Rafael Lopes in Tatame & Bloody Elbow

Rafael is the BJJ instructor here at Phuket Top Team.  I’ve done a few classes with him and he has a world of knowledge when it comes to BJJ. The other day we went over arm drags to take the back and sweeps both from butterfly guard. He also put me through some half guard sweeps and some very sneaky lapel chokes.

What most people don’t know is that he has developed some amazing stand up. The first week i arrived here, we did some sparring and i was surprised at how technical and relaxed he was. Over a month ago Rafael  volunteered to fight veteran legend and 10 x world champion Jomhod Kiatadisak with only 12 hours notice and without much fight training. Jomhod is past his prime but is a well respected and dangerous fighter who has hardly seen a lose in his recent fights. Rafael took Jomhod to a close decision and held his own with ease.

If this wasn’t enough Rafael fought a few days ago against Slatan. Slatan has fought the likes of Artem Levin and Chaowalit and has win’s over Robert (Terminator) of Tiger Muay Thai and Neung (formerly of Tiger Muay Thai, now a trainer at Phuket Top Team). Rafael went on to knock Slatan out cold in the second round and winning the PK-1 Championship belt.

You’ll notice Raf reaching down for that low kick everytime in the following video. At the time i wanted to shout at him and tell him to just check the kick instead of putting his stupid hand down. I later found out that Slatan’s low kicks were so strong that in the 1st round it really damaged Raf’s leg and he couldn’t block anymore because of the pain.

This week Rafael has had some great exposure through BloodyElbow dot Com and also through one of Brazil’s most highly regarded magazine Tatame dot Com . Check them out for a good read.

Born in Australia, training in martial arts since the age of 9. My first trip to Thailand was back in 2007. Since then i have made numerous visits back to the "land of smiles" to feed my addiction of Muay Thai. During the month of November in 2010 i had to decide between working a 9 to 5 job back home for the rest of my life, or sell all my worldly possessions and move to Thailand to live and train for the next few years. Thankfully i chose the latter. I now spend my time training Muay Thai, meeting new and interesting circles of people, sipping coconuts under palm trees on the beach and measuring the cost of everything on how much Pad Thai i could buy with that money.

Mike (Admin)

View all posts by Mike (Admin)
s website