Leandro Lo

Leandro Pereira do Nascimento Lo (11 May 1989 – 7 August 2022), better known as Leandro Lo , was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt competitor.

A record holder with eight IBJJF world championship titles in five different weight classes, as well as multiple wins at every major international tournament, Lo is considered one of the most accomplished jiu-jitsu competitors of all time.

Born in São Paulo, Lo began training Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) at fourteen, after joining a social jiu-jitsu training program for underprivileged children.

Leandro Pereira do Nascimento Lo was born on 11 May 1989 on the east side of São Paulo, Brazil.

He started practising 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 or PSLPB (Social Project Fighting for Good ).

In 2005 he won his first world championship, competing as a blue belt.

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 2006 Brazilian National Championship competing as a featherweight.

As a purple belt, Lo won silver at the 2006 World Championship but suffered a serious injury that kept him from most tournaments, using that time to heal and refine his technique, Lo then won silver at the 2008 CBJJE Brazilian Cup.

In 2010 his coach Cicero Costha promoted him to black belt.

Lo received all his belts from Costha's hands, and in July 2010, was promoted to black belt.

During the 2011–12 season Lo won medals at two no-gi championships, and his first black belt IBJJF world, Pan Am and UAEJJF World Pro titles.

Fighting at lightweight (under 76 kg), Lo won the 2011 CBJJ Rio International Open, coming third in Absolute, and won the Brazilian Nationals.

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.

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.

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 the final to Xande Ribeiro via advantage.

In 2012 he won another Brazilian Nationals title, the Pan American championship.

and that same year, Lo won his first black belt world title becoming the 2012 lightweight world champion after beating Lucas Lepri in the final.

Lo won again the 2013 World lightweight division the following year.

Until then a two-time lightweight world champion and already considered the best lightweight in the world, Lo won double gold (both weight and absolute) at the 2013 CBJJ Rio International Open, competing as middleweight alongside his partner at the time, Luiza Monteiro who also won double gold.

Lo entered the 2014 World Championship moving up a weight class to middleweight (under 82.3 kg).

After defeating Otavio Sousa Lo became the 2014 middleweight world champion, also winning Pan Am and Abu Dhabi Pro that year.

In 2015, he established his own jiu-jitsu team, NS Brotherhood.

In 2015, Lo left PSLPB to form his own team NS Brotherhood (Jiu-Jitsu New School Brotherhood ) taking with him several fellow competitors.

That same year Lo defeated Lucas Lepri in Rio de Janeiro for the GP lightweight title, becoming Copa Podio champion for the fourth time.

Going up a weight class again to medium heavyweight (under 88.3 kg), Lo won the 2015 World (his fourth title in a row ), the Pan Am and the Abu Dhabi Pro tournaments.

In 2016 Lo became the first Copa Pódio triple crown champion, winning three different weight divisions within the same year; three years later in 2019, he made history after winning the World Championships in five different weight classes.

In June 2022 Lo won an eighth world championship, exactly ten years after his first title as black belt.

Lo was shot and killed in August 2022 at the age of 33.

On May 11, 2023 the IBJJF announced that they would be posthumously inducting Lo into the IBJJF Hall of Fame.

In October 2016, Lo made history by becoming the first ever Copa Podio triple crown champion: winning three consecutive Grand Prix titles in three separate weight classes: Lightweight, Middleweight and Heavyweight, all in the same year; a performance never before accomplished in the sport of jiu-jitsu.

Lo won the last heavyweight title without conceding a single point.

In addition to the three Copa Podio Grand Prix, Lo won the IBJJF World and Pan championships as well as the UAEJJF World Pro that year.

After achieving a double Grand Slam, gold medals in weight and absolute divisions in the four main IBJJF tournaments: Euros, Pans, Brazilian Nationals and Worlds, Lo placed #1 in the IBJJF 2016–2017 ranking,

In 2017 Lo went again up another weight class by entering the IBJJF tournaments at heavyweight (under 94.3 kg), that year he won silver in absolute and silver in heavyweight at the world championship, after losing to Nicholas Meregali in the final.

Lo then won double gold at Pan after defeating ultra heavyweight João Gabriel Rocha in the open weight final.

Lo also won double gold at the Brazilian Nationals and double gold at the European Championship, where he competed for the first time, after submitting Tanner Rice in the heavyweight final and Claudio Calasans by points (4-0) in the open weight final.

During the ADCC North American 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 kg title, Lo was eliminated in the first round by Asia and Oceania Trials winner Craig Jones.

Lo became two-time Absolute Pan Champion, after winning the heavyweight and absolute divisions at the 2018 tournament taking place in March in Irvine, California.

Lo defeated Tanner Rice in the heavyweight finals and Gutemberg Pereira in the finals of the Absolute division, furthering his record to eight Pan titles.