Brazil has long earned its claim as the cradle of mixed martial arts. Generations ago, before the sport was baptized by Americans, there was Vale Tudo (meaning ‘anything goes’) where Luta Livre warriors, sojourning prizefighters and members of the Gracie clan clashed in matches attended by the thousands in Rio de Janeiro.

The modern incarnation of MMA began in the early 90’s, with a gi-clad Royce Gracie flying the family flag on his way to winning three of the first four UFC tournaments. When the Gracie’s cut ties with the promotion, fellow Brazilian Marco Ruas picked up the torch and relayed it to win UFC 7. Over the course of the two decades since those watershed moments, the birthplace of Vale Tudo has spawned many more of the sport’s most iconic fighters and champions…

The Gracie’s, Marco Ruas, Jose “Pelé” Landi, Vitor Belfort, Pedro Rizzo, the Nogueira brothers, Wanderlei Silva, the Rua brothers, Anderson Silva — just to scratch the surface.

So if you ask any MMA aficionado to name the single most influential figure across the history of Brazilian MMA, chances are that you would get the usual suspects.

Purists would undoubtedly cite Royce Gracie as the pioneer who started it all, but a strong case could be made about Wanderlei Silva based on his unprecedented dominance in Pride Fighting Championship. As for anyone who caught on after 2006, a nod to pound-for-pound legend Anderson Silva wouldn’t be surprising.

While each pundit is entitled to his or her opinion, there is at least one other name that deserves to be part of this discussion.

“The Master” Rafael Cordeiro

As a trainer and master tactician, few coaches in the fight game can claim to have single-handedly mentored nearly half of his country’s major MMA champions (e.g. Pride FC and UFC), but that’s exactly the case for Rafael Cordeiro. Simply put, no individual has had a more direct role in upholding his nation’s reputed dominance in the sport than “The Master”.

If the Gracie’s are considered the First Family of Brazilian MMA, then Rafael Cordeiro would be its patron saint.

Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Anderson Silva, along with every alumni from the glory days of the famed Chute Boxe camp, have at one point or another, bowed under the tutelage of the mestre. Now, with the recent championship ascensions of his Kings MMA proteges, Rafael dos Anjos and Fabricio Werdum, Rafael Cordeiro has officially stood at the helm of two Brazilian MMA dynasties spanning multiple eras.

To fully appreciate Master Cordeiro’s place in Brazil’s MMA lore, it is imperative to examine the country’s championship history since the turn of the millenium.

Civil War: Curitiba vs Rio de Janeiro (2000 – 2006)

By the turn of the millenium through to the mid-2000’s, Brazilian fighters ruled a big part of the sport on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, Antonio “Minautoro” Nogueira, Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had career-defining title runs under the Pride banner. During that same period in the United States, Vitor Belfort and Murilo Bustamante had each captured UFC gold.

What’s notable about these champions is that they all belonged to either one of two rival camps: Brazilian Top Team (BTT) based in Rio, or Chute Boxe from Curitiba.

BTT’s Jiu-Jitsu-centric style stemmed from the Carlson Gracie lineage of its founders; whereas Chute Boxe has always identified with its aggressive brand of Muay Thai that favors a heavy clinch-game, double-collar tie-ups, knees, stomps and soccer kicks.

At the time, Rafael Cordeiro, a former Brazilian lightweight champion in Muay Thai, directed coaching duties at Chute Boxe and was in charge of one of the most fearsome stables of fighters ever assembled. The most notorious aspect of the camp was the intensity of the sparring sessions.

It was said that, on any given day, all-out wars would break-out inside the gym. This extreme approach, of using iron to sharpen iron, fostered a culture where fighters were conditioned to weather the worst storms and hunt for the kill. Consequently, Chute Boxe fighters were battle-tested and programmed to counter aggression with aggression.

 

The intense rivalry between Chute Boxe and BTT pushed both camps to the brink of savagery. Depending on who you ask, those who followed the feud may have strong feelings about which of the two teams won the actual war. Without question, however, was that out of all the champions that came out of Brazil during that period, Wanderlei Silva was the one who defined the era. During his reign as the Pride FC middleweight champion from 2001 to 2007, the “Axe Murderer” thrived in Japan and was virtually unstoppable when competing under Pride rules.

