André Galvão

André Luiz Leite Galvão (born September 29, 1982) is a Brazilian grappler and professional mixed martial artist.

A 4th degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Fernando "Tererê" Augusto as well as a Judo black belt, Galvão is one of the most decorated athletes ever, having won most major international tournaments multiple times.

Galvão is the co-founder and head coach of Atos Jiu Jitsu in San Diego, California, one of the most successful BJJ teams in competitive sport, and a coach to numerous world champions.

He is the author of the martial arts book Drill to Win: One Year to Better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

In June 2022 Galvão was inducted into the IBJJF Hall of Fame & in September 2022, he was inducted into the ADCC Hall of Fame.

Despite his frequent competition success, Galvao has stated that he only began to learn Wrestling as an adult after he moved to America in 2008.

Galvão made his mixed martial arts debut in 2008, and in 2009 he entered DREAM's 2009 Welterweight Tournament.

Since completing the tournament, Galvão fought in Strikeforce.

He earned a record of 2 wins and 1 loss in the promