BJJ legends Felipe Pena and Rafael Lovato Jr will now be facing one another at Who’s Number One 23 on May 10th, 2024. The event is already stacked with some fantastic matchups but the addition of this heavyweight bout will no doubt be attracting even more attention. The first announcement for the event revealed that the promotion’s welterweight title would be on the line, as Tommy Langaker will be challenging the reigning champion Mica Galvao. Although that’s the only title-fight announced so far, WNO wasted no time in revealing another superb matchup, as Nicky Ryan will face the toughest test of his career in JT Torres.
If past events are anything to go by then Who’s Number One 23 is not done yet, and there will surely be many more matches between elite grapplers filling out the card. This match between Felipe Pena and Rafael Lovato Jr will undoubtedly take place pretty high up in the running order though, as both men are among the biggest names in the sport. Lovato Jr is one of the most successful American BJJ competitors of all time and has won both an IBJJF World Championship and an IBJJF No Gi World Championship over the course of his career.
Not only has Pena won gold medals at both of those events more than once, he also reached the highest point of his career when he won the absolute division at ADCC 2017. He actually beat Lovato Jr in the semi-final of the under 99kg division at that same event, although he had to settle for a silver medal there. It was around that time that Lovato Jr focused more on his MMA career and he went on to become the Bellator middleweight world champion and eventually retired undefeated, before returning to professional grappling. It was at ADCC 2022 that Lovato Jr turned back the clock with a fantastic performance in the under 99kg division and it’ll be interesting to see if he can get revenge on Pena now.
FloGrappling announced the news that Felipe Pena would be taking on Rafael Lovato Jr at Who’s Number One 23 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
