> Chute Boxe Academy

Chute Boxe Academy is a Brazilian martial arts institution founded in 1978 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, by Rudimar Fedrigo. The academy originated as a Muay Thai school following Nélio “Naja” Borges de Souza’s introduction of the discipline to Brazil after he trained in Thailand during the 1970s. Fedrigo expanded the program in 1991 to incorporate wrestling and submission grappling alongside Muay Thai, creating a hybrid fighting system that would prove explosively effective in the era of Pride Fighting Championships and the early UFC. The Chute Boxe method emphasized relentless aggression, heavy clinch work, knees and elbows, and devastating body kicking — producing a generation of fighters whose collective output represents one of the greatest rosters ever assembled by a single gym. Chute Boxe alumni include Wanderlei Silva (PRIDE Middleweight Champion), Maurício “Shogun” Rua (UFC Light Heavyweight Champion), Anderson Silva (the longest-reigning UFC Middleweight Champion in history), Cris Cyborg (multiple-organization Women’s Featherweight Champion), and Charles Oliveira (UFC Lightweight Champion and holder of the all-time UFC submission record). Rafael Cordeiro, who trained and coached at Chute Boxe, later founded Kings MMA in California. An American branch, Chute Boxe USA, opened in Long Beach, California in 2004.