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Luta Livre - Although the individual words "luta" and "livre" mean "fight" and "free" respectively, the term "Luta Livre" means wrestling in Portuguese. It is often assumed that Luta Livre is a Brazilian hybrid martial art, but that is not the case. Luta livre is wrestling.
With the introduction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where Brazilian fighter Royce Gracie dominated the field with apparent ease, many English language martial arts publications rushed to find and translate older Brazilian articles regarding the history of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It was common knowledge that the practice of no-rules freestyle fighting was common in Brazil, so when those translating the articles saw many references to competitions between Gracie-trained fighters and Luta Livre practitioners, it was mistakenly assumed that Luta Livre is a Brazilian freestyle system. This misconception continues to this date.
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