Leandro Lo wants Rafa Mendes and Cobrinha before move up to middleweight

Leandro Lo, one of the favorites to win this Saturday’s Brazilian No-Gi Nationals: he should be moving up to middleweight in 2013. Publicity photo.

Current Jiu-Jitsu world champion Leandro Lo is one of the big names venturing into the lightweight division at this weekend’s Brazilian No-Gi Nationals 2012. And GRACIEMAG.com will be there at the Tijuca Tennis Club in Rio de Janeiro to bring you all the news.

Lo took a moment out of his frenetic training schedule to have a quick chat with GRACIEMAG.com, revealing to us his plans for 2013, as well as the hard time he has been having in his battle with the scale. Check out what he had to say:

Gi vs. No-Gi

“I feel it’s really different fighting without the gi. I’m not as comfortable as when I do Jiu-Jitsu in the gi. So I got some major help in preparing for the Brazilian No-Gi Nationals, and the November No-Gi Worlds in California. I did a lot of training with Murilo Santana, who’s won the No-Gi absolute in Tijuca before, and he helped me a lot. We’ll see how I do now at the Brazilian Nationals and next month’s No-Gi Worlds.”

Battle with the scale

“It’s hard making it down to lightweight, but the good part is that I feel good fighting at middleweight. I like fighting at middleweight so much I even felt good at the Copa Pódio Middleweight GP. Still I feel I didn’t fight that well. Even so, I managed to win, thank God. For those reasons, I intend to fight at middleweight next year.”

Future challenges

“On December 8 there’s the IBJJ Pro in Long Beach, and that’s going to be a really cool championship. Only the top ranked in the IBJJF standings will get to compete, and there will be fewer weight divisions, so the lightweights and featherweights will compete against each other. That will be a challenge but also a pleasure, since there are some really tough guys at featherweight who I’d like to fight, like Rubens Cobrinha, Bruno Frazatto and Rafael Mendes, who is a really good and strategic fighter. I really want to compete against those guys.”

Copa Pódio

“After that, on January 13 there’s Copa Pódio, and I should be at middleweight once again. I’m going to do a supermatch with Felipe Preguiça, who’s really good. I’m going to have to be really well prepared for that match.”