Congrat's to Lovato Jr. on his Brasileiro win!!!

DirectDrive

DirectDrive

Black Belt
@Black
Joined
Jan 19, 2003
Messages
6,544
Reaction score
0
My boy Rafael Lovato Jr. won his division at the Brasileiro yesterday, becoming the first American to do so. He decided last minute to fly to Brasil and compete in the Brasileiro and it paid off.



http://www.graciemag.com/?c=144&a=7257


Lovato first-ever foreign champion

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship ended yesterday in Rio de Janeiro. Luiz Big Mac, of God
Click to expand...
 
bugsmeanie44 said:
Congratulations to one of the best American black belts competing today!!
Click to expand...

yeah it is a sad commentary for this board that shotloads of people are on it and they don't even recognize when something great has happened for the american jiu-jitsu scene.

there are some great guys on here, but there are some serious boneheads. i bet if i stared a chi-na thread it would go 2 pages.
 
shiz! congrats to Lovato!

man..I always thought he was brazilian and spoke portugues..guess i was wrong?
 
GuardGame said:
shiz! congrats to Lovato!

man..I always thought he was brazilian and spoke portugues..guess i was wrong?
Click to expand...


a lot of people think that he is american born and raised. living and training in Oklahoma. his family name comes from Spain.
 
DirectDrive said:
a lot of people think that he is american born and raised. living and training in Oklahoma. his family name comes from Spain.
Click to expand...

Oh i see..so whats his story then? How old was he when he started and who did he start under?

And whats going on with Justin Rader? I saw him win the Pan-Ams, hes a bad dude! He a brown belt yet?

Whats the next tournament hes gona be at?
 
GuardGame said:
Oh i see..so whats his story then? How old was he when he started and who did he start under?

And whats going on with Justin Rader? I saw him win the Pan-Ams, hes a bad dude! He a brown belt yet?

Whats the next tournament hes gona be at?
Click to expand...


Lovato started pretty young, around 12 i think. his dad is a black belt too. they both got their black belts under carlos machado. lovato had a fight no-gi with saulo and saulo liked his game so much that he invited lovato to come train in brazil with him that summer. lovato ultimaly joined saulo's team. he lives and trains in oklahoma city.

rader is just one hard working fool. he is one of those guys that is not just raw talent. a lot of people would be considered a "natural" but not rader. he is honestly one of the hardest workers i know. he is the first to show up and the last to leave. he does not have his brown yet. lovato says he has a few holes in his game yet and he has to do the worlds this summer befre being considered for the brown. rader is only 20, so he's got plenty of time.
the next tourney rader will do should be the worlds this summer.
 
Seriously, Lovato is awesome. He has a good chance of medaling in the Worlds, I think. And he competes above his natural weight to avoid having to grapple Xande, his teammate.
 
I always thought he was brazilian or at least latin... i mean his name is lovato
 
Congrats to Rafael. I got to watch Jr. and Rader compete in Houston last November after being a being a fan for months watching them on YouTube. Both of them were awesome on the mat.

My son was so excited when he got to meet Justin you'd have thought he was meeting Randy Couture. :)
 
that is very very cool..

i would be in a cloud for about a month.
 
bugsmeanie44 said:
Seriously, Lovato is awesome. He has a good chance of medaling in the Worlds, I think. And he competes above his natural weight to avoid having to grapple Xande, his teammate.
Click to expand...

he has medaled at the world before, but the gold has been illusive so far. winning the brasilero usually means you will get #1 seed at the mundials.
you are right about him avoiding xande, but he also likes to compete against bigger guys.
 
GuardGame said:
shiz! congrats to Lovato!

man..I always thought he was brazilian and spoke portugues..guess i was wrong?
Click to expand...

Not everyone with a Romance-based European last name is Brazilian. Lovato is an Italian last name. I have a uncle who's last name is Lovato but he's from Cuba. Apparently one of his ancestors was Italian.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,262,918
Messages
57,196,050
Members
175,577
Latest member
Loser

Share this page

Back
Top