Leandro Lo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Leandro Lo |
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Lo at the 2018 IBJJF World Championship.
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| Born | Leandro Lo Pereira do Nascimento 11 May 1989 São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil |
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| Died | 7 August 2022 (aged 33) São Paulo, Brazil |
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| Division | GI Weight Classes
No-GI Weight Classes
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| Team | Unity Jiu-jitsu NS Brotherhood Barbosa JJ PSLPB Cicero Costha |
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| Rank | 3rd degree black belt in BJJ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Leandro Pereira do Nascimento Lo, known as Leandro Lo (11 May 1989 – 7 August 2022) was a 3rd degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and multiple-time world champion in the sport. Holding a record eight IBJJF world championship titles in five different weight classes, as well as numerous victories in the Pan American championship, European championship, Brazilian National Championship and Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship; Lo was considered one of the best pound for pound grapplers and one of the most accomplished Jiu-Jitsu competitors of all time.
Contents
Early life
Leandro Pereira do Nascimento Lo was born on 11 May 1989 in São Paulo, Brazil. He started practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) at the age of 14, after joining a program for low-income children and adolescents, set up by Jiu-Jitsu instructor and coach Cicero Costha, called Projecto Social Lutando Pelo Bem (PSLPB). As a blue belt, Lo won his first IBJJF world championship in 2005, competing as a lightweight under team Barbosa JJ, winning silver the following year, and bronze at the Campeonato Brasileiro de Jiu-Jitsu competing as a featherweight. As a purple belt, Lo won silver at the 2006 World but suffered a serious injury that kept him from most championships, using that time to heal and refine his technique, Lo then won silver at the 2008 Brazilian Cup. Lo received all his belts from Costha's hands, and in July 2010, he was promoted to black belt.
Black belt career
Fighting at lightweight (under 76 kg (168 lb)), Lo won the 2011 CBJJ Rio International Open, coming third in Absolute, and the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals Championship. That same year Lo won the 2011 Abu Dhabi World Pro defeating Michael Langhi, who at the time was unbeaten in the lightweight division for three consecutive years, and Celso Vinicius one of the best jiu-jitsu lightweight competitor at the time. Competing in No-Gi Lo became two-time Brazilian National No-Gi champion after winning gold for two consecutive years in three divisions; in 2012 Lo won silver in Absolute at the 2012 IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, losing via advantage to Xande Ribeiro.
In 2012 he won another Brazilian Nationals title, the Pan American championship and that same year, Lo won his first black belt world title at the 2012 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, winning again the 2013 Worlds lightweight division the following year. Lo held an unbeaten winning streak at the Copa Podio Grand Prix from 2011 to 2013, one of the biggest professional jiu-jitsu events in Brazil, winning the 2013 edition in Rio de Janeiro after submitting UFC welterweight Gilbert Burns in an epic 20 minutes match.
Until then a two-time lightweight world champion, Lo entered the 2014 World Championship in the middleweight category middleweight (under 82.3 kg (181 lb)), Lo won gold that year then won the Pan Am and Abu Dhabi Pro. In 2015, Lo left PSLPB to form the NS Brotherhood team. That same year Lo defeated Lucas Lepri in Rio de Janeiro for the lightweight title, becoming Copa Podio champion for the fourth time.
Going up a weight class again to medium heavyweight (under 88.3 kg (195 lb)), Lo won the 2015 World, the Pan Am and the Abu Dhabi Pro tournaments again, winning gold again in 2016 in each of those three prestigious championships. In October 2016, Lo made history by becoming the first ever Copa Podio triple crown champion: wining three consecutive Grand Prix titles in 3 different weight classes: Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight. Lo won the last heavyweight title without conceding a single point.
