The door is closed for Rafael Lovato Jr. to ever fight MMA again and he’s content with the opportunity to keep competing in jiu-jitsu matches around the world.
The former Bellator middleweight champion
vacated his title shortly after taking it from Gegard Mousasi in 2019, when he was diagnosed with a brain condition that prevented athletic commissions to clear him. Lovato fought in the ring three and a half years later, improving to 11-0 in the sport with a quick submission over Taiga Iwasaki in Japan, and now flies to Tokyo for a grappling match with Giancarlo Silvio Bodoni at Saturday’s ONE 173.
“I’m at a different phase in my life now being a father and getting into my 40s,” Lovato told MMA Fighting. “I was content and happy to have that one last fight, to say my goodbye, and getting to do in Japan just made it even more special. Everything’s good. I don’t feel like I have to fight or I’m missing out on anything the way I did before, whenever it all kind of got taken away from me.
“I said my goodbye and I’m good there. Still feeling good, still feeling like I’m getting better, working my jiu-jitsu and my grappling and getting to face all these young guys has been a lot of fun. Hopefully this won’t be the last and ONE wants to continue growing their grappling roster and we can get more opportunities for some big guys to do some grappling out there.”
Lovato signed a one-match deal with ONE to face Bodoni in August, but the contest was cancelled after ONE moved the card from Denver to Thailand. They’re finally facing each other in Japan now, and Lovato hopes it’s the start of a long relationship.
“This is just a one-time thing,” Lovato said. “But hopefully I’ll walk away with a beautiful victory and they want to have me back and maybe we can set up like a 205-pound title and really create a division on their grappling side.”
“I’m super excited. This feels like destiny,” he continued. “We were supposed to face each other earlier in the summer in Denver and things got kind of pushed back and we didn’t know what was going to happen. And then for it to fall into Tokyo just makes it even more exciting, more special. I got to do my last MMA fight there and I love the Japanese culture, the energy, the martial arts spirit.”
The jiu-jitsu world champion said he’s always dreamed with the chance of competing in Japan after growing up watching the likes of Rickson Gracie strangle people in that part of the world, and Bellator’s close ties to RIZIN was one of the reasons why he joined the promotion. Lovato won his six fights under the Bellator banner after being crowned Legacy FC middleweight champion, but never got his chance to fight there until 2022.
“Now here we are for grappling,” Lovato said. “I used to joke around with the ADCC people like, ‘Hey, let’s go to Japan. Let’s do ADCC in Japan.’ It never happened, but everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen. That’s one thing I’ve learned in my life. Everything comes together at the right time, the right place, the way it’s supposed to. If you stay around long enough, you’ll be there to reap the benefit of it. I feel like that’s totally what’s happening now. The sport just growing, growing, growing. These opportunities to do grappling matches on big cards and be a part of these big events — ONE is huge and I’m so excited and couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity.”
Bodoni was 12 years old when Lovato won his IBJJF world championship in 2007, and enters their match with an impressive feat of being a two-time ADCC gold medalist.
“I want to be able to look back on my career and say — which I already can —, but I want to know that I faced everybody, all the best guys for multiple generations,” Lovato said. “And basically I’ve been out there with all of them for the last two decades. This was one that I hadn’t faced yet. I’ve been watching him, I’ve had students compete against him, I saw him come up and seeing his career unfold and do amazing things. I’m a big fan of his style, he’s very complete, very technical.
“He has a timeless style. He’s not like crazy scrambles or crazy athleticism, he’s very precise, step by step, position by position. He can do it all and presents a lot of challenges. From studying him, from watching him, I’ve learned some things and it’s made me better. He’s someone that now has a lot of attention so it’s awesome to kind of represent for the old school and show them how the old lions do it and put my skills to the test against him.”
