Rafael Lovato Jr. Asks for Craig Jones at SUG 14

The world of live sports is few and far between. In fact, it’s very bleak. But one constant in this odd world we are living in is Submission Underground. Following the SUG 13 event, the promotion’s President Chael Sonnen announced that Rafael Lovato Jr. is interested in facing the main event winner Craig Jones.

Rafael Lovato Jr. Hopes to Face Craig Jones at SUG 14

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You know what that means. . . Reposted from @bjjworld.tv BREAKING: @sonnench confirms live on @submissionunderground 13 that @lovatojrbjj texted him asking for the winner of tonight’s Main Event match between @craigjonesbjj & @vinnymma ? – #regrann

A post shared by Submission Underground (@submissionunderground) on Apr 26, 2020 at 11:25pm PDT

At SUG 13, Jones did everything he could to force Vinny Magalhaes to tap out in their no-gi grappling match. However, the man who claimed leg locks don’t work would not slap his hand to signal the end of the bout. Jones stopped a couple of different times, basically asking if Magalhaes was ok. Finally, after some deliberation, Magalhaes was forced to verbally tap out due to the fact that the heel hook did something to his leg.

Vinny Magalhaes Gives Update on Leg

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A little footage from today, chatting with @craigjonesbjj, and the ref after our match was over. This was one of the strangest things that I’ve seen in a match. Lol That’s why we were calmly chatting during the match, and after I still had some sense of humor to talk about it. To summarize what happened, the heel hook applied by Craig didn’t have the usual pressure on the ankle (mostly as a secondary pressure), and no pressure at all on the knee (most of the time the main concern)…. I’ve seen the photos of what it looks like an odd angle, which it is, but I can put my foot in that direction stretching out on my own, so the angle itself wasn’t something unusual. On the first heel hook attempt, we felt a little snap, Craig asked me if I was ok, and as far as pain goes, I was ok, even though I had noticed that the foot went maybe a couple inches further than it should’ve gone. Lol Literally, there wasn’t any pain at all on my ankle, and you can tell that when I popped right back up to my feet,there was no issue at all with it. Physically I thought I was ok, but to be honest, I didn’t like what I had just seen… again, I’m flexible, but it looked like that had gone a bit past the point. When Craig went and attacked the same foot for the second time, it freak me out a little because the foot was already turning all the way back, still without pain, like in the first attempt, but at same time without the usual resistance, which definitely it isn’t normal, and then when I pulled my leg back and went on my knees, I felt my leg a bit wiggly. Even though, I had full mobility on my ankle (indicating that there was no ligament injuries). The match was stopped was when both of us were asking if it was worth continuing, as I was just asking the referee the time for the regulation to be over, because I was going to do the 5min regulation, then I’d withdraw the overtime, as it wouldn’t make any sense for me to go to over time from that point on. By the way, Craig is a nice dude, I appreciate his concern during the match, not a lot of people have that. It shouldn’t be something unusual, but believe it or not it is. Congrats, brother! (Continuing on comments)

A post shared by Vinny Magalhaes (@vinnymma) on Apr 26, 2020 at 10:55pm PDT

Jones is undefeated in the Submission Underground cage and will look to continue that trend against Lovato Jr. on May 31.

Lovato Jr. was the Bellator 185-pound champion but unfortunately is sidelined from MMA indefinitely due to a brain condition called cavernoma. This is a condition involving “abnormally formed blood vessels,” typically in the brain or spinal cord according to the Mayo Clinic.

Submission Underground 14 goes down on May 31 from Portland, Oregon.

Check out full results from this past weekend’s SUG 13 card here.