Andre Galvao (Atos)

A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion and ADCC champion as well as a black belt under the famous Mestre “Careca”, Andre Galvao is also a founding member of the Atos team, one of the top BJJ teams in the world. Well known among the grappling community due to his numerous achievements on the mats and inside the octagon (he also fought in MMA) Andre Galvao is recognized for his flamboyant Jiu Jitsu style and his battles in the open weight divisions of tournaments around the world. In 2010 Andre Galvao released a book on how he developed his own style of BJJ, the book named “Drill to Win” was taken with great interest by BJJers and is today an important reference on the subject.

Andre Galvao Jiu Jitsu

Full Name: André Luiz Leite Galvão

Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Reyson Gracie > Osvaldo Alves > Luis Dagmar > André Galvão

Main Titles:

• 2x World Champion – black belt (2008 & 2005)
• 2x ADCC Champion (2011 weight & absolute)
• World Pro Cup Champion (2012 – WPJJC)
• World Cup Champion – black belt (2006 black)
• World CBJJE Champion (2008 black)
• 4x Pan American Champion – black belt (2008 weight & absolute, 2006, 2011)
• Ultimate Absolute NYC Champion (2011)

Other Important Achievements:

• 2x World Champion – brown belt ( 2004 weight & absolute)
• 2x World Champion – purple belt (2003 weight & absolute)
• World Champion – blue belt (2002)
• 2x World Cup Champion – purple belt (2003 weight & absolute)
• 2x World Cup Champion – brown belt (2004 brown weight & absolute)
• ADCC Silver Medalist 2009
• World Pro Championship Silver Medallist (2012 absolute)
• 2x ADCC Bronze Medallist (2007 weight & absolute)

Favourite Technique: Guard Passing

Weight Division: Meio Pesado (88kg/194lbs)

Team/Association: Atos

Merchandise:

• Andre Galvao Storm Kimono
• Andre Galvao Book, Drill to Win
• Andre Galvao, Iphone APP

Andre Galvao Biography

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 Tererê. Dagmar believed his academy was too small for Galvão’s talent, and advised him to train with Tererê who was an amazing coach and had several other similarly talented fighters in his gym.

With the guidance of Tererê Andre Galvao’s BJJ evolved heaps and bounds. Terere 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 and TT teams for a time span of almost 3 years. Galvao was due to receive his black belt in mid 2005, unfortunately this clashed with a series of incidents that turned Tererê’s attention away from jiu jitsu. Instead of delivering the black belt himself due to Terere’s absence, on the day of Galvão’s graduation (19th of May 2005), Terere’s right hand man and TT partner Eduardo Telles drove  Galvao to his native town so Andre could have the honor of receiving his black belt from his original instructor, Master “Careca”.

As Tererê left the sport due to well documented personal problems, André Galvão ended leaving his team (TT) to join Brasa. 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 Book 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.

Continuously “stepping it up”, Galvao was remarkable at the 2011 edition of the ADCC, the world’s most prestigious grappling event, winning gold on both his weight and the absolute division, proving why he is considered one of the best in the world.