In 2017 Lo went again up another weight class competing now at heavyweight (under 94.3 kg (208 lb)), that year he won silver in two divisions at the world championship (heavyweight and absolute), then won double gold at the Pan Am, double gold at the Brazilian Nationals and double gold at the European Championship. During the ADCC West Coast Trials, held in Anaheim California on 15 April 2017, Lo defeated Gordon Ryan in a Superfight by 4×0 pts. Invited to the 2017 ADCC World Championships in Espoo, Finland, competing for the first time for the -88 kilograms (194 lb) title, Lo was eliminated in the first round by Asia and Oceania Trials winner Craig Jones. Lo became two-time Absolute Pan Champion, after wining the two categories that he was defended, at the 2018 tournament taking place in Irvine, California.
In 2018 Lo entered the world championship as super-heavyweight (under 100.5 kg (222 lb)) but dislocated his shoulder twice during the super-heavyweight final and was unable to continue; in a surprising move, his close friend Marcus Buchecha, who he was supposed to face in the Absolute final, forfeited his match to gift Lo the open weight title, the only title missing in his career. Lo went back to heavyweight the following year winning silver after beating Keenan Cornelius in the absolute semi-finals, Lo made the final a close out when he gave Buchecha, who he was supposed to face, the victory. in the 2019 Absolute then, after Kaynan Duarte was stripped of his victory for failing a USADA Test, Lo was crowned the heavyweight division's champion, making him a world champion in 5 different weight classes, dethroning the record held for 20 years by Saulo Ribeiro.
Returning at medium-heavyweight for the first time since 2016, training at Unity Jiu Jitsu in New York, Lo won bronze at the 2021 World Championship and the 2022 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship before becoming the 2022 World Jiu-Jitsu Champion, his eighth and last world championship title. That last title placed him at number 1 in the medium-heavy male gi division for the 2021–2022 season of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation Ranking.
His guard technique earned Lo recognition as one of the "best pound for pound grapplers to have ever graced the mat." According to top coach John Danaher, Lo was "unquestionably one of the greatest Jiu-jitsu athletes of his generation and indeed in the history of the sport". The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation called Lo "one of the greatest athletes our sport has ever produced" and “an example of a true black belt, martial artist and champion on and off the mats”.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitive summary
Main Achievements (Black Belt):
- 8 x IBJJF World Champion (2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2018 / 2019 / 2022)
- 8 x IBJJF Pans Champion (2012 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018)
- 5 x UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro Champion (2011 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016)
- IBJJF European Open Champion (2017)
- 4 x CBJJ Brazilian Nationals Champion (2011 / 2012 / 2017)
- 3 x CBJJ Brazilian Nationals No-Gi Champion (2011 / 2012)
- 4 x Copa Podio Lightweight Grand Prix Champion (2011 / 2013 / 2014 / 2016)
- 2 x Copa Podio Middleweight Grand Prix Champion (2012 / 2016)
- Copa Podio Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion (2016)
- CBJJ Rio International Open Champion (2011)
- 2nd Place Copa Podio Heavyweight GP (2014)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2017 / 2018 / 2019)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World No-Gi Championship (2012)
- 2nd Place IBJJF Pans Championship (2016 / 2014)
- 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship (2015 / 2021)
- 3rd Place IBJJF World No-Gi Championship (2012)
- 3rd Place CBJJ Rio International Open Champion (2011)
Main Achievements (Coloured Belts):
- IBJJF World Champion (2005 junior blue)
- 2 x CBJJ Brazilian National Champion (2009 / 2010 brown)
- CBJJE Brazilian Cup Champion (2008 purple)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2006 junior blue)
- 2nd Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2008 purple)
- 3rd Place CBJJE Brazilian Cup Champion (2006 blue)
Instructor lineage
Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rickson Gracie > Marcelo Behring > Waldomiro Perez > Roberto Godoi > Marco Barbosa > Cicero Costha > Leandro Lo
Death
Lo died in São Paulo on 7 August 2022.
His funeral took place on 9 August 2022 at Morumbi Cemetery in São Paulo. Lo's fellow athletes, many wearing their Jiu-Jitsu Gi, lined the way from the chapel to the cemetery in a guard of honour, while his body was being carried in an open coffin.
See also
In Spanish: Leandro Lo para niños
- Brazilian jiu-jitsu weight classes
