bout wound up on the bottom anyway and could not resist the pressure his opponent applied. Catalfo eventually climbed to full mount roughly nine minutes into the match. Ferreria was disqualified soon after for eye gouging. Because Catalfo was injured, Barbosa—who had submitted Guaracy Pereira in an alternate bout—was called upon to face Van Arsdale in the semifinals. It was an easy fight for the Waterloo, Iowa, native. Van Arsdale took down Barbosa and proceeded to punch him into submission at 3:36.

Largely because of Catalfo’s injury, Van Arsdale made it to the final in one piece. On the other side of the bracket, Amorim found himself in two battles with Americans. In his first assignment, he faced Godsey, who had victories over Yuki Kondo and Kazuo “Yoshiki” Takahashi on his resume. Taken down right from the jump, Amorim fell out of the ring after absorbing a series of violent punches. When he returned, the Luiz Alvez disciple surprised Godsey with a volley of punches and kicks, ultimately forcing him to submit to strikes from mount at 3:01.

Amorim’s semifinal opponent was established quickly. Gilstrap, who entered the draw not long after his tournament win in SuperBrawl, had no difficulty taking down Lucas Silva de Jesus and finishing him with punches in a little more than two minutes. The semifinal between Amorim and Gilstrap was the best fight of the night. Their 30-minute encounter was marked by punishing exchanges that brought the crowd to a boil. Gilstrap nearly delivered an early knockout of the Brazilian, but Amorim once again rallied. He floored the American, kicked him in the face, passed guard, achieved full mount and almost cinched a rear-naked choke. Gilstrap, a true warrior, somehow survived. With the two men exhausted and injured, they closed by hurling weary punches at one another. The judges sided with Amorim, who left the ring to the applause of both Coleman and Smith.

Amorim was afforded less than half an hour to recover and return to the ring for the tournament championship against Van Arsdale. It did not last long. Amorim managed to defend two takedowns, but on Van Arsdale’s third attempt, the Brazilian was thrown to the ground and landed on his shoulder. The bout was stopped due to injury at 2:42. In front a stunned and silent audience that seemed to be having flashbacks to Gurgel’s demise the previous year, Van Arsdale received the IVC 4 championship from Sergio Batarelli. When asked about his capabilities on the ground, Van Arsdale made it a point to take a dig at his jiu-jitsu rivals.

“Defeating jiu-jitsu is no mystery,” he said. “You just have to watch. You don’t have to practice it.”

Just like Kerr before him, Van Arsdale was whisked away by the Ultimate Fighting Championship and made his debut in the promotion a little more than three months later. He submitted Joe Pardo with a keylock at UFC 17 on May 15, 1998, forcing the tap 11:01 into their match at the Mobile Civic Center in Mobile, Alabama. Van Arsdale suffered his first pro defeat the following August, when he was knocked out by Silva at IVC 6. After the loss to “The Axe Murderer,” Van Arsdale compiled four more victories between 2002 and 2005, setting up a showdown with Randy Couture at UFC 54 on Aug. 20, 2005. Couture submitted him with an anaconda choke in the third round. Consecutive losses to Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Jorge Oliveira and Matt Lindland—all by submission—followed, and Van Arsdale walked away from competition in 2006. Nevertheless, his performance at IVC 4 has stood the test of time.