[4][9] 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.

[4][10] 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.

[11][12][13] 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.

[14] Finally, capoeira carioca also taught the use of weapons like the sardinha or santo christo (razors) and the petropolis (canes, sometimes tricked),[9] 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.

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 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.

In the first match on April 2, Sinhozinho's apprentice Luiz "Cirandinha" Pereira Aguiar fought Bimba's student Jurandir (also a practitioner of judo), knocking him out in the first round with a body kick.

[1] In 1953, Sinhozinho next challenged the Gracie family, inviting them to send two of their Brazilian jiu-jitsu representatives to a vale tudo charity event in the Vasco da Gama stadium on March 17.

[9] 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 called for the match to be stopped and ruled a draw.

Dominating the early moments, the stronger Cirandinha punished Carlson standing with a variety of strikes and kicks, followed by a hard throw and a heavy hook that almost finished Gracie.

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 stomps to the face and chest when possible.

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.