If Wanderlei was the conquering king of Chute Boxe, then the crowning of “Shogun” Rua at the 2005 Pride Middleweight Grand Prix made him his heir apparent.

For Rafael Cordeiro who trained both Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Rua, and oversaw their development from white-belt through black-belt, their titles were an affirmation of his status as a kingmaker.

In the documentary Generation Evolução (Chute Boxe Evolved), former Chute Boxe member Mauricio “Veio” Amade gives insight on the team’s philosophy, “In Chute Boxe, we have a philosophy where we only spoke to our opponents after the fight.” He adds, “After the fight everyone is professional. But before the fight, things are different.” Amade further elaborates, “We entice our opponents to the point where they wanted to fight us.”

Psychological warfare, it seemed, was just as integral to the Chute Boxe arsenal as was the Muay Thai clinch. In the same documentary, Wanderlei Silva explains that every black-belt student under Master Cordeiro understands this and readily applies this aspect of the fight game.

Over the years, there have been several well-publicized incidents involving members of Chute Boxe and their rivals. Off the top, one of the most talked-about stories was the time Cristiano Marcelo, Chute Boxe’s Jiu-Jitsu coach, choked-out Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett in a backstage brawl.

Evidently, fearlessness and willingness to defend the team at all cost were part of the Chute Boxe doctrine.

This was evident at Pride 31, when “Ninja” and Wanderlei stormed the ring and caused a melee to save “Shogun”, whose arm was snapped during a break-fall. The situation escalated by a raging Mark Coleman who kept attacking after the referee’s call to stop fighting.

Good or bad, the above incidents, along with many others, lent Chute Boxe its mob-like reputation.

It goes without saying that one of the keys to Chute Boxe’s success was unity. Its members professed unwavering loyalty to each other. Mauricio Amade explains, “It was a family. If you were against one person, you were against all of us.” From an observer’s standpoint, it becomes clear that the Chute Boxe philosophy could be summarized as unity within, animosity without.

The unfortunate consequence of this us against the world philosophy was that Chute Boxe made it impossible for its members to pursue knowledge outside the camp. Meanwhile, fighters in North America began cross-training in multiple gyms to expand their game. This practice was prohibited to Chute Boxe fighters which effectively put a ceiling on their development. As a result, the key ingredient that made Chute Boxe such a dominant powerhouse would also sow the seeds of its eventual decline.

The Great Exodus, the Age of The Spider (2006 – 2013)

In the years surrounding the fall of Pride, the tradition of Brazilian dominance persisted even with the decline of Chute Boxe and BTT. Many members of both camps broke away from their nests to form new alliances.

For Chute Boxe, the exodus started with the unheralded black sheep of the clan, Anderson Silva, who left to join Black House in 2006. By that point, “The Spider” had grown tired of the team’s politics and had also allegedly been involved in altercations with its elder statesmen, Jose “Pele” Landi and Master Cordeiro.

 

Though undeniably talented, nobody foresaw Anderson Silva’s meteoric rise as the sport’s pound-for-pound king. Over the next six years, he would dominate the 185-lb division, first by short-circuiting Rich Franklin’s career via clinch-and-knees (the Curitiba special), then bullying the competition with Matrix-like fluidity and in-cage clowning tactics straight out of Jose “Pele” Landi’s playbook.

You can take Anderson out of Chute Boxe, but you can never take Chute Boxe out of Anderson.

During that period, many new Brazilian champions emerged from the Black House camp, notably Lyoto Machida, Junior dos Santos and Jose Aldo.

Paradoxically, Chute Boxe kept hemorrhaging talent.

After joining the UFC, Wanderlei Silva moved on to Las Vegas to form the Wand Fight Team. By that point, “The Axe Murderer” had reached the twilight of his prime and was no longer the indomitable conqueror that he once was. In 2008, it was Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s turn to depart.  Along with his brother Murilo “Ninja” and teammate Andre “Dida” Amade, the former heir apparent of Chute Boxe left the camp to found Universdade da luta. In 2010, Rua would defeat Lyoto Machida for a brief run as the UFC light heavyweight champion.

