The 2nd grappler of the week on BestofBJJ.com is

Andre Galvao

With his double gold last weekend at the ADCC in the -88kg division and the open weight division, he is an obvious pick for the Grappler of the week!

Andre Galvao is a former Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, now turned professional MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) professional fighter. He is famous for his aggressive BJJ style and his battles in the Open Weight division of the World Jiu Jitsu Championships. In 2010 Galvao released a book on how he developed his own style of Jiu Jitsu, the book named “Drill to Win” was taken with great interest by the BJJ community and is today an important reference on the subject.

 

Weight Category: Middle Weight (BJJ), welterweight (MMA).

 

Main Titles (BJJ/Submission Wrestling)

  • 7x World Champion (2008 black, 2005 black ,2004 brown absolute and weight, 2003 purple weight and absolute, 2002 blue)
  • 2x ADCC Champion (2011 weight & absolute)
  • 5x World Cup Champion (2003 purple absolute and weight, 2004 brown weight and absolute, 2006 black)
  • World CBJJE Champion (2008 black)
  • 4x Pan American Champion Black Belt (2008 weight and absolut, 2006, 2011)
  • ADCC Silver Medalist 2009
  • ADCC Bronze Medallist in the absolute and under 77kg (2007)

Association/Team in BJJ: Galvao has fought under TT and Brasa, but he now competes under Atos.

Andre Galvao was born September 29, 1982 in Sao Paulo – Brazil. Andre initiated his Martial Arts education with Judo while still a child. It was through his oldest brother that Galvao got to know Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as his brother already trained in the art of submissions.

Galvao started his BJJ training with Luis Carlos Dagmar “Careca” a student of the illustrious Master Osvaldo Alves when he was 16. It was only on his second year of BJJ training that he met the one person that would become his true master and inspiration, Fernando Augusto also known in the BJJ comunity as “Tereré”.

With the guidance of Tereré Andre Galvao’s BJJ evolved heaps and bounds. Tereré was one of BJJ’s main fighters at the time, a World champion and a Pound for Pound best in the early 2000’s. Galvao would follow Terere throughout his split with the Alliance team the birth of Brasa Team and TT’s team.

In an interview to Tatame (a Brazilian Magazine) in 2007, Andre Galvao stated that his idols in BJJ were his coach, Terere – for his personality and the way he brings the crowd to a roar when he competes, Vitor Shaolin Ribeiro for his mad sweeps and “Leozinho” Vieira for his athleticism and what he brings to BJJ.

Galvao’s always been a avid competitor and unlike most BJJ fighters he dedicated himself to fighting in all tournaments, not just the major ones, he relied on this to keep improving his skill set. Andre won 4 World Championships in a row, from Blue Belt to Black belt (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) wining his weight and the Open Weight Classes in two years in a row in the Purple Belt division and Brown Belt division (2003 and 2004). He made the final in 2006 and 2007 but couldn’t capitalize on the 1st Place. Gold came again in 2008. In that same year Andre Galvao joined the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) obtaining a submission victory over Jeremiah Metcalf, a former Strikeforce fighter, fate would have it that a few months after that fight Galvao himself would join that same fighting organization.

On October 2008 Galvao joined his good friend Ramon Lemos to form a new Jiu Jitsu team. The pair has a strong evangelic background and brought their religious beliefs to the mats. All their students have a similar background, and for that reason they decided to call their team “Atos” – meaning “acts”, a direct reference to “The Bok of Acts”, which is the fifth book of the new testament. The team has had tremendous success in the black belt divisions with several fighters winning both the World Championships, the Pan Ams and the Jiu Jitsu Pro Cup in Abu Dhabi.

Having turned into a professional MMA fighter in 2008, Galvao fought in some of the world’s biggest organizations such as Dream (Japan) and Strikeforce (USA). He left Strikeforce by his own will after a good year (2010) in which he fought three times, loosing the later fight and winning two. He had plans to join the Ultimate Fighter Show (as explained on his intervirew to BJJ Heroes on January 2010), though the plans did not follow through. He returned to BJJ competitions in March 7, winning the World Professional Jiu Jitsu trials in San Diego, California (under 183lbs), winning also the BJJ Pan American a few weeks later – submitting all his opponents, except Eduardo Santoro in the final.