Issue 111

February 2014

Most of the big names left Chute Boxe around 2007, but the team will be legendary in MMA forever. Fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Anderson Silva and Jose ‘Pele’ Landi-Jons were just some of the many guys who achieved great things representing Chute Boxe.

RAFAEL CORDEIRO

The Kings MMA head coach on his halcyon days at the Chute Boxe Academy

The team was famous for having a very aggressive style. Chute Boxe fighters used to spar and train very hard and they always went into fights looking for the knockout or the finish. It was intimidating to face a Chute Boxe guy back then.

I was a big fan of Jose Landi-Jons and the way he fought. He always went forward and never gave up. He beat Anderson twice under Muay Thai rules, I think that says a lot about him. He is 40 years old now and I think he was the first guy to really show the complete Chute Boxe style. He was a very tough guy. But I don’t know if his style would be right for the sport today.

Vale Tudo and Pride rules were amazing – kicks on the floor, stomps, soccer kicks – but now the sport has changed. Some years ago it didn’t matter too much if you lost a fight or two. These days, you take one step forward with a win but three steps back with a loss. One or two losses is OK, you can get over it. Three losses is really dangerous for your career. You might never get the high-level opportunities again.

These days, fighters need to understand that they cannot afford to lose more than once or twice if they don’t want to really damage their career. And so these days, we fight for results. The method doesn’t matter, only the result.

Personally I love that style where you just touch gloves and fight until one of you falls down. But it is very risky, it can be a 50:50 fight like that.

Fighters today are professional athletes, not raw fighters like they used to be. They are fully trained and fully prepared and they are facing an opponent who is also fully trained and fully prepared. Often they will have studied their opponent carefully in the weeks before the fight, and vice-versa.

This means that the fighter today needs a more intelligent approach to the fight. The days of being able to stand in front of each other and hit full power are gone. Ten years ago, the guys were fighting on heart and emotion, often anger. Fighters today can’t do that. They need to be calm and they need to able to think and analyze during their fight.

It’s a game now. You’ve got three judges sitting there, and like Dana White says all the time, don’t give them the opportunity to give you the wrong result. You need to be smart, you need to be aware if your opponent is scoring points over you. You might be doing more damage when you land but the guy might be scoring lots of points in between.

Nowadays we can’t fight with emotion. Wanderlei used to say that when somebody touched him in the fight his reaction would be, ‘How dare you touch Wanderlei Silva!’ and he would go for them right away.

These days the fighter must be more calm and wait for the right opportunity. If you get angry and chase him, he might land 100 jabs and win the round on points while you haven’t managed to land the power-shot you want to KO him with.

Chute Boxe guys used to get mad in the dressing room before the fight, used to be ready to go crazy. Now I tell the guys they must find inner peace before they can fight. The key is to be relaxed and calm and that means the fighter must be at peace.

I had 30 fights in Muay Thai and I only lost one. That was the only fight where I got emotional. Anger and emotion can make you lose. You need to fight like a lion – but be a smart lion. These days it is a big chess game and you need to be calm so you can think about the route to checkmate.

What you don’t want in a fight is doubts. If you don’t know why you are fighting or what you are going to do if certain situations come up, you will have a big problem in there. I found peace by doing a lot of practice, and I knew I could handle anything which came up after training with Wanderlei, Pele and Anderson, all those guys.

Others might find that peace and confidence a different way, like family or children. Something which makes them feel calm and determined. Emotion has no place in the ring any more. Fedor Emelianenko is a great example of a calm fighter. 

His face never changed, he was able to think quickly and always take the opportunity when it came up.

Only one fighter can still fight on emotion: Wanderlei Silva. He will never change. When the fight starts he goes forward and he tries to knock the guy out. He’s always been like this and he always will be like this; Wanderlei goes for war. But maybe for Wanderlei, war is where he finds his peace anyway.