Tatame reported five days ago that Rickson Gracie is starting his own MMA event series in Rio de Janeiro next month.

The event, entitled ‘Mestre do Combate' or ‘Master of Combat' will have a number of significant differences to the MMA shows to which we have become accustomed, designed to reintroduce ‘the spirit of victory and strategy' and prioritise skill instead of athleticism Rickson told Tatame.

Such differences include weighs-ins on the day of the fight, thereby eliminating the various complications that can arise from large weight cuts, and levelling the playing field with regards to fighter strength and conditioning.

Further differences are designed to leave less of a doubt as to who has won the fight. If for example the fight is close to finishing by either knockout or submission, no bell will sound to signify the end of the round. No one it seems will be ‘saved by the bell'.

Fights will be structured in the same manner as in the old Pride events with the first round lasting ten minutes in order to favour strategy over explosiveness, followed by a five minute second round. If at the end of the fight there is no clear winner, the fights will be decided by a panel consisting of Rickson himself, the referee and the audience. How exactly the audience will cast their votes and how they will be amalgamated into one of equal weight to those of Rickson and the referee was not mentioned in the piece.

One final difference is that the fighters competing in the event will be organised into a team structure. Each team will represent a major Brazilian city and be comprised of a coach and five fighters, each representing a weight class from lightweight to heavyweight.
Every ‘Mestre do Combate' event will have two teams facing off, the winning team being the one that at the end of the event holds at least three wins over the other. Though in addition to this there will be fight of the night bonuses.

The first event will take place on the 22nd of November and the show will run for a series of nine events, seven of which have already confirmed venues and dates.