ONE Championship have just booked yet another entertaining grappling match, as news has been leaked that Rafael Lovato Jr will face Giancarlo Bodoni at ONE 173 on August 1st, 2025. The event will take place in Denver, Colorado so it makes sense that they have secured the services of one of the biggest legends in American Jiu-Jitsu history alongside one of the country’s top competitors in the sport right now. Although the promotion hasn’t officially announced the matchup themselves yet, the revelation has come directly from one of the most reputable sources imaginable in their Vice President of Submission Grappling; Tom DeBlass.
Although DeBlass didn’t name the event specifically, he confirmed both the date and location that match up precisely with ONE 173. As he pointed out in his statement, Lovato Jr vs Bodoni is one of the biggest matches imaginable between American competitors. They’ve never faced each other before and they usually compete in slightly different weight classes, so there’s a good chance that this match would never have happened otherwise. Lovato Jr has competed at ADCC at under 88kg in the past but the last few years have seen him move up to under 99kg, whereas Bodoni has always stuck with the under 88kg division.
Lovato Jr has won IBJJF World Championship titles both in gi and no gi, before embarking on a very successful professional MMA career. Since returning to grappling he has continued that success and even won a silver medal at in the under 99kg division at ADCC 2024 despite being one of the oldest competitors in the event at 41. Bodoni on the other hand won his first title in the under 88kg division at ADCC 2022 and he returned last year to become the first man to win back-to-back titles in that weight class, along with finishing in fourth place in an incredibly tough absolute division.
Tom DeBlass announced the news that Rafael Lovato Jr would face Giancarlo Bodoni at ONE 173 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