With the losses of its black sheep, its king and its prince, worst news was yet to come for Chute Boxe. The coup de grâce came in 2009 when, after more then 20 years at the helm, “The Master” Rafael Cordeiro announced his resignation as the team’s head coach. With the architect’s departure, the Chute Boxe dynasty has officially closed its books.

The New Dynasty: Kings MMA (2014 – present)

After an age of relative abundance for Brazilian fighters, the MMA world bore witness to the technical dismantling of Renan Barao, the brutal banishment of Junior dos Santos, and the demystifying fall of pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva. With these events, Brazilian fight fans were suddenly confronted with an unfamiliar scenario: for the first time in many years, fighters flying the green-and-yellow no longer dominated the sport’s championship ranks.

Midway through 2014, Brazil’s title representation spiraled to its lowest point yet when, suddenly, Jose Aldo found himself as the country’s lone UFC champion.

It was then that the possibility of a Brazilian championship rout first entered the realm of speculation.

As it turned out, any hypothesizing of an American shutout proved to be unwarranted. In 2015, Brazilian reinforcement came via a pair upsets courtesy of Kings MMA: Rafael dos Anjos and Fabricio Werdum respectively derailed and outfought Anthony Pettis and Cain Velasquez to capture the undisputed lightweight and heavyweight UFC Championships, effectively bolstering the number of Brazilian champions to three.

 

Disaster was averted and, just like that, all was well again in the cradle of MMA.

Through Master Cordeiro, Rafael Dos Anjos and Fabricio Werdum share a common bloodline with the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Anderson Silva. However, free of the politics and restrictions that plagued Chute Boxe, Master Cordeiro founded Kings MMA in 2010 with much of the same principles that made its predecessor dominant: team unity and hard work.

The difference between Kings MMA and Chute Boxe is the new camp’s openness to share and learn from external sources. One example of this knowledge-sharing practice is the symbiotic partnership between Kings MMA and Mark Munoz’ Reign Training Center prior to the latter being sold. There is also a working relationship with teams like Wand Fight Team and Black House that sees members cross-train across different locations.

On Jim Genia’s Gross Point Blank podcast, Master Cordeiro reveals that when he established Kings MMA in Huntington Beach, he and Fabricio Werdum sought to learn wrestling together, as students.

Not one to rest on past accomplishments, the mestre‘s undying curiosity and willingness to adapt is humbling, especially for a man of his stature. This thirst for knowledge is what makes Rafael Cordeiro one of the greatest coaches in MMA.

Master Rafael Cordeiro’s track record:

• Pride Middleweight Championship (Wanderlei Silva, November 3, 2001 to February 24, 2007)
• Pride 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix (Wanderlei Silva, November 9, 2003)
• Pride 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix (Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, August 28, 2005)
• UFC Middleweight Championship (Anderson Silva, October 14, 2006 to July 6, 2013)
• UFC Light Heavyweight Championship (Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, May 8, 2010 to March 19, 2011)
• UFC Heavyweight Championship (Fabricio Werdum, [interim] November 15, 2014; [undisputed] June 13, 2015 to present)
• UFC Lightweight Championship (Rafael dos Anjos, March 13, 2015 to present)

Between 2001 and the present, the only time when none of Master Cordeiro’s current or former students were holding at least one world championship was a 16-month period between July 6, 2013 and November 15, 2014. Otherwise, Rafael Cordeiro has pretty much been the main architect in Brazil’s championship history over the past 15 years.

As it stands, the Kings MMA dynasty has gotten off to a promising start. With a pair of new champions flying its flag, old legends back in the saddle, and promising upstarts among its ranks, Master Cordeiro could very well be masterminding Brazil’s dominance for another 15 years.

So now, let’s try this again.

Question: Who is the most influential figure in the history of Brazilian MMA?

If you didn’t know, now you know.

 

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