Leandro Lo: The Most Complete Competitor in BJJ History

Some athletes win titles. Others mark a sport forever. Leandro Lo did both. Eight IBJJF World titles. Five different weight classes. A record no one has matched in the history of gi BJJ. But beyond the numbers, Leandro Lo represented something rarer: a competitor who made Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu beautiful to watch. Offensive, creative, relentless.

His tragic death in August 2022, at just 33, left an immense void in the global BJJ community. Yet three and a half years later, his influence is still everywhere: in the academies teaching his guard passes, in the competitors citing his name as inspiration, in the school program that bears his name in Brazil. You simply cannot tell the history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu without talking about Leandro Lo. This is his story.

Where did Leandro Lo come from?

Leandro Lo was born on May 11, 1989 on the east side of São Paulo, one of the most underprivileged areas of the Brazilian megalopolis. Nothing about his path to the top of world BJJ was written in advance. It was a social project that changed everything.

From Capoeira to the Projeto Social: the kid from São Matheus

Before BJJ, there was Capoeira. Leandro practiced it for about two years in his neighborhood. But the boy wanted to compete, and Capoeira has no tournaments. So in 2004, at 14, he joined the Projeto Social Lutando Pelo Bem (PSLPB), a program founded by instructor Cicero Costha to give children from modest backgrounds free access to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This project, whose name means “Fighting for Good”, would become the forge of one of the greatest champions in BJJ history. Capoeira was never forgotten, though: Leandro would later say this first discipline gave him a mobility and body awareness that helped him from his very first steps in BJJ.

Living conditions at PSLPB were spartan. At its peak, up to fifteen competitors slept in the training room. No kitchen, just a microwave. The daily meal: pasta with canned tuna, no sauce. The money went to tournament registrations, not food. It was in this environment that Leandro Lo forged his hunger for victory, alongside future champions like the Miyao brothers, Yago de Souza and Wellington Luís. Years later, Lo would say of the Miyaos: “I have never seen anyone work as hard as those two. The hardest-working guys in the world.” Even as an eight-time world champion, Lo kept introducing himself as “o moleque do projeto” (the kid from the project). He never forgot where he came from — starting with the São Matheus neighborhood where it all began.

One day as a laborer, a lifetime on the mats

BJJ does not pay at first. Leandro lived 1h40 from the academy, three buses each way. Some days he did not have enough money to eat and waited for dinner at his mother’s. After losing his family allowance at 18, he tried working one day in a steel plant: carrying iron, cutting iron, from 7am to 8:30pm, for 25 reais (about 5 dollars). One single day. The next morning, he called Cicero: “Please, find me a class to teach. If it pays for the bus, that’s enough. I don’t want to work.”

Cicero would not let him drift toward studies either. When Leandro announced he had found a job, the answer was immediate: “You are going to waste your talent and become a guy like everyone else.” When BJJ started clashing with school: “If jiu-jitsu gets in the way of your studies, quit school.” Words many would call irresponsible. For Leandro Lo, they proved prophetic.

Leandro was, in any case, a natural athlete. From his very first years, he piled up junior titles. IBJJF world champion as a junior blue belt in 2005, he returned to the podium in 2006. The talent was obvious. But it was an injury at purple belt that would truly shape the competitor he became.

How did Leandro Lo build his game?

Leandro Lo built his style by turning an injury into an opportunity. Initially known as a spider guard and triangle specialist at purple belt, he used a long stretch away from competition to develop the passing game that would become his trademark at black belt.

The injury kept him off the competition mats for several months. Without tournament pressure, Leandro devoted himself entirely to training. He studied the passers who inspired him: Jacaré and his toreando, Romulo Barral and his standing cross-grip, and of course Cicero Costha himself, who teaches standing passing exclusively. Lo fused these influences into a style of his own: toreando, knee cut, constant pressure, lateral movement. This is the period when the Leandro Lo the world would discover at black belt was born.

18 rounds a day: the forge of a champion

Lo’s training volume between 2009 and 2013 was simply staggering. Concretely: three sessions a day. Six 8-minute rounds per session, with 2 minutes of rest between rounds. Plus 2 hours of daily technical drilling. That is 18 rounds of sparring a day, on top of positional work. This is the period when he reached what he himself called his “10,000 hours”: the tipping point where technique becomes instinct.

His training philosophy left no room for comfort. As he put it in his own words: “Rola para matar ou morrer.” In other words: roll to kill or to die. No flow rolling. He always started with the heaviest, most dangerous partners, then worked his way down in intensity. At PSLPB, everyone rolled with that mindset: “Todo mundo rola machucado, todo mundo rola cansado” (everyone rolls hurt, everyone rolls tired). That was the culture of the room.

Constant pressure: the Leandro Lo trademark

The result of that forge was a style unique in the history of competitive BJJ. Leandro combined a flawless technical base with permanent physical intensity. His guard passing was both methodical and explosive, with a rare ability to chain attempts without ever releasing the pressure. Above all, he had that quality commentators and coaches call “forward pressure”: a constant, tireless, suffocating advance.

This offensive style set Leandro Lo apart from most elite competitors. Where others first looked to secure advantages and manage the score, Lo moved forward. Always. That approach made his matches thrilling to watch, even for a complete newcomer. It is also what made him one of the most popular athletes on the competitive scene.

What is Leandro Lo’s competition record?

Leandro Lo’s record is one of the most impressive in the history of gi BJJ. Eight IBJJF World titles, gold medals in five different weight classes, and a dominance that spanned a full decade, from 2012 to 2022.

The takeoff: 2011-2013

It all started in April 2011. Leandro Lo, still relatively unknown on the international scene, beat Michael Langhi at the UAEJJF World Pro. Langhi had been unbeaten at lightweight for three years. That win put Lo on the world BJJ map overnight. Galvão remembers his first reaction: “Leandro Lo? What kind of name is that? Who is this skinny guy? Then I watched him fight and he was setting a crazy pace.”

The same year, he won the Brazilian Nationals. In 2012 came the consecration: a first IBJJF world title at black belt, at lightweight, beating Lucas Lepri in the final. Lepri would become one of his most consistent rivals. Lo followed up with a second world title in 2013, again at lightweight. The dominance was on.

Climbing the divisions: 2014-2016

This is where Leandro Lo separated himself from the pack. Instead of staying comfortably in his division, he decided to move up in weight. In 2014, he won the world title at middleweight. In 2015, he successfully defended it. Then in 2016, he moved up again and won at medium-heavy.

Three weight classes, five world titles in five years. Unheard of in modern BJJ. And 2016 held one more historic feat: Leandro Lo became the first triple champion of the Copa Pódio, winning the lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight Grand Prix in the same year. Three divisions. Three titles. The same season. No one had done it before him. No one has done it since. In parallel, Lo gave up his own open weight dream at the Worlds that year, stepping aside for his friend Buchecha. A sacrifice the public would only learn about years later.

2016 is also when Lo started taking strength and conditioning seriously. After a loss to Bernardo Faria in 2015, he told his teammate Yago de Souza: “I am going to become Galvão or Barral.” He took up lifting “jail style”, as he called it: 5×5 sets, explosiveness work, long full-range movements to preserve mobility. The result was immediate: by 2016, he reached the open weight semifinals and realized the difference was incomparable.

The record and the consecration: 2018-2022

In 2017, Lo moved up to heavyweight and reached the world final, losing to Nicholas Meregali. The following year, at the 2018 Worlds, he chased Saulo Ribeiro’s record (titles in four different divisions). Injured in the shoulder during his medium-heavy final against Mahamed Aly, he was forced to withdraw. Scheduled for the open weight final against Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, Lo seemed doomed by his injury. But Buchecha, in a rare gesture of respect (usually reserved for teammates), chose to concede the match. Lo thus earned his first open weight title and his fourth title in a fourth division, equaling Ribeiro’s record. A moment that says everything about the respect Leandro Lo inspired, even among his fiercest opponents.

Lo himself never fully counted that title. In his interview with Galvão, he confided: “There is one I don’t really count, the one where I hurt my shoulder and Buchecha gave me the spot. That’s why I wanted to do another open: to win the final for real.” That honesty sums up the man: eight world titles, and he still considered one of them incomplete.

Crossing the desert: 2018-2021

The 2018 injury opened a long period of doubt. Lo spent two years rebuilding his shoulder, his confidence, and his game. He described that period to Galvão bluntly: the anxiety nausea before training, the body refusing to go, the fear of never coming back. “It took me two years for my head to adjust again. I was losing, but I was improving a little each time. I was putting the pieces back, one by one.”

In 2019, he finally broke the record by winning the heavyweight title: five different weight classes at the IBJJF Worlds. A historic record. Then, in June 2022, Lo won his eighth world title, ten years after his first black belt crown. He came back transformed: more lifting, more explosiveness, and above all a mental maturity forged by the years of doubt. It would be his last tournament.

Why did Leandro Lo found NS Brotherhood?

Leandro Lo founded NS Brotherhood in 2015 to build a project in his own image: offensive, ambitious, focused on elite competition. The name “New School” reflected his vision of a modern BJJ where technique and physical intensity work together.

After years at PSLPB Cicero Costha, the academy where it all began, Leandro felt the need to fly with his own wings. The separation from Cicero Costha was not a conflict, but a natural evolution. Lo wanted to build his own structure, attract elite competitors, and pass on his philosophy of BJJ.

NS Brotherhood quickly attracted top names. Among the athletes who left PSLPB with Leandro were Luiza Monteiro, Helio Dias, Gustavo “Braguinha”, Ygor Schneider, Anderson Lira and Wellington Luís. The project was built on one conviction: the bonds forged on the mats go beyond BJJ. The team established itself on the international scene and confirmed that Leandro Lo was not only an exceptional competitor, but also a leader capable of structuring a collective project.

Which opponents marked Leandro Lo’s career?

Leandro Lo’s career is lined with rivalries that marked the history of competitive BJJ. Each move up in weight brought new opponents, and each rivalry revealed a different facet of his talent.

Lucas Lepri. The longest rivalry. The two faced each other many times at lightweight, with an overall edge for Lo. Lepri, a meticulous technician and multiple world champion himself, was the perfect mirror: two different styles, one identical level. Their World finals remain among the most beautiful of the modern era.

Michael Langhi. Lo’s win over Langhi at the 2011 World Pro was the starting point of everything. Langhi had been the man to beat for three years. Dethroning him propelled Leandro into another dimension.

Nicholas Meregali. The only world final Lo lost outright, in 2017, at heavyweight. Meregali, with his frame and dominant guard game, represented the limit of Lo’s climb through the divisions. That loss only deepened the respect between the two men.

Lo and Buchecha: more than a rivalry

Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida. More than a rivalry: a brotherhood. Lo versus Buchecha, especially in open weight, symbolized the clash between Lo’s mobile technique and Buchecha’s raw physical power. Two fighting philosophies. Two legends.

What the public remembers most is Buchecha’s gesture at the 2018 Worlds, when he conceded the open final to an injured Lo. But no one knew that in 2016, it was Lo who had made the first move. Buchecha told the story after Leandro’s death: “Nobody saw what he did in 2016, when he gave up his dream and let me go straight to the open final.” The 2018 gesture was not a gift. It was a return. Buchecha described Lo as “a brother” and “a luminous human being, off the mats too”.

The tragedy: what happened on August 7, 2022?

On August 7, 2022, Leandro Lo attended a live music night at Clube Sírio (a social club in the Indianópolis neighborhood, south São Paulo) where the pagode band Pixote was performing. He was with friends. The evening was relaxed.

According to witnesses and the police investigation, a man approached Leandro’s table and provoked an altercation. That man was Henrique Otávio Oliveira Velozo, a lieutenant of the São Paulo military police, off duty and in civilian clothes. Lo tried to defuse the situation by pinning him to the ground, then released him. Velozo got back up, drew a weapon concealed under his clothes and shot Leandro Lo.

The champion was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared brain dead. Leandro Lo died at 33, at the peak of his career, less than two months after winning his eighth world title. A few weeks earlier, in his interview with Galvão, he had talked about opening his own academy at 35, about moving from competition to teaching. He would never get the time.

Velozo turned himself in to the military police’s internal affairs the next day. He was placed in preventive detention at the Romão Gomes military prison in São Paulo.

Leandro Lo’s funeral took place on August 9, 2022 at the Morumbi cemetery in São Paulo. Dozens of athletes in kimonos formed a guard of honor from the casket to the grave. The global BJJ community was in shock.

Where do the legal proceedings stand?

The legal proceedings have taken many turns since 2022. Here are the facts as documented by Brazilian and international sources.

In the days following Lo’s death, the BJJ community mobilized. Buchecha launched a manifesto signed by teams, athletes, specialized media and the family, demanding an impartial investigation and a fair trial, without privilege tied to the suspect’s status as a military police officer. That manifesto, relayed around the world, showed the scale of the shock caused by the case.

The trial and the controversial acquittal

The São Paulo public prosecutor initially charged Velozo with qualified homicide with three aggravating circumstances (vile motive, cruel means, and the victim’s inability to defend himself). The trial, initially scheduled for May 2025, was postponed twice after procedural incidents.

The trial finally took place from November 12 to 14, 2025 at the Barra Funda Criminal Forum in São Paulo. After three days of hearings, the popular jury (five women, two men) acquitted Velozo, accepting the self-defense argument presented by his lawyers. The officer was released on November 15, 2025.

The verdict sent a shockwave through the global BJJ community. Fátima Lo, Leandro’s mother, said she had “buried her son a second time”. The public prosecutor announced an appeal. The family’s lawyer disputed Velozo’s version and confirmed the intention to keep fighting in court.

Latest known development: in March 2026, a São Paulo court unanimously confirmed Velozo’s dismissal from the military police. Although acquitted in criminal court, the police Justification Council had found him unfit to serve as an officer. The criminal appeal is still ongoing.

What legacy does Leandro Lo leave to BJJ?

Leandro Lo’s legacy goes far beyond competition. He changed how an entire generation of practitioners thinks about offensive BJJ, and his impact is still felt in academies around the world.

A technical model

Leandro Lo’s guard passing has become a teaching reference. His toreando, his knee cut, his ability to chain passing attempts without pause: all of it is now part of the curriculum in many academies. For instructors and competitors alike, studying Lo’s game means studying the essence of offensive gi BJJ. His style echoes that of Roger Gracie in one essential way: the apparent simplicity concealed absolute technical mastery.

🥋 Study Leandro Lo’s game

Leandro filmed his system in his lifetime. His instructionals remain the best way to study his passing and open guard straight from the source:

• Active Guard Passing Explained (BJJ Fanatics): his complete passing system — toreando, knee slice, double unders — explained by the man himself
• The Lo Guard & Matrix Passing (BJJ Fanatics): his advanced techniques against modern guards (50/50, X-guard, worm guard)
• The Active Open Guard Encyclopedia (BJJ Fanatics): the other side of his game — his open guard, spider-X and sweeps

Transparency: the links above are affiliate links. They do not change the price for you and help support BJJ-Rules.

