28 Facts About Wallid Ismail

Wallid Farid Ismail is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and promoter.

Wallid 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, Wallid Ismail is considered a pioneer, having his first official fight in the Vale Tudo event Desafio - Jiu Jitsu vs Luta Livre in 1991, having competed for the UFC, and PRIDE, most of his wins in MMA came by way of submission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wallid Ismail first pitched to the network as a pure submission grappling event, but changed the rules to be a no-holds-barred Vale Tudo event.

The event became known as Desafio - Jiu Jitsu vs Luta Livre, Wallid Ismail was escalated to represent BJJ and fight Luta Livre representative Eugenio Tadeu.

The match saw both fighters extensively exchanging strikes, Wallid Ismail used his aggressive jiu-jitsu to takedown Tadeu and apply an early form of Ground-and-Pound, punishing him with headbutts and by throwing him outside the ring multiple times.

Wallid Ismail later went to compete at Universal Vale Tudo Fighting.

Wallid Ismail first fought Australian Dennis Kefalinos, winning in short time, and went to face Japanese professional wrestler Katsumi Usuda, hailing from Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi.

In 1997, Wallid Ismail had his debut for Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC 12 event, where he was paired with Pancrase fighter Kazuo Takahashi.

When Wallid Ismail first tried to take Kazuo down, they hit the cage wall and stayed on it, grabbing the fence despite the referee's continuous warnings.

Shortly after, Wallid went on to score multiple successful takedown attempts, though Kazuo went on to knock Wallid down with a right hand, which at first seemed to end the fight, but the Japanese wrestler stood waiting, believing his opponent would receive a 10 count like it was done in Pancrase; when he learned that the match would continue, he tried to kick Ismail, but it happened to be an illegal attack because he was wearing wrestling shoes.

However, the most shocking event of the night came at its end: having been informed that groin attacks were legal, Takahashi slid his hand inside Wallid Ismail's trunks, tore away his protective cup and started striking his groin, which the Brazilian tried to counter by eye-gouging him again.

Wallid Ismail then signed with PRIDE FC, making his debut at Pride 4 against Japanese fighter Akira Shoji.

Wallid Ismail later stated that jet lag from the trip to Japan was the cause for his exhaustion, not poor conditioning.

Wallid Ismail returned at PRIDE 15 with a win by arm triangle over Shungo Oyama.

Wallid Ismail's next fight in PRIDE was a decision loss in a technical ground fight to Alex Stiebling at Pride 19.

Wallid Ismail won the last two fights of his career in 2002 in Japan.

In 2003, Wallid Ismail did several special appearances for Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Wallid Ismail founded the Jungle Fight Championship promotion in Brazil, and was often in the corner of Paulo Thiago and Erick Silva in their UFC fights.

Wallid Ismail became manager of multiple MMA fighters from Brazil, many which pass through Jungle Fight.