Coach from Chute Boxe, Cristiano Marcelo talked with exclusivity with TATAME team. Black-belt from Royler Gracie, he spoke about team’s future plans, after the left from big names as Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio Shogun, about rumors of coach Rafael Cordeiro’s left to and his future fights on the rings. Check below the whole interview with the chuteboxer.

How did you faced the leaving of Wanderlei, Ninja, Dida and Shogun?

Wanderlei is my friend, witness of my wedding and goes to my house. I see it like a wedding. Wanderlei knows how his left from Chute Boxe works. I’ll be connected with him forever, a man that I formed, as Ninja and the others, so if I say to you that I won’t miss them, I’ll be lying. I want the best for him and that he has success and what he chosen.

Now the team is changing. How is this happening?

I think it’s a transition. We’ll miss the ones that has gone, of course, because they’re friends, at least we considered that. I believe that’s important, the gym wasn’t made by only one champion, but a lot of champions, so the secret is team’s technical part. The training, the ones that are training together, all this are still here. A lot of people that were training for a long time and maybe were hided by the shining of the others stars and this renovation will be showed in 2008. I believe that 2007 was an atypical year, with changing from to , a new market, and I think that happened all over the world. Even with a bad year for Chute Boxe, all events we fought, all Grand Prix, we were at the finals. I fought, opened the doors form another event, I believe it happens.

Do you believe that this atypical year happened because of changing from to ?

I have no doubts. Pride was the biggest event, everybody wanted to fight there, even more than Ultimate, and I believe that, if Pride comes back, everybody would go there and leave Ultimate. I don’t have any turn-on fighting at Ultimate, I’d fight only for money. I think this event e the one now, between Hero’s and Ultimate. I want the best, and if the bests are on both, I want to be there.

Do you have anything arranged with these events?

Mestrão is taking care of this. I’ve received proposals from other events and he is the best as manager, so I don’t have a better person to take care of my career.

How do you see, as a coach, these losses?

They’re guys that surely the team are felt, more as person, because I believe that champions we’ll have a lot more. Michael Costa, Soldado, Werdum that already is a reality. There are millions of people there, the real lost would be if the technical part had gone. Athlete we build, the difficult part is the coach, and I believe that’s Chute Boxe’s secret, that forms champions.

How is the probability of Rafael’s gone to ?

For me, that’s the guy that understands the most of MMA in the world. He is the more technical black-belt that I ever formed. He can go to , I believe it will be great, because he’ll do only a shuttle, open a door, because the market is there. The most important is that he’ll stay at Chute Boxe. We’ll get new sponsors, new exchanges, that’s the tendency. He won’t leave Chute Boxe and that he’s doing for the team, that’s an evolution. We’ll get more athletes, more techniques, new doors will be opened and we see it with good eyes. He would go there and come back, because we need an office there, we need a gym there as we had at . At the beginning, he’ll be there for a while and I’ll be contacting him with a radio. If he wants to, he can teach with a Nextel, because the man is great.

What’s Rafael’s class is so differentiated? What will the athletes miss more?

Actually, there’s nothing right yet. It’s good to say that because some guys will think that he’s going now. He is dreaming, a project that can happen, but it’s not 100% yet. I can say that his class is complete, since the warm-up. If he want to do a working out class he’ll be the best, on the ground he’s black-belt and Muay Thai we don’t need to say. He is a complete fighter.

Do you have any fight now?

I’m with Mestrão, I wanna be at Hero’s, I wanna be at this saucepan, I wanna see Gesias. Ultimate is the same thing, I wanna be there. I met Gesias at Brasilia , he is a great guym highly professional, nothing against him.

How Rudimar is doing with thing political question?

That was great for the gym. Being at the department, I believe that he opens new project options for the gym, ad sponsors, and that makes us stronger outside the martial arts. That’s really cool.

In which news talents from the team do you bet?

Maixon already is a reality, Martin Garcia too, at 70kg category I see Mário Salgado. I see Fernando Cuecão, that did a great fight at Manaus . I think that he fights great as heavy as 93kg categories, and would be a great fight for Ricardo Arona. He has a clinch, he goes in and Arona won’t stop him, would be an exchanging fight, and I bet on him.