Wallid Ismail

Wallid Farid Ismail (وليد فريد إسماعيل, born February 23, 1968) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and promoter.

Ismail holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) under Carlson Gracie, and is an IVC mixed martial arts world champion and BJJ Champion.

Ismail is considered one of the first professional fighters in BJJ because of his specially dedicated training, as he had many sponsors and did not have to teach or have another job, unlike most of the other competitors in the country at the time.

In mixed martial arts, Ismail also competed for the UFC, and PRIDE, and most of his wins in the sport came by way of submission.

After his career, he became heavily involved in the business side of MMA.

He is the founder and promoter of Jungle Fight, Brazil's largest MMA promotion, and also manager of multiple fighters.

Of Lebanese Brazilian heritage, Ismail started training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1980 in his home state of Amazonas in Brazil under Ary Almeida, and then, in 1984, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and started training under his master, the late Carlson Gracie, who described Ismail as a "hairy and chubby guy," but had a desire to succeed, as he would be known for later in his career and stayed by the side of his master until the day Carlson died in 2006.

Gracie had allowed Ismail to train with his camp even though Ismail had no money to afford the teaching." Wallid then started to compete in jiu-jitsu tournaments, becoming champion several times, and defeating four members of the famous Gracie family in competition.

Ismail was willing to face the Gracie family's main branch due to their enmity with their relative Carlson.

Ismail had also expressed: "I always felt belittled for not being born with the Gracie name. Some of the Gracies never trained at all, but they got all this attention. Other people trained just as hard, but no one paid them the least bit of attention."

After his first championship wins, Ismail had a famous duel with Ralph Gracie, whom he believed the Gracie family had trained specifically to beat him for three years.

The Carlson Gracie apprentice defeated Ralph at the Copa Rio Sport Center, winning a referee decision.

In 1993, Wallid scored another victory over a Gracie when he defeated Renzo Gracie, who would have been training for two years for revenge.

Ismail then challenged the main members of the family, Rickson and Royce, stating that he would fight them in any style anywhere.

Only Royce accepted the challenge, though demanding special conditions for the fight, like having no point scoring and no time limit, thus making the fight only winnable by submission.

In 1996, Wallid was involved in a violent incident with Edson Carvalho, a judo black belt and fellow Carlson Gracie trainee.

The matter took place in Georges Mehdi's judo school, which both Ismail and Carvalho were attending at the time.

After heated words among the two, a sparring turned into an all-out fight when Ismail and Carvalho attacked each other.

Mehdi intervened to break up the brawl and expel them out of the academy, but the two fighters resumed fighting as soon as they were in the street.

Seeing the situation, Mehdi opted for calling the police, but it arrived too late and didn't compromise to break up the violence, and meanwhile Wallid was brutally beaten down and left unconscious and profusely bleeding.

After the incident was finally over, Ismail had to be attended by Mehdi himself and spent a week in an ICU, with 20 stitches in his head, both orbital bones broken and many other facial injuries.

The incident had deep repercussions.

Carvalho's coach, Antônio Lacerda a.k.a. Mestre da Morte, declared himself prideful of his trainee's act and actually paraded through the city with the bloody gi jacket of Ismail.

Carlson Gracie, who was teaching in United States at the time, returned to Brazil and attacked Lacerda in a public meeting, challenging him to a fight, but nothing came from it.

Ismail claims that Edson's brother Ricardo Carvalho intervened actively in the brawl and that it became a 2-on-1, but Mehdi himself dismissed this version and assured that the fight was fair.

""The fight started in my academy.

I ordered Wallid and Edson to stop.

They conceded but soon started it again.

Then I sent them outside, because my academy is not the place for this type of fight.

Since they would not let go of each other I had to push them outside close the doors and call the cops.

And the fight out there went on for half an hour since the police was not coming quickly.

Sometimes I opened the door and tried to separate them but it was like separating a dog fight.

Edson did not obey me and then I asked Wallid to stop it, asking for mercy he replied "not even dead".

With renowned Hélio Vigio as the referee, the bout took place on December 17, 1998, and was won by Ismail after four minutes and fifty three seconds, choking Gracie unconscious with the Relógio (also known as clock choke or koshi-jime in judo), a move that has been associated with Wallid ever since.

The bout had a significant international repercussion due to Royce's previous career in Ultimate Fighting Championship, to the point Keith Vargo from the Black Belt magazine stated, "One thing is certain: Royce Gracie is no longer the messiah of unarmed combat he once was."

After the match, Ismail challenged Rickson again, but the latter was declared inactive in the sport.

Royce's side tried then to negotiate a rematch, which was accepted, but according to Ismail, they withdrew from the proposition after several months.

Rickson later criticized Ismail, calling him an "average fighter" and stating "I never felt like he's someone I have to respect as a fighter."

Wallid was also famous for his personal enmity with Ryan Gracie.

Ryan agreed to fight Wallid at mixed martial arts match at World Extreme Cagefighting in January 2000; however, Ryan dropped out of the event, and instead proposed fighting in April 2001, but he had to drop again after being arrested for fighting in a bar.