Rudimar Fedrigo, one of the top guns at Chute Boxe with Rafael Cordeiro, has released a statement confirming the departure of Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Murilo "Ninja" Rua from the Curitiba-based fight camp:

We regret very much the departure of Murilo and Mauricio Rua, they are fighters brought up in the team and left to start their own team in the USA. We’d like to remind them that the doors to Chute Boxe shall always be open for both of them and we wish them luck and success in their new endeavors.

While I understand that the fight promotion aspect of MMA in Brazil is doing quite well, it's still sad to see that the landscape regarding some of its top fight camps has been completely altered.

There was a time that Chute Boxe and Brazilian Top Team were two of the most respected fight camps in MMA and while they are still in existence, they've lost some of their identities due to major departures.

I'll always remember watching PRIDE shows and how intimidating the corner was for the Chute Boxe fighters. If a guy won, they'd celebrate like they had just won the World Series. And if they lost, often they would enter the ring with menacing looks as if they were about to throw down with  opposing corner.

It's just strange to hear that the Ruas and Wanderlei Silva are no longer training in Brazil with Chute Boxe and are all now in the States. Chute Boxe was more than a fight camp, it was a family. And now that family is basically no more.

I'm not sure what happened with BTT and CB but I wouldn't be surprised if money played a factor. It also seems more than a coincidence that the fall of both camps happened around the same time PRIDE started having problems. Once PRIDE stopped running shows it seemed like a lot of top Brazilian fighters wanted to move and set up shop in the U.S. to pursue opportunities with the UFC and other North American-based promotions. 

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Sam Caplan

Lead Writer/Editor - ProElite.com

SamCaplan.ProElite.com