he started his career on the rings by challenging judoka geo omori in são paulo in 1929, although he was initially rejected due to carlos's lack of training and experience. they eventually faced off in two exhibitions of "jiu-jitsu" (judo and jiu-jitsu were terms used interchangeably at the time in brazil) staged as a favor to carlos's father for the municipal guard in january 1930. afterwards, carlos and his brother george founded a small school in the city's barrio nas perdizes, where they brought in omori to teach them further jiu-jitsu. gracie claimed to have faced several "no holds barred" challenges in his school by this time. however, after carlos was arrested and jailed for assault on three men who had supposedly insulted his girlfriend, the two brothers had to move back to rio de janeiro. there they joined donato pires's school, opened in marquez de abrantes in september 1930. the date of their return to rio is both popularly and officially given as 1925, but sources of the time place it in the mentioned year. during this time, aside from both teaching and learning jiu-jitsu under pires, gracie dedicated himself to participate in unsanctioned prizefights in small bars, promote rooster fighting, and experiment on nutrition and dietary habits. he would claim in 1981 to have competed in amateur boxing with a 20-0 record during this time, while his relative reila gracie cited him as a national middleweight champion, but there's no record for those claims. in june 1931, pires moved to santa catarina due to his job in the ministry of the economy, leaving his academy in gracie's hands.