 In 1996, Lapenda, still in his 20s, decided to take the sport global and created his own fighting event, the World Vale Tudo Championship (WVC), which debuted at NK Hall Bay auditorium in Japan to a packed house.That first event had an eight-man tournament plus a super fight.Among the fighters were three of the six UFC champions including Steve Jennum, Oleg Taktarov and Marco Ruas.