Diogo Reis‘s road to ONE FN 43 was anything but routine. The 24-year-old Brazilian submission grappling champion edged out a unanimous decision victory over Japanese newcomer Yuki Takahashi, moving up a weight class to bantamweight (145 lbs / 65.8 kg) from his reigning flyweight (135 lbs / 61.2 kg) title.
The win was a product of mental fortitude as much as technical skill, coming just weeks after the arrest of his longtime coach and mentor, Melqui Galvão.
Galvão was taken into custody on April 28 in Manaus, Brazil, facing charges of SAing a 17-year-old athlete during a jiu-jitsu competition held in Italy in February of this year. Since that initial arrest, at least three additional athletes have come forward with allegations that they were also assaulted by Galvão.
The case has since grown more alarming, with Brazilian authorities and media outlets alleging that Galvão obtained a cellphone while incarcerated and used it to contact former students in what appears to have been a coordinated effort to influence testimony.
Brazilian deputy Alessandra Campêlo publicly addressed the allegations, stating that former students had been receiving threatening messages believed to have originated from inside the prison.
For Reis, the news landed as a personal earthquake. He had begun training under Galvão in 2015 as a yellow belt with just three years of jiu-jitsu experience, and over the following decade came to regard the coach as a father figure.
When the arrest happened, with his bout against Takahashi already confirmed, Reis made a candid admission.
“I won’t lie: right when everything happened, I said to cancel, but they said, ‘Calm down, relax, stay calm, we’ll sort everything out.’ So, they didn’t let me cancel. And now I’m here, I’m better, I already left (the team), and I’m following my own path. After the event I’ll announce my new direction,” Reis said.
He and Mica Galvão had initially announced they would lead the BJJ College team together in the aftermath of the arrest. However, Reis later stepped away from the project entirely.
He arrived in Bangkok without a coach by his side, accompanied only by his nutritionist and his brother Caio.
“For all of us it was emotionally very difficult, but I believe some things happen for a reason. At first it was a surprise for everyone, we were all a bit lost, but afterwards, thank God, he placed people in my life to give me that support so I could focus on my match, which was already booked,” Reis said.
“I wasn’t the one who did anything, so I’m at peace. Usually we had someone there to guide us and now we don’t, and you find yourself thinking, ‘What now?’ But God always places good people around you, so I actually felt even more motivated to compete now, lighter, calmer, with no responsibility weighing on me. I believe I’ll compete even better, with nothing to worry about.”
The decision to move up to bantamweight for this bout was born out of a simple reality: there are no fresh opponents left at flyweight for the moment. With a win now banked at the higher weight class, Reis sees a title opportunity on the horizon at either division.
“I think it’s also good because it opens up a new title picture at a new weight. After this match, if God’s willing and we win, the idea is to negotiate for the next match at this weight to be a title match. Or I go back to my weight and make a title defense. There are those two possibilities. I’m a two-time ADCC champion in the 66 kg category, so I’m used to it,” he said.
Reis paid out of his own pocket to arrive in Bangkok a full week before the event, giving himself extra time to adjust to the ten-hour time difference and the long haul of nearly 30 hours of travel from Brazil.
