‘Let the kids fight’: Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush and the clash of two Chute Boxe lineages at UFC 289

Diego Lima and Charles Oliveira | Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

Charles Oliveira vs. Beneil Dariush is more than a fight for the chance to face UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev. It's a battle between two different branches – and generations – of the Chute Boxe tree.

Chute Boxe, a legendary Muay Thai gym in Curitiba, Brazil, became one of the world's biggest MMA teams through PRIDE, producing the likes of Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Rua - and later on with Cris Cyborg.

Rafael Cordeiro, one of the team's main coaches at the time, left the group in the late 2010s to open his own team, Kings MMA, in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Diego Lima, who runs a Chute Boxe branch in São Paulo, guided Charles Oliveira from UFC beginner to 155-pound champion, and the coach seeks another shot at the gold - a rematch with Makhachev - with a win on Saturday.

This time, however, Lima's greatest student faces Dariush, who trains under Cordeiro's in Huntington Beach.

"I'm happy for both of them, knowing that both come from the same school," Cordeiro said in a recent episode of MMA Fighting podcast Trocacão Franca. "The cool thing about it is that it won't be any trash talk. We won't be doing any of that on our side, and I don't think it will happen from [Jorge Patino] ‘Macaco' and the kids. They were all my students in the past, and we have great affection for one another."

Oliveira vs. Dariush was originally planned for October 2020, but the Brazilian had to pull out due to personal reasons. Cordeiro said he reached out to Chute Boxe leader Rudimar Fedrigo before agreeing to that fight, and he got the blessing from his former mentor.

"I called master Rudimar the first time it was booked and explained the whole situation," Cordeiro said. "He said, ‘It's all good. Let the kids fight. It's their dream, no one can take away their dreams. It's a fight that will lead one of them to the belt.'"

"If it's a fight that doesn't make sense you say it's not worth doing," he continued. "It reminds me of when Anderson [Silva] was booked against Kelvin [Gastelum]. I was like, ‘F*ck, I don't want this fight. I don't think it's a good fight.' I even called [Silva's manager Jorge Guimarães], ‘Are we really going to do this fight? I don't want any drama, Anderson trained with us for some time.' It made sense for Kelvin at the time, but in the end I was happy it never happened. But now is a moment that this fight makes sense, Charles and Benny. They're both young, and it probably won't be the last time they fight each other."

"Mestrão" Fedrigo told MMA Fighting he sees the three-round contest between two lineages of the team as a sign that the Chute Boxe style is still thriving so many decades into the sport.

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"It's going to be a great fight, no doubt about it," Fedrigo said. "We're professionals, and this fight is seen as work. Chute Boxe will obviously root for Charles, but this fight has something special, because we have grand master Rafael Cordeiro on the other side. Even though he founded Kings, his story is sill tied to Chute Boxe; he helped build the team.

"In reality, I see this fight as a consecration of the team, because we have one fighter wearing the team's flag, and on the other side, a coach that was formed in the gym. I see it as something good. This is work, not a rivalry. I'm proud of everything Rafael builds and does. He does a great job, and we do great job here at Chute Boxe as well, so Charles comes out victorious and gets another chance to fight for the title."

Cordeiro predicts a "great fight" between his protege and "Do Bronx," who has the utmost respect for his rival.

"He trains with Rafael Cordeiro, one of the great leaders of Chute Boxe, a man that has taken the name of Chute Boxe all over the world," Oliveira said on Trocacão Franca. "This school has the spirit of warriors, the spirit of the ones that will bleed, will die, but will continue to walk forward."

The co-main event of UFC 289 features a Brazilian lightweight battling one born in Iran, but the Chute Boxe factor makes Oliveira see it like he was fighting a fellow Brazilian.

"The same way we don't want Brazilians to fight Brazilians, we don't want to fight someone from the same school, but Chute Boxe is gigantic and it's all over the world, so it would happen one day," Oliveira said. "Rafael Cordeiro, much like Diego, has the dream of making a champion. The same way I want to be champion, Benny wants to be champion, too, so that fight would happen one day.

"It's great for the school, it will show the spirit and how good we are and how hard we're working to make things happen, but nobody likes to fight someone from the same team. He will defend his team, and I will kill and die for Chute Boxe Diego Lima. That's the spirit, and I will continue to walk forward and doing what I've always done. I'll once again raise the name and spirit of Chute Boxe."

Let the kids fight: Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush and the clash of two Chute Boxe lineages at UFC 289 originally appeared on NBC Sports