In the early days, mixed martial arts and no holds barred were interchangeable in the public eye. But then the death of NHB came years ago when the UFC added more rules, got sanctioned, and MMA became a legitimate sport.

Now what is banned in the US of A is alive and well in Brazil. A production called Rio Heroes is beginning to gain some momentum as they focus on old school NHB. We’re talking no glove, no rounds, no time limits. Pretty intense. As they explain on their website, 

Through the years, American involvement and corporate regulations have created rounds, rules, and many other lackluster restrictions. Do not expect to see this or any other Hollywood-type fights on this website. All it has to offer is street fighting in its purest form, including knockouts, blackouts, and broken bones. From the gyms and streets of Brazil, warriors converge to take on each other and try to become the next Rio Hero.

You won’t see this stuff on pay-per-view, Spike TV, or Showtime, but you can get all the action online and the video quality is surprisingly solid. It looks like they had some technical difficulties last time out but are going to make up for that with a free broadcast. From the president of the company,

Due to an overwhelming turnout for RioHeroes 11, our servers experienced severe technical difficulties and down time. Our servers were overloaded for more than six hours, which prevented us from broadcasting live until a large number of visitors left the site. We will now be giving away RioHeroes 12, the middleweight championship, for free on Nov. 27^th, 2007. We know that it is only through our viewers support that we will be able to continue to broadcast and want to thank you for your understanding. Proper adjustments will be taken for the next tournament to ensure that the website will be able to handle such a heavy load.

Put it on your calendar, free MMA, I mean NHB, on Nov 27.

Sunday, November 11th, 2007 | File under News