The greatest guard players in Jiu-Jitsu history: the names that keep showing up on the lists
VF Comunica put together the picks of Tainan Dalpra, black belt Rodrigo Freitas and Vitor Freitas. Rafael Mendes and Michael Langhi come up in all three conversations
Building a list of top guard players became one of VF Comunica’s favorite challenges during its 2026 coverage. The rule is always the same: pick the “nastiest” guard players the person has seen or faced, in order. The answers change, but some names come back in every conversation. Two of them, Rafael Mendes and Michael Langhi, show up in all three conversations gathered here.
What makes a great guard player
Before naming anyone, black belt Rodrigo Freitas, head of Inspirit Academy in California, explained why the choice is hard. “A guy has good guard retention, but sometimes he doesn’t have a sweep. A guy defends his guard really well, but he doesn’t sweep,” he said, in a conversation recorded during the week of the World Master, in Las Vegas. His criterion ended up being a complete game. “I think it’s a combination of everything.”
Rodrigo Freitas’s list
The first name was a former training partner, Rômulo Barral. “I trained with him a lot, I really liked training with him, and I thought he had a very offensive guard,” he said. Vitor Freitas agreed right away: “If he isn’t on that list, something is wrong.”
Next came Marcelo Garcia. “Marcelinho was really tough from the bottom,” Rodrigo said. For first place, he was torn between Langhi, whose guard he called “more defensive, but really nasty,” and Leandro Lo. When Vitor suggested Rafael Mendes, the coach settled it. “His guard was insane. He swept, took the back, got the submission. And he had good guard recovery too,” he said.
With the list done, he also remembered Otávio Sousa, a middleweight world champion. “A guy who had a really tough guard, and I trained with him a lot,” he said.
Vitor Freitas’s list
The journalist built his own top three in the same conversation, from third to first place.
- Cobrinha
- Michael Langhi
- Rômulo Barral
Barral made it for his “complete guard: retention, attack, submission.” Langhi came second, with a memory: Vitor said he couldn’t recall seeing his guard get passed. The top spot went to Cobrinha, described as someone “feared for his guard,” who was “neck and neck with Rafael Mendes.”
Tainan Dalpra’s list
The four-time world champion took the challenge in Las Vegas, with the rule that he could name only one person from his own team.
- Rafael Mendes
- Roger Gracie
- Michael Langhi
- Leandro Lo
- Roleta
The reasoning behind each spot is in Tainan Dalpra ranks his top five guard players: “He did magic”.
Who shows up the most
Adding up the three conversations, this is the result:
- Rafael Mendes and Michael Langhi: named in all three conversations, each on two lists
- Rômulo Barral: two lists
- Leandro Lo: one list, and mentioned by Rodrigo Freitas
- Cobrinha: one list, backed by Rodrigo Freitas, who called him “insane”
- Roger Gracie, Roleta, Marcelo Garcia and Otávio Sousa: one list each
Rafael Mendes, a six-time featherweight world champion, has his name tied to the berimbolo and the 50/50 guard. Langhi, a three-time lightweight world champion, made his name with the spider guard. The two represent different styles of the same idea Rodrigo described at the start: a guard that defends, sweeps and submits.
Full video on YouTube
The lists from Rodrigo Freitas and Vitor Freitas are in the World Master vlog on the VF Comunica YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
Who is missing from these lists? Leave your top five guard players in the comments.
