Vale tudo: Anything goes submission fighting

Vale Tudo, which means "anything goes", is a form of submission fighting which originated in the 1920s. In this form of fighting, virtually nothing was off limits---head butts, groin shots, brutal choking or neck punches, and bare knuckle shots to the face and groin were all par for the course.

​Initially fights like these took place in carnivals in Brazil between fighters with different martial arts and wrestling backgrounds until the 1960s when these fights were deemed too brutal--which led to them being banned at public events. At that point Vale Tudo competitions went underground.

In the 1990s, the UFC events inspired a resurgence of interest in a wider variety of combat sports, which brought Vale Tudo back into the mainstream, albeit with more regulations and boundaries. 

This video is a good example of the raw, primal quality of Vale Tudo fighting.