Tainan Dalpra ranks his top five guard players: “He did magic”
Talking to VF Comunica in Las Vegas, the four-time world champion ranks his list from fifth to first, with Roleta, Leandro Lo, Michael Langhi and Roger Gracie
Rafael Mendes is the best guard player Tainan Dalpra has ever seen. VF Comunica asked the four-time world champion to rank the five “nastiest” guard players he has watched, and he saved the last spot for the six-time world champion who co-founded AOJ, the team Dalpra has represented since 2015. “That guy is a wizard. For me, he’s the guard guy. He did magic,” Dalpra said.
The question came up in Las Vegas, during the week of the IBJJF World Master, and it had two rules. The list had to be in order, from fifth to first, and only one of the five names could be from his own team. The other four had to be athletes Tainan Dalpra admires from outside AOJ.
Roleta and Leandro Lo open the list
Fifth place went to Roberto “Roleta” Magalhães, a four-time world champion at medium-heavyweight between 1996 and 2000 and a member of the IBJJF Hall of Fame since 2014. “I think he was one of the first to really change the guard game,” Dalpra said.
Fourth was Leandro Lo, and Dalpra made a point of saying which version he meant: the early black belt years, when Lo competed at lightweight and middleweight. “The one I remember really inspiring me was Leandro,” he said. Lo won eight world titles in five weight classes. The first three came in that period, at lightweight in 2012 and 2013 and at middleweight in 2014. He died in 2022 and was inducted into the IBJJF Hall of Fame the following year.
Langhi for the spider guard, Roger for the closed guard
The third name was Michael Langhi, from Alliance, a lightweight world champion in 2009, 2010 and 2015. “He’s a spider guard guy, and he changed the spider guard a lot too,” Dalpra said.
Second place took him the longest. “I have a few names in my head. I’m thinking about who deserves it more,” he said, before settling on Roger Gracie. “Probably one of the most effective guard players. Roger Gracie, closed guard. Unreal.” Roger has ten black belt world titles, three of them in the open weight division, and has been in the Hall of Fame since 2014.
“That guy is a wizard”
First place was the only spot he could keep in the family, and Dalpra used it on Rafael Mendes. “From what I saw, from what I lived, and not just me, but everybody else too,” he said before giving the name. Mendes won the World Championship six times at featherweight between 2010 and 2016, took ADCC gold in 2009 and 2011, and is known for the berimbolo and the 50/50 guard.
In the same conversation, Dalpra talked about what he saw and heard about Mendes on the mats at AOJ and joked about what it would cost to bring him out of retirement. As for his own future, he said he will decide in January whether he competes again.
Tainan Dalpra’s top five guard players
- Rafael Mendes
- Roger Gracie
- Michael Langhi
- Leandro Lo
- Roleta
Full video on YouTube
The full conversation, in Portuguese, is in the vlog “Aposentaram Tainan Dalpra? Bastidores em Las Vegas” on the VF Comunica YouTube channel.
Who makes your top five guard players? Leave your opinion in the comments.
