The World Vale Tudo Championship
WVC VI took place in Salvador in Brazil and the tournament was won by Travis Fulton who has fought an almost an unbelievable number of fights, over 320 times, and Igor Vovchanchin won the Superfight.
WVC VII featured a USSR vs. Brazil and the 8-man tournament was won by Maxim Tarasov, the fight card, included one of the most controversial and anticipated fight in Brazil's history and had the highest TV ratings on SporTV. Edson Carvalho who was trained by the Death master Antonio Lacerda claimed to have a special technique to win the super fight against Igor Vovchanchyn but lost.
WVC VIII, taking place at the Havana Beach Club in Aruba, marked the true first "Fight Island". The cage for WVC VIII was 10 meters from the Caribbean Sea.
Often times credited as one of the “Godfathers” of what is now known as mixed martial arts (“MMA”), introduced many of the promotions which are now leveraged by the major MMA promotions, including broadcast television & pay-per-view (“PPV”) exploitation, women’s fights. YouTube’s first MMA (“PPV”) and the first true “Fight Island” with fights taking place on the beach in Aruba. Lapenda is credited for introducing the first “complete” fighter to the combat sports industry. "The first modern MMA fighter, one who could punch, kick and grapple, was Marco Ruas. He was the template for all those who came later.