Rafael Lovato Jr. has had an impressive year. Rafael Lovato Jr has also moved on to bigger things after Legacy Fighting Championship. After a successful debut at Bellator he’s booked his 2nd fight – against Chris Honeycutt. He managed to get another win making his mma record 7-0.
Recently he gave a comprehensive interview about the progress of bjj in mma to mmafighting. We share some of the most interesting bits of his analysis
On the importance of combat application in bjj academies:
“I think your average jiu-jitsu practitioner, competitor or not, just someone that practices jiu-jitsu for recreational purposes, they’re still going to have a great advantage in a real life street self-defense situation with their knowledge.”
However Lovato added:
“But I do believe that it’s important for jiu-jitsu academies to keep the self-defense the realistic aspects of jiu-jitsu alive and teach self-defense, talk about how the techniques and positions would apply in a situation where someone could be hitting you and stuff like that.”
On Modern Guard application in MMA:
“Toquinho was using tons of 50/50 to setup his heel hooks. Ryan Hall is jumping guard and rolling into those positions. It could work. I also think it works to a certain point. It could be trained and defended against and you’re going to need more”
On what’s missing in the modern application of jiu-jitsu in MMA:
“Nowadays the one thing that can hurt those guys is not being able to get the takedown, needing more wrestling, and maybe fighting for top position more, a little bit of that scramble and that grind. Because jiu-jitsu can be so relaxed and you can be so comfortable just pulling guard and sitting back. There’s a little bit of physicality in that as well, in the wrestling.”
adding:
“I think a big aspect of that is just not being one dimensional, but more that you can threaten somebody in multiple areas the more you can capitalize on something that they’re so concerned about, but then you make them forget.”
On the chance of a bjj practitioner supporting themselves just with pro grappling:
“I think it gives more opportunities for the high-level jiu-jitsu guys to make money and stay in the sport, which on the jiu-jitsu side of things, everyone wants to see those people continue in jiu-jitsu. It’s great for the sport of jiu-jitsu and it makes the other guys, it makes them have to make their decision a little harder. They have to really think about it and who they are and what they want out of themselves as martial artist before stepping into that cage. And they can know that, “Hey, I’m in here because I really want to be in here, not just for a paycheck.”
On how the different bjj rulesets are a good thing:
“I think once your game or your style becomes too reliant on one format or one set of rules, then you’re not going to evolve. It’s going to hinder your evolution and your ability to learn as see new things. I think as long no one is doing just one format, than yes it’s a positive thing. Now, they might find a format where they feel like their more successful and just want to stick with that format and say, “Well, I don’t do submission only” or “I only do submission only” or something like that and they’re being affected by that.”