Andre Galvao Grappling Record

Opponent	W/L	Method	Tournament	Weight	Stage	Year
Makoto Ikuta	W	Brabo Choke	H. Kong Cup	absolute	Semi-f.	2008
Eduardo Telles	W	Ezekiel f Back	H. Kong Cup	absolute	Final	2008
F. Di Piero	W	Submission	Pan American	absolute	¼ Final	2008
L. “Big Mac”	W	Submission	Pan American	absolute	Semi-f.	2008
Roberto Tozi	W	Choke f Back	Pan American	absolute	Final	2008
M. Carvalho	W	Choke	Pan American	U88kg	¼ Final	2008
B. Fernandes	W	2×2 pts (1×0 ad)	Pan American	U88kg	Semi-f.	2008
T. Humpreys	W	Injury	Pan American	U88kg	Final	2008
R. Gordinho	W	Choke f Mount	World Champ	U88kg	¼ Final	2008
Marcel Louzado	W	n/a	World Champ	U88kg	Semi-f.	2008
Braulio Estima	W	Choke f Back	World Champ	U88kg	Final	2008
M. Suarez	W	Kimura	World Champ	absolute	Rd 1	2008
Roberto Abreu	W	n/a	World Champ	absolute	¼ Final	2008
Rafael Lovato	W	Choke f Back	World Champ	absolute	Semi-f.	2008
Roger Gracie	L	Points 9×0	World Champ	absolute	Final	2008
Rodolfo Vieira	W	Points 3×0	ADCC Trials	U87kg	Final	2009
Kassim Anan	W	Points 12×2	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Rd 1	2009
C. Wideman	W	Points 4×0 OT	ADCC Finals	U87kg	¼ Final	2009
D. Avellan	W	Points 2×0	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Semi-f.	2009
Braulio Estima	L	Inv. Triangle	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Final	2009
Alex. Ceconi	W	Points 16×0	F4F Nogi	absolute	n/a	2011
C. Ferreira	W	Points 3×0	F4F Gi	absolute	n/a	2011
Nol. Dutcher	W	Armbar	Ultimate Abs.	absolute	Rd 1	2011
A. Braga Neto	W	Points 2×0	Ultimate Abs.	absolute	¼ Final	2011
V. Magalhaes	W	Points 4×0	Ultimate Abs.	absolute	Semi-f.	2011
Rust. Chsiev	W	Judge Decision	Ultimate Abs.	absolute	Final	2011
Clark Gracie	W	Judge Decision	WJJPC Trials	U82kg	Semi-f.	2011
C. Calasans	W	Advantages 1×0	WJJPC Trials	U82kg	Final	2011
M.Buchecha	W	Submission	WJJPC Trials	absolute	Semi-f.	2011
A. Braga Neto	L	Points 7×0	WJJPC Trials	absolute	Final	2011
Clark Gracie	W	Advantages 1×0	Pan American	U88kg	¼ Final	2011
D. Gamonal	W	Submission	Pan American	U88kg	Semi-f.	2011
E. Santoro	W	Points 2×0	Pan American	U88kg	Final	2011
Don Ortega	W	Points	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Rd 1	2011
Gunnar Nelson	W	Points 3×0	ADCC Finals	U87kg	¼ Final	2011
Pablo Popovitch	W	Points 2×0	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Semi-f.	2011
Rous.Palhares	W	Points 9×4	ADCC Finals	U87kg	Final	2011
Shinzo Ansai	W	Mata Leao	ADCC Finals	absolute	Rd 1	2011
Sergio Moraes	W	Points 6×0	ADCC Finals	absolute	¼ Final	2011
Murilo Santana	W	Points 0×0 (-1)	ADCC Finals	absolute	Semi-f.	2011
Pablo Popovitch	W	Toe Hold	ADCC Finals	absolute	Final	2011
D. Gamonal	W	Choke Crussifix	HoustonOpen	U88kg	Semi-f.	2012
James Harbison	W	Points 11×0	HoustonOpen	U88kg	Final	2012
Clark Gracie	W	Points 3×0	WJJPC Trials	U88kg	Final	2012
Xande Ribeiro	L	Pts 4×4 adv 3×0	WJJPC Trials	absolute	Final	2012
Felipe Dias	W	Submission	WJJPC Finals	U88kg	Rd 1	2012
Janne Autio	W	n/a	WJJPC Finals	U88kg	¼ Final	2012
Leo Maciel	W	Points 2×0	WJJPC Finals	U88kg	Semi-f.	2012
Vitor Toledo	W	Choke f Back	WJJPC Finals	U88kg	Final	2012
Xande Ribeiro	W	Advantages 2×0	WJJPC Finals	absolute	Semi-f.	2012
Rodolfo Vieira	L	Points 4×2	WJJPC Finals	absolute	Final	2012
Ryron Gracie	-	Draw	Metamoris Pro	n/a	Superfight	2012
Diego Hertzog	W	Points 7×0	IBJJF Pro League	U88kg	¼ Final	2012
Rafael Barbosa	W	Choke f back	IBJJF Pro League	U88kg	Semi-f.	2012
Romulo Barral	L	Judge Decision	IBJJF Pro League	U88kg	Final	2012
Max Freitas	W	Armbar	Pan American	absolute	Rd 1	2013
Tanner Rice	W	Choke f back	Pan American	absolute	Rd 2	2013
Orlando Sanchez	W	Judge Decision	Pan American	absolute	¼ Final	2013
Nivaldo Oliveira	W	Points 2×0	Pan American	absolute	Semi-f.	2013
Marcus Almeida	L	Points 4×2	Pan American	absolute	Final	2013
J. Conceição	W	Armbar	Pan American	U88kg	Rd 1	2013
Renato Cardoso	W	Choke f back	Pan American	U88kg	¼ Final	2013
Tarsis Humpreys	W	Kimura lock	Pan American	U88kg	Semi-f.	2013
Guto Campos*	W	*	Pan American	U88kg	Final	2013

*Didn’t fight with team mate, both competitors closed the bracket.

Andre Galvao Fight Videos

Andre Galvao vs James Harbison (Houston Open, 2012)

Andre Galvao vs Marcelo Garcia (World Championship Final, 2006)

Andre Galvao vs Martin Suarez (this is a famous video that has circled the internet, the man fighting with Galvao goes for an illegal reaping of the knee, which upsets Galvao, 2008)

Andre Galvao vs Rodolfo Vieira (ADCC Brazilian Trials, 2009)