INTERNATIONAL BRAZILIAN LUTA LIVRE FEDERATION

The name “Brazilian” that precedes “Luta Livre” was an idea by Master Rolando Carrizo Ortiz with the approval and support of the Grand Masters Roberto Leitão and João Ricardo whose main motive was to describe the evolution that the art of Luta Livre had and unite both styles (Luta Livre and Luta Livre Esportiva) which in the past had had differences in clothing and regulations but which by that time had already merged into the same martial art.

At this time it is difficult to find places in which both the Instructor and the students only wear spats shorts (as did those who trained Luta Livre in those decades). In the same way, it is almost impossible to find a place where the Instructor and their students train with a naked torso, Gi pants (or kimono pants) with a Gi belt hanging from their waist, as those who trained Luta Livre Esportiva did in those times.

Today everyone trains this martial art with rushguards and shorts or spats shorts; because the evolution of these two styles (Brazilian Luta Livre) does it this way.

For this and many other similar examples our art evolved; and the name that describes the evolution of our martial art as it is seen today is Brazilian Luta Livre.

The other reasons were:

- To differentiate from the modality also known in Brazil as "Luta Livre" but which is very different from our martial art and which in the world is called Pro Wrestling.

- To take advantage of the popularity of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) in favor of Luta Livre, so that the martial arts community associates Brazilian Luta Livre with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, with the same importance and relevance within the effectiveness of the grappling applied to MMA. Also in this way the acronym “BJJ” was very similar to “BLL” (because the letters J and L look very similar, just in the opposite direction).

- To let the world know that Brazil was the country of origin of a system as effective as Luta Livre. 

- To try to be accepted by United World Wrestling as “Traditional wrestling” (due to the Brazilian origin of Luta Livre) in the same way that other systems were recognized today such as Senegalese Wrestling (from Senegal), Alysh belt wrestling (from Turkey) or Pahlavani wrestling (from Iran).

- The reason for the attempt to be included in the UWW is not only justified by the potential increase in popularity of Brazilian Luta Livre due to being included in an Olympic entity that has a presence in almost all countries in the world, but also by the intention to obtain economic resources and logistics for Brazilian Luta Livre instructors all over the world.