Will keep on adding stuff until this thread manages to get some steam!!
Today we will talk abou the "General" of Luta Livre, Hugo Duarte. Everyone knows Hugo Duarte as the guy who fought against Rickson Gracie at Pepé beach. There are a lot of conflicting histories of what happened during that time...Rickson threw sand at Duartes eyes, Duarte was ambushed, Rickson beat him up fair and square (which is my opinion), but not everyone knows that they rematched a few days later outside the Gracie Academy on the streets.
History says that Duarte after losing to Rickson, decided with a contingent of Luta Livre practitioners to confront Rickson at his Academy, one of those who were on that contingent was Luta Livre OG, Eugenio Tadeu (more on that later). When the LL guys arrived, the one who received them was Helio Gracie, telling them that Rickson was not around and that they should try to squash this beef in the rings, but Duarte was having none of that. According to Rickson, he was with a hungover at his apartment when he was called about what was happening with at the Gracie Academy.
Rickson after realizing what was happening went to the Gracie Academy and after a few choice words, started to brawl with Duarte in the middle of the street, defeating Duarte in less than three minutes, after the fight ended Duarte apologized and accepted the loss, but Eugenio Tadeu did not, challenging Royler Gracie to a fight right there, details are sketchy but apparently someone from the LL crew shot some bullets into the sky, leading to everyone to scatter around and having the Royler vs Tadeu fight at closed doors.
It is worth mentioning, that Duarte was Roberto Leitaos and Fausto Brunocillas top student and considered at the time to be the strongest and best Luta Livre practitioner, what is more, Duarte was going to be a part of the BJJ vs Luta Livre event that happened in the early 90s, the one who was headlined by Wallid Ismail vs Eugenio Tadeu. In spite of that Duarte made his Vale Tudo/MMA debut in 1995, winning his first five fights in less than five minutes. Leading to be called by some as the "Mike Tyson of Vale Tudo", his first defeat came at the hands of Tank Abbott at UFC 17 via KO, after attempting a poorly timed Armbar and them further embarrasing himself and Luta Livre when he fought Mart Kerr during his prime.
According to Duarte (I always tought of him as a sore loser), he broke his foot early in the fight and Kerr was poking him in the eyes and tried to headbutt him a couple of times, weird thing to say because he was a Vale Tudo fighter first, ruleset in which headbutts were allowed. In my opinion Duarte tried to bully Kerr with his size and strength but when he was unable he broke down. Duarte was seen by many as a guy who wasn´t very technical but relied on his strength and size.
After the Kerr fight he had only two fights, winning one via DQ (eye gouging) and being defeated via TKO by Bob Schrijber...ending up with an unimpressive 6-3 record. Duarte kept on being a part of Luta Livre, opening up his Academy and teaching people Luta Livre but without anything of note during these past 15 years.
All in all Duarte it is mostly remembered by two things...the fight against Rickson Gracie at Pepé beach and the embarrasement that he had against Mark Kerr.
Ps. I am seeing that I am writing things like articles more than anything else!!