Rafael Lovato Jr. pays tribute to his father who competed at the 2013 Masters and Seniors Worlds. Photo: Instagram @Lovatojrbjj

This past weekend on Oct. 5 and 6 at the 2013 IBJJF Masters and Seniors World Championship, the father of Rafael Lovato Jr., was present. He competed in the black belt senior 4 category and took home the bronze at his first black belt competition. As Lovato Jr. explains on his instagram, the American black belt world champion pays tribute to the man who helped him become who he is today. Even though the roles were reversed as he took on the role of leading his father’s training for the tournament, he still looks up to him as a role model.

He says:

“In April 2009, my family & I, & all the @lovatobjjmma students were hit with a huge shock when my father suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital where his heart actually stopped and he was revived. My father stayed strong, recovered, and came back a new man. He got himself back into great shape and set out to accomplish two missions. The first was to walk the Camino de Santiago across Spain. This is a 6wk journey that you do with nothing but a backpack and he accomplished this goal last year. The picture on top is from the day he left.

The 2nd mission was to finally compete as a Black Belt and he was able to achieve that goal today! He trained for over 6 weeks to get ready for the competition and I had the pleasure to help him get ready and be the trainer for my father, when it was the other way around for most of my life. He hadn’t competed since he was a purple belt, over 13 years ago. Despite that and having to go down an age category, he still fought great and only lost by a takedown, giving his all the whole time. If you want to know where my heart, dedication, work ethic, and passion come from, it his from him.”

Congrats to Rafael Lovato Sr. and Jr. for their continuous inspiration in the community.

Arraina and Richard Lee at the 2013 IBJJF Chicago Winter Open. Photo: Personal Archive

Families who train together are becoming more and more popular. Being that the martial art has much to offer for all ages, a father and daughter team learned this fact at a time when it was most needed.

Richard Lee (35) and his daughter Arraina Lee (16) train Jiu-Jitsu together in Chicago, Illinois. Before she was born, Richard lived in Minnesota with his parents who moved from Chicago, worried that their son was getting into too much trouble. At the age of eighteen he became a parent and Arraina was born. Tragically, when Arraina was six years old, her mother Marianne Van Buskirk died of small-cell lung cancer and the father-daughter pair moved back to Chicago where Richard’s roots lay and so Arraina could have more opportunities. This is where Jiu-Jitsu came into their lives:

“I had found out about BJJ through the Gracie Combative DVD’s and first started going to Carlson Gracie MMA school in Merrillville, Indiana when she was thirteen years old. When my daughter turned fourteen we transferred to Uflacker Academy in Chicago, Illinois,” the single parent says.

Unfortunately the team would undertake another reason to mourn as Richard’s parents, Arraina’s grandparents, both passed away from cancer five months apart from each other in 2012. But through Jiu-Jitsu, the two have been able to strengthen their bond and also use Jiu-Jitsu for positivity in their lives.

Richard wins the blue belt master middleweight division at the 2013 IBJJF Chicago Winter Open in March. Photo: Personal Archive

Both Richard and Arraina compete in every NAGA and IBJJF event that comes into town near Chicago. Only three months after the passing of his mother, Richard placed first at the 2013 IBJJF Chicago Winter Open in the blue belt master middleweight division.

“Me and my daughter went through a lot of deaths including my parents which made us realize how important family is and made us closer. Jiu-Jitsu made us have father and daughter time and a way to escape from the struggles of the real world. Jiu-Jitsu gives us a time to bond and to compete against each other and helped us become stronger and more fit. It also makes me feel more comfortable of the safety for my daughter. It also disciplines me and helps me relax so I will not go crazy from stress,” Richard explains.

Arraina now competes as a juvenile blue belt and will be in attendance at the 2013 IBJJF Chicago Summer Open in August and the No-Gi Pan American Championship in New York later this year alongside her father.

Training can be a simple stress-reliever or go as far as strengthening a family through difficult times. Richard and his daughter are just another example of what Jiu-Jitsu gives back.

Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil / Photo by Victor Gruzman/GRACIEMAG

UFC star Wanderlei Silva, 36, took the worst blow to the gut there is last Sunday, when his father, Holando Pinheiro da Silva, died in a car accident in the Brazilian state of Paraná.

According to BandNews, the first television network to report the tragedy, Holando was in a car accident this Sunday on the road from the town of Castro to Abapã, where he owned a ranch. The car he was in collided head on with another car, the driver of which also died on impact. A child was severely injured and taken to the nearest hospital.

Wanderlei was informed of his father’s passing by family members who called him in Las Vegas, where he had been having a happy time expecting to take part on the October UFC Rio card, and where he recently had an encounter with another fighting legend, Mike Tyson. Wanderlei will arrive in Brazil today for the burial.

Five days ago, Wand posted a video on his blog, revealing a meeting with his father and thanking his “boss” for all he had done for him. Watch the footage of the father and son together:

“I haven’t the words to thank you all for your support. We end up not knowing what to do, but it’s at times like this that we know who is on our side. Thank you very much,” Wand posted in Portuguese over Twitter.

A wave of solidarity poured over the microblog following the news, with dozens of Jiu-Jitsu and UFC fighters sending their condolences to the former Pride middleweight champion throughout the night.

The tragedy that befell the Silva family is something cruelly recurrent in Brazil. Recent statistics show that 65 people die on Brazilian highways per day. Forty thousand people die in traffic accidents in the country each year.

The GRACIEMAG team sends its deepest condolences to Wanderlei and his team.