Rafael Lovato Jr. is one of the greatest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes of all time.
A former Bellator MMA world champion, he still actively competes in Jiu-Jitsu – in fact, his next match is today, at Who’s Number One (WNO)!
But what a lot of people don’t know is that Lovato climbed through the ranks and acquired his many titles without having had a black belt instructor in his town, Oklahoma City.
He’d often travel large distances in order to gain knowledge, and then implement them in his hometown – where he was training with his father, Rafael Lovato Sr.
In fact, in the old days, people would frequent their school and challenge them!
Lovato shared what it was like back then:
I was just a kid, I was 15-16 years old fighting grown men.
We were in kind of a rough area of town, and someone’d like come in, kind of talking: “Oh, what is this stuff? You can’t beat me up, whatever… I wanna challenge your best guy.” All the time.
And my dad would be, like: “Alright. Come on in, sign this waiver. I got some gloves for you. Let’s go.”
The challenge would be accepted…
And Rafael would be the one to take it on:
We would get wrestlers, kickboxers, karate guys… Whatever – come in and say some things.
And my dad would be, like: “Alright, go with my son.”And I was the one to [take out the trash]. And give them a little bit of extra humiliation.
Because, you know, I had pimples on my face and I’m just a teenager in high school.
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