Vale tudo (pronounced Val-eh Tood-oh) (Portuguese for Anything goes. Literally in English vale - "is allowed" and tudo - "everything.") describes competitions in unarmed combat having minimal rules. It is sometimes considered a combat sport.In Brazil, the term vale tudo was first associated with booth fighting done in Brazilian circuses during the 1920s. Examples of such bouts were described in the Japanese-American Courier on October 4, 1928:[3]

"One report from São Paulo declares that Jiu Jitsu is truly an art and that in an interesting exhibition in the side tent to the big circus a Bahian negro of monstrous dimensions met his waterloo at the hands of a diminutive Japanese wrestler. The negro was an expert at Capoeira, an old South American style of fighting, but after putting the Japanese on his back and trying to kick his head... the little oriental by the use of a Jiu Jitsu hold threw the Bahian and after a short struggle he was found sitting on the silent frame of the massive opponent."