Just want to share how proud I am of the performances by my team mates Rafael Lovato Jr and Felipe Costa on their silver and bronze medal respectively at the 2024 ADCC championship. I have been helping Lovato Jr prepare for this tournament for many years and to see him make it back to the finals at the age of 40 is incredible. He had a sick guillotine in the quarter finals against a very tough Patrick Gaudio. A move that he has always been tweaking to make work for his body type.
Felipe Costa is an up and coming kid that isn’t a big name yet, but is right on that cusp and to see him not only make the tournament, but medal is incredible to see how far his No-Gi game has come. Not only did he show a great guard, but also a vastly improved takedown game and I thought gave the champion Giancarlo his toughest match of the division. He was able to beat a great leg locker in Couch, a great wrestler in Elder Cruz, gave the champ is toughest match and then took out a very game semi final opponent to cap it off. I definitely prefer training with Felipe when he is at an under 200 lb weight class compared to his usual weight of 215lbs.
Couldn’t be prouder to have these guys representing our team. The timeless nature of our Jiu-Jitsu in Lovato Jr and the humbleness in the next generation of Felipe.
