Referee Big John in the circular cage at Mestre do Combate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Publicity photo

There were no big stars on the card, which allowed top billing Jiu-Jitsu to take center stage.

So Mestre do Combate, a new event held last night in Rio de Janeiro, pleased the crowd of VIPs and black belts sitting around the circle-shaped cage.

Before the eyes of host Rickson Gracie, and Marcelo Novaes, Cauã Reymond and other famous aces, the fighters on Murilo Bustamante-led Rio team put on a show and overcame the Francisco Veras-led team from São Paulo in an improbable 3-2 come-from-behind win.

Team São Paulo had been winning by 2-0, and the experienced black belt Alexandre Sagat could have shut out the competition by beating Gersinho Conceição. Sagat got the better of the first, ten-minute, round, but the BTT athlete would not be intimidated by the hard knocks he took standing, and went on to get two takedowns to win via decision, with referee Big John McCarthy and master of ceremonies Rickson Gracie having decided in his favor. The gang on Facebook had picked Sagat by a healthy margin, however.

With the score at 2-1, the hometown fighters’ spirits picked up: Armando Sapinho and Fernando Camolês rallied back with submissions. Sapinho, after sinking his Submission of the Night-winning north-south choke, shouted through the mic: “That’s grassroots Jiu-Jitsu. It will never die.” A round of applause for them, and for Jiu-Jitsu.

Check out the complete results, and the six submissions in eight fights:

Mestre do Combate 1
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
November 22, 2012

Vitor Miranda subbed Elton Monstro via arm-and-neck choke at 4:33 min.

RJ vs SP

Fernando Camolês subbed Kitner Moura via heelhook in R1.
Armando Sapinho subbed Thiago Fernandes via north-south choke in R1.
Gersinho Conceição defeated AlexandreSagat via split decision.
Udi Lima subbed Celso Farpado via triangle in R1.
Glauke Eugenio subbed Jeffinho Nunes via Kimura lock 26 seconds into R1

Under card

Oséias Viana subbed Luciano Izzy with a choke from the back in R1.
Pety Maffort defeated Robert Peter via TKO in R1.