Marcelo Alonso’s MMA Roots SeriesMMA Roots: The Consecration of ‘The Brazilian Killa’
Some recognize Chael Sonnen as the first trash talker to create a blood rivalry with his words, having done so with former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva. The truth? Long before Sonnen arrived on the scene, another American managed to understand that throwing some spice into the rivalry between Brazil and the United States could yield beneficial dividends.
When I covered IVC 14 on Nov. 11, 2001 in Caracas, Venezuela, I witnessed the birth of Alex Stiebling as “The Brazilian Killa.” It was a well-deserved nickname after he beat four Brazilians on the same night. He then went on to defeat Carlson Gracie proteges Allan Goes and Wallid Ismail in Pride Fighting Championships before his run was stopped by the aforementioned Silva at Pride 21.
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In November 2011, after more than a two-year absence, Batarelli decided to return with his first international show in Venezuela. IVC 14 featured a single-elimination tournament between 16 fighters: 11 Brazilians, four Americans and one Canadian. The eventual champion would have to go through no fewer than four opponents. Theoretically, the numerical advantage would favor the Brazilians, who also had the heaviest and most experienced fighters, from Pedro Otavio and Angelo Araujo to Carlos Clayton, Jefferson “Tanque” Silva and Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. However, when the bracket was revealed, the supposed edge disappeared. To rebalance the field, the Brazilian favorites were placed on the same side of the draw and wound up eliminating each other. It left the door open for Stiebling on the other side, as he faced the lightest Brazilians in the competition.
UNLUCKY DRAW
Luck tends to be as much a part of tournament success as technique. Araujo understood this. “It seems that on one side, it’s a heavyweight tournament and on the other, a middleweight tournament,” he told me once he realized he would have to face fighters like Otavio, Clayton, “Tanque” Silva, Santos, Aaron Sullivan and Johnathan Ivey to even reach the final. Araujo started his marathon by taking on Clayton in a violent 10-minute battle. He won on points but looked to be weakened ahead of his next bout against Otavio, who had stopped Ivey with punches from side mount. Fortunately for Araujo, Otavio could not continue.
“I just came from an event in Russia where I hurt my eye, and I can’t see well,” he said. “I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. I have 50 fights and 40 wins, three tapes in the rental store and I have never been submitted. I’m not going to risk my vision for a thousand dollars.”
Araujo easily defeated John Renken, who stepped in to replace Otavio. However, in the semifinals, he was confronted by Santos, who had advanced with quick knockouts of “Tanque” and Sullivan. Araujo and “Cyborg” engaged in a tough fight filled with striking. Araujo eventually advanced to Santos’ back and unleashed a sustained barrage of punches. Given the lack of reaction from “Cyborg,” Batarelli decided to intervene 8:46 into the bout. “He elbowed me in the back of the head, and my body fell asleep,” a still-dizzy Santos told me afterward. “I was lucid, but my body couldn’t react.” Araujo retreated to the shower and spent 10 minutes trying to recover for the tournament final against Stiebling.
A WELL-EARNED MONIKER
Stiebling was a revelation at IVC 14 in Venezuela, but his tournament run did not start so well. His first match was against the much lighter Luiz Claudio das Dores, and the American waded through considerable difficulty in the first five minutes. The Brazilian luta livre practitioner knocked down Stiebling twice and even made a pass at a rear-naked choke. Stiebling withstood those advances and conspired with fatigue to finish “Claudinho de Angra” with a heel hook 9:22 into their encounter.
“I left the ring dejected, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to reach the final after two more fights like that,” Stiebling told me. Fortunately for the Louisville, Kentucky, native, his other opponents were not so tough.
Stiebling then delivered the fastest knockout of the night when he cut down Nova Uniao black belt Leandro Ribeiro with a head kick in just five seconds. Ribeiro had actually arrived at the event as a confidant of Rodrigo Gripp de Sousa, not as a participant. However, with the unexpected withdrawal of three Americans from the tournament, Batarelli invited him into the competition. Ribeiro went on to submit Wellington Wilkins and Antonio Resende—some believe the latter fight was “fixed”—with armbars before he met Stiebling.
In the semifinals, Stiebling took on one of the surprises of the tournament: Milton Bahia. Known for his battle with Landi-Jons at IVC 5, he weighed around 180 pounds but nevertheless entered the competition and scored two impressive knockouts against Mike Hunter and Gripp de Sousa. Unable to put Bahia down, Gripp de Sousa elected to strike and wound up with a broken nose for his troubles. Continued bleeding led doctors to call for the stoppage after 2:11.
As he exited the ring, Bahia promised to give Stiebling a hard time. “At IVC, I launched the Cockroach Killer (a stomp to the face of an opponent) and the Bahia Jump (a head jump pass through an opponent’s guard),” he told me. “Next, I’m going to launch the Taz Bahia, which is a round kick. If it catches my opponent’s head, it decapitates him.” However, Bahia could not fulfill his promise. After a brief exchange, he clinched and tried to take down Stiebling. The American somersaulted into a leg lock and forced Bahia to tap, advancing to the final against Araujo. To get there, Stiebling had fought for a little more than 10 minutes. Araujo, meanwhile, had spent more than 19 minutes in hand-to-hand combat.
Even though he was visibly weakened by the time he reached the final, Araujo enjoyed a strong start, took down Stiebling in the corner and unleashed dozens of punches from inside his opponent’s guard. However, to the dismay of the Brazilian fans, Batarelli, serving as the referee, decided to restart them on the feet. The exhausted Araujo was essentially easy prey at that point. Stiebling executed a takedown, moved to his back and brought it to a close with a rear-naked choke in 4:01.
“He took the hardest path and was in worse physical condition, so I went in calmly,” said Stiebling, who earned $10,000 in prize money. Araujo asked for a rematch. “If I caught this American straight away, I would have crushed him,” he said. “The 10 minutes of war with ‘Mangueira’ and nine minutes with ‘Cyborg’ exhausted me.” Afterward, Batarelli apologized for placing him in an unfair situation. “Unfortunately,” he said, “three Americans withdrew at the last minute, so I had to bring in light fighters [on the other side of the bracket].”
ALONG CAME ‘THE SPIDER’
A little more than a month after winning the IVC 14 tournament, Stiebling linked arms with Pride Fighting Championships. At the time, it was the top promotion in the world. Stiebling debuted at Pride 18 on Dec. 23, 2001 and affirmed his status as a Brazilian killer by stopping Goes with knees and punches in the third round. He went on to outpoint Ismail to a unanimous decision at Pride 19 on Feb. 24, 2002.
By then, Stiebling had six wins over Brazilians under his belt. He lined up his potential seventh Brazilian victim at Pride 21, where he was to meet a fast-rising Chute Boxe star: Anderson Silva. So high was Stiebling’s confidence that he had “Royce Who?” stitched onto his shorts in an obvious dig at Brazilian legend Royce Gracie. This time, however, Stiebling was dealt a vicious reality check. Silva, 27 at the time, opened a deep cut on his eyebrow with a head kick in the early stages of the fight. Doctors called for the stoppage just 83 seconds into the match.
Following the loss, Stiebling took off his shorts and gave it to the future UFC middleweight champion. Soon after, Silva bore the shorts of “The Brazilian Killa” and graced his first cover of Tatame magazine. Superstardom lay ahead.
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