Diego Garijo spent years building a name for himself as a professional combat athlete, competing for Bellator and on the local circuit. According to sources, he was by his own account on a path that mirrored his UFC-bound teammates and coaches until injury intervened.
“I fou ght for Bellator. I fou ght in a local league. I was destined to be in the UFC like all my teammates were in the UFC, my coaches, but I detached my retina before I got my call to the big league,” he said.
He even turned down a UFC opportunity at 145 pounds (65.8 kg) while chasing a sh0t at 155 (70.3 kg), recalling, “I’m already cutting 20 pounds (9.1 kg) of water. I was just like if I cut 10 more pounds (4.5 kg) I’m going to d*e.”
After the injury, he pivoted to bare-knuckle boxing.
What most people did not see coming was Garijo’s other identity: a drag performer known as Lola Pistola, a nod to his fighting nickname, Dos Pistolas.
He described the transformation in detail, from his first pair of heels to the training that came with it. “I went, I started studying, I took some dance classes and I practiced in heels,” he said, adding that he had his ears pierced so a clip-on earring wouldn’t fall off mid-performance.
The origin traces back to an emotional intelligence course a coach encouraged him to take. When asked to try something creative outside his comfort zone, he suggested a drag show, an idea his classmates embraced immediately. He recalled attending sessions fresh off a bare-knuckle match, stitches still in his face and his arm in a cast, while everyone around him “did meet me and perceive me as this hyper-masculine guy.”
His mother’s reaction was harsh. In a voicemail, she told him she was “ashamed of the things you do” and said he looked “hideous” in drag makeup. Garijo has said he forgives her but has largely moved on from that relationship.
At the gym, he faced pointed questions too. One training partner asked if he worried about being perceived as gay. His response was direct: “I don’t give a f**k what anybody thinks. I see it as 100% performance art. Clothes don’t have a gender.”
Garijo has used his platform to encourage others, including athletes privately grappling with their own identities, to be open about who they are. He’s also a working painter with gallery shows and authored a book chronicling his path, “The Saint of Zero: My Eclectic Journey from the MMA Cage to the Drag Queen Stage.”
Married and unapologetic, he continues to describe drag as pure performance art, separate entirely from s3xuality, a distinction he says too many people still fail to grasp.