A social symbol

Leandro Lo’s story, a child from an underprivileged São Paulo neighborhood who became world champion thanks to a social project, embodies the promise of BJJ as a tool for social transformation. Cicero Costha’s Projeto Social Lutando Pelo Bem, which shaped Lo, continues its work. In October 2024, the city of Belo Horizonte launched the program “Leandro Lo, BJJ at school”, using his story as inspiration to bring jiu-jitsu into public schools.

His family and close friends (notably Buchecha and his sister Amanda Lo) also created the Instituto Leandro Lo to pursue what had always been Leandro’s dream: helping young people become athletes and live from sport, as he did coming out of the São Matheus neighborhood. The initiative extends the legacy of the “moleque do projeto” by giving other children the same chances Cicero Costha once gave Leandro.

Global recognition

In May 2023, the IBJJF inducted Leandro Lo into its Hall of Fame posthumously, alongside legends like Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia. The UAEJJF also honored him for his multiple World Pro titles. At the 2022 Worlds and ADCC 2022, moments of silence were observed in his memory. All over the world, competitors still wear patches and kimonos bearing his image. The phrase “Legends Never Die”, adopted by the BJJ community, has become inseparable from his name.

In their words: those who knew him

Conclusion: Faixa Preta Nunca Morre

Leandro Lo is not only a champion. He is a landmark. A reference point for everyone who believes BJJ should be offensive, spectacular, and accessible. A kid from a rough São Paulo neighborhood who worked one day in a steel plant before deciding his life would be on the mats, and who proved that talent, combined with work and a caring environment, can lead to the top of the world.

Three and a half years after his passing, his influence remains intact. His guard passing is still studied, his name is still chanted. His story keeps inspiring thousands of practitioners who step on the mats every day, in academies all over the world. Leandro Lo was taken from BJJ far too soon. But what he built on the mats will never disappear. Faixa preta nunca morre.

Leandro Lo FAQ

How many world titles did Leandro Lo win?

Leandro Lo won eight IBJJF World titles at black belt, between 2012 and 2022. He also holds the record for the most different weight classes won at the Worlds: five (lightweight, middleweight, medium-heavy, heavyweight and open weight).

What was Leandro Lo’s game style?

Leandro Lo was primarily known for his relentless, offensive guard passing, inspired by Jacaré, Romulo Barral and Cicero Costha. His toreando and knee cut were technical references. Earlier in his career, he was also known for his spider guard and triangles. What set him apart from other competitors was his forward pressure: a permanent, physical, suffocating advance.

Who trained Leandro Lo in BJJ?

Leandro Lo received his black belt from Cicero Costha, founder of the Projeto Social Lutando Pelo Bem (PSLPB) in São Paulo. This social project offered free BJJ access to children from underprivileged backgrounds. Before BJJ, Lo had practiced Capoeira for two years. In 2015, he founded his own team, NS Brotherhood, while keeping a respectful bond with Costha.

How did Leandro Lo die?

Leandro Lo was shot and killed on August 7, 2022 at Clube Sírio in São Paulo, during a live music night. The shooter, an off-duty military police lieutenant, was arrested the next day. After a trial in November 2025, the jury acquitted the officer, accepting the self-defense argument. Lo’s family and the public prosecutor announced an appeal against the decision.

Is Leandro Lo in the IBJJF Hall of Fame?

Yes. In May 2023, the IBJJF inducted Leandro Lo into its Hall of Fame posthumously, on what would have been his 34th birthday. He joins legends like Roger Gracie and Marcelo Garcia. The UAEJJF also honored him for his World Pro titles.

What is Leandro Lo’s legacy in BJJ?

Leandro Lo’s legacy is threefold. Technically, his guard passing remains a reference in academies worldwide. Socially, his journey from a social project to the top of the world inspires thousands of young practitioners. Symbolically, the phrase “Faixa preta nunca morre” (a black belt never dies), adopted by the Brazilian community, has become inseparable from his name. A school program has carried his name in Belo Horizonte since 2024.

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