American grappling legend Rafael Lovato Jr. entered and placed third at the US Open in freestyle wrestling, going 5-1 in the Masters B 100kg division. This was the first ever wrestling tournament for Lovato, who is a multi-time black belt world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Bellator middleweight world champion.

Rafael Lovato Jr. is one of the best brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors ever, winning world titles in both gi and no-gi competition. He's especially notable for becoming the first person to win the IBJJF Grand Slam at black belt, meaning he won the European, Pan, Brazilian national, and World titles in the same season. He most recently was in the finals of the ADCC World Championships, a remarkable feat for the 40 year old martial artist.

Watch Rafael Wrestle For Third Place

The US Open is one of the toughest wrestling tournaments in the nation - if not world - and regularly features the best from America all meeting in the same brackets. Considering this was Lovato's first wrestling tournament (and first time even in a singlet) for him to place top-3 is a great achievement. He first began his formal wrestling training with the Oklahoma Sooners team and has since developed a lot with coach Nick Heflin.

You can watch all of Rafael's matches on FloWrestling, along with some really elite wrestling action going on all week. Amanda Leve, who is ranked at three different weights in no-gi grappling, will also be competing this week in the US Open.