Oswaldo Fadda

Fadda was born in Bento Ribeiro, a suburb in the north of Rio de Janeiro to a family of immigrants from Ardauli, Sardinia. At the age of seventeen, while in the Brazilian Marines, he began to study jiu jitsu under Luiz França, a black belt under Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda was an expert judōka with direct lineage to the founder of judo, Kanō Jigorō, who had travelled around the world as a prize fighter while also teaching the locals his self-defence techniques. After settling in Belém in 1917, Maeda had continued to teach jiu jitsu to a select group of students (including França and Carlos Gracie).

By 1942, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was becoming well known in Brazil, although the price of tuition was too high for most residents of Rio. Fadda had received his own black belt from França and soon started teaching jiu jitsu free of charge in unorthodox locations such as public parks and beaches, often without the aid of crash mats, aiming to spread the art of jiu-jitsu to the poorer folk. Fadda also saw jiu-jitsu as a way to help people with physical or mental disabilities, especially the city's numerous polio victims. With no real income from his teaching he was forced to advertise in the obituary section of the local newspaper.

Despite being regarded by the Gracie family as an outcast, Fadda managed to open his own academy on the outskirts of Rio on January 27, 1950. He and his students began specialising in the use of footlocks, an often ignored part of the jiu-jitsu curriculum.

In 1955, Fadda felt confident that his school was ready for the next step and issued a challenge to the Gracies through the media: "We wish to challenge the Gracies, we respect them as the formidable adversaries they are but we do not fear them. We have 20 pupils ready for the challenge".

Hélio Gracie accepted the challenge and the two teams fought at Gracie's academy. What transpired at the challenge, however, is a cause of dissension among sources. According to a newspaper, 14 fights took place, with 7 wins for Gracie's academy, 4 draws and 3 wins for Fadda's academy.[5] According to other sources,[6][7] among them Reila Gracie's biography of Carlos Gracie,[8] Fadda's team emerged victorious, making good use of their knowledge of footlocks in which the opposition was lacking. Also, José Guimarães, one of Fadda's pupils, choked Gracie's "Leonidas" unconscious.[6]

The next year, at the low card of the event which hosted one of the matches between Valdemar Santana and Carlson Gracie, the two schools competed again against each other.[9] This time, the Gracie students were wary of their footlock expertise, shouting derisively "sapateiro!" ("shoemaker!") whenever a Fadda student tried one of their foot techniques. Nonetheless, the Fadda academy won the contest without controversy.[7] After the challenge, Fadda said an interview for the Revista do Esporte: "We put an end to the Gracie taboo".[10]

Oswaldo Fadda attained the rank of 9th degree red belt. Ever humble, he lived out the rest of his life in his Bento Ribeiro suburban home, suffering from Alzheimer's disease in his later years. He died of complications brought on by pneumonia on April 1, 2005, at the age of 84.

On September 20, 2014, he was posthumously awarded the 10th degree red belt, a feat for a non-Gracie lineage.[2]