And, if Royce Gracie had already impressed everyone by beating four opponents on the same night in UFC 2, the Russians decided to make this test a little more difficult by creating the Absolute Fighting Championship (AFC), an event where, to be champion, a fighter he would have to defeat five opponents on the same night.

Ricardo Morais in Pride FC

The scheduled date was November 25, 1995, in Moscow.

Then just a Blue belt in jiu-jitsu, Ricardo Morais had just moved from Natal to Rio de Janeiro. His goal was to become an MMA fighter. The start, even with some difficulties, was promising, which ended up earning him an invitation to fight in the AFC, but there was no shortage of surprises until he finally arrived in Russia, as he revealed in an exclusive interview to Combate.com.

“I started in Natal with Banni Cavalcante. I did about eight MMA fights there, then they invited me to come to Rio de Janeiro to train. Because Banni had a friendship with Robson Gracie, he encouraged me to train at Barra Gracie, but there was no focus of MMA. So much so that I asked Carlos Gracie Júnior if he would train me for MMA, and then he suggested that I look for the Carlson Gracie academy in Copacabana, because his focus was on jiu-jitsu. I was training, but for financial reasons I had to stop and work normally as an ordinary person. Then came the invitation for me to fight in Russia, solely for business, with no involvement of any flag. So I looked for master Marcelo Saporito and asked him to train me and do my physical preparation.”

Ricardo Morais today

“Ricardão”, who measures 2.03m in height and weighed more than 120kg, was surprised to arrive in Russia with the news that he would have to do up to five fights in the same night, instead of just one, as he expected. But the news did not intimidate the Brazilian.

“I was already there and I wasn’t going to ask to come back. I, even when I didn’t know how to fight, always liked to beat my *ss to test myself, as a man and a warrior. I have always admired Carlson Gracie and Ivan Gomes. That is my spirit, to fight for honor. I always had that in my mind.”

The rules at AFC were identical to those of other events around the world at that time, that is, very few.

“It was an event based on the early UFC: no time limit, no gloves and even asking to stop. It was practically a street fight with the limitations of not kicking the lower parts, biting and putting your finger in the eye. Other than that, whatever you did would be allowed.”

The AFC summoned athletes from all over the world: names that became known years later, such as the American Tra Telligman, the Ukrainian Igor Vovchanchyn, who later came to be considered the best heavyweight in the world, the Brazilian black belt jiu- jítsu Adilson Bita, among others. In addition to Mikhail Ilyukhin, a Russian known as “Yuri Micha”, who can be considered a member of his country’s first generation of “bogeymen” alongside Oleg Taktarov and Igor Zinoviev.

Ricardão, however, had no idea who could face him, but devised a strategy to be ready for any challenge.

“I left Brazil with my mind prepared to fight (Olympic wrestling champion) Alexander Karelin, who was the only Russian name I knew. I was mentally prepared to fight him. I was practically willing to fight until I died. I didn’t realize it was five fights, but I was mentally prepared to fight him. But it wasn’t him. He would not be exposed to a MMA event as an Olympic champion. I didn’t know anything about anyone. I really went to a gladiator arena, without thinking about the fighters who were experienced or not. I had one thing on my mind: to fight for honor and even to die. I always had that in my mind.”

The stage chosen for the event was Luzhniki Sports Arena.

Arriving in Moscow, the Brazilian faced another adversity, which could harm him when he finally got into the ring.

“I stayed there in Russia for a week, and food at that time was very difficult. It was a period of crisis for Russia, so I spent almost a week eating chicken noodles. This was a wear and tear that I went through that caused mental wear and tear, to be in a place that you don’t know anything about.”

But, mentally prepared to face even Alexander Karelin, the Brazilian did not take notice of his opponents. To reach the final, Ricardão won four fights: Alex Andrade by technical knockout with 1m48s, Onassis Parungao by submission with 1m16s, Maxim Tarasov by technical knockout at 1m49s and Victor Yerohin by technical knockout at 1m33s.

– They were hard fights and all the blows were knockouts tap outs. They were fast fights.

The other Brazilian at the event, Adilson Bita, ended up eliminated by Igor Vovchanchyn who, in turn, was finished in sequence by Yuri Micha with an unusual technique, which was called “chin in the eye”.

Micha, by the way, had his way to the final made easier compared to the Brazilian.

“I had four fights with people who would fight normally, and Yuri Micha fought with two friends from the gym, so he practically had three real fights and two fake ones, and I was more worn out than him. In the semifinal, he submitted his opponent very quickly (five seconds) and they shook hands. There you can see that they were saving him to fight whoever was for the final.

The fight for the title was Ricardão’s longest, a bloody dispute defined after a merciless sequence of punches and elbows in the back until the Brazilian fitted a rear naked choke and submitted at 9m44s. And it was in that match that he felt the pressure of the Russian fans, as well as a feeling that he was testing his limit.

– I felt the pressure really in the last fight. Every blow that Yuri Micha put on me, I heard the whole stadium shouting his name. MMA makes the fighter test himself at the limit of the man himself. At the limit of persisting or giving up. I’ll be very honest with you, I was a blue belt participating in a world event, predominantly with black belt champions, and at the end of the fifth fight, which I won, I really tasted death there. It is a test of honor, a test of race. If the person is not mentally prepared, he does not reach the goal. It may even be physically prepared, but if the mind is not prepared to die, it does not reach the goal.

Watch Ricardo Morais’s finishes in Russia: