The Chute Boxe Academy (, Kick-Boxing) is a Brazilian martial arts academy. It opened as a Muay Thai academy in 1978 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Head trainer Rudimar Fedrigo later expanded the program in 1991 to include other aspects of modern mixed martial arts, such as wrestling and submission grappling. By 1995, the Chute Boxe team was considered a prime training ground for Vale Tudo fighters. In 2004, an American branch, Chute Boxe USA, was established in Los Angeles, California.
Chute Boxe fighters are characterized by being extremely aggressive and physical, well-rounded fighters.
History
Beginnings
In the 1970s, in search of a more full contact martial art, Taekwondo black belt learned Muay Thai and brought it to Brazil. He moved to Curitiba and in 1978 his student Rudimar Fedrigo would found the Chute Boxe academy.
The style developed by Nélio Naja and his students had more emphasis on various kicks (due many of the early Brazilian Thai boxers coming from Taekwondo and Kyokushin Karate) but soon, the "Chute Boxe" style of Muay Thai became characterized as extremely aggressive, with wild combinations, hard low kicks and usually lacking in defense, trying to defeat their opponents as fast as possible.
The Chute Boxe team first made a name for themselves in the MMA world during the late 1990s in the Brazilian vale tudo promotion known as the International Vale Tudo Championship (IVC). With an aggressive and physical style focused around their muay thai skills, Chute Boxe fighters captured three of the four title belts in the promotion (Wanderlei Silva winning the light heavyweight belt, José Landi-Jons winning the middleweight belt, and Rafael Cordeiro winning the lightweight belt). The promotion ended up serving as a spring board for the Chute Boxe team (as well as many other Brazilian MMA stars) into the lucrative Japanese MMA market. For Chute Boxe specifically, it would help to launch their careers in Japan's PRIDE FC.
PRIDE FC dynasty
The major cog of the Chute Boxe machine in PRIDE was Wanderlei Silva. Known for an exciting, brawling style complete with lethal knees and leaping stomps, he would exemplify Chute Boxe style martial arts in PRIDE's middleweight division and eventually win the 2003 PRIDE FC Middleweight Grand Prix and the PRIDE FC middleweight title which he would hold for 5 1/2 years.
Coming off of a disappointing five-round decision loss to Tito Ortiz at UFC 25: Ultimate Japan, Silva would return to PRIDE to earn the biggest victory of his career to that point over the Lion's Den's Guy Mezger. It would be 20 fights and over four years before he would lose again in a controversial decision to superheavyweight Mark Hunt. During this span he defeated notable fighters Kazushi Sakuraba (three times), Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (twice), Yuki Kondo, Ikuhisa Minowa, Hidehiko Yoshida, Kiyoshi Tamura, Dan Henderson, Alexander Otsuka, Shungo Oyama, Hiromitsu Kanehara, and would draw with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović.
His aura of invincibility wouldn't truly be broken until a decision loss to Ricardo Arona in the 2005 PRIDE FC middle weight Grand Prix. His loss would be avenged later that night by teammate and rising star, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Silva is noted to have never lost under full PRIDE FC rules at his weight class; PRIDE's event in Las Vegas had altered rules.
Enter the Rua brothers
As the older of the Rua brothers, Murilo “Ninja” Rua had a mediocre run during his years with PRIDE FC. Wins over Mario Sperry, Akira Shoji and Alexander Otsuka established him as a contender in the organization. His younger brother Mauricio "Shogun" Rua would also enter the PRIDE fighting championships and would prove the most successful fighter produced by Chute Boxe under Wanderlei Silva's and Ninja's guidance.
Younger than Murilo by about a year and a half, “Shogun” has defeated a who's who list of fighters including Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Akira Shoji, Akihiro Gono, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Alistair Overeem (twice), Antônio Rogério “Minotouro” Nogueira, Ricardo Arona, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell, and Lyoto Machida. Shogun was the UFC light heavyweight champion until losing his first title defense against Jon Jones at UFC 128. His exciting, fan-friendly style includes much of the standard Chute Boxe Muay Thai clinch work, knees, stomps, and soccer kicks, as well as polished Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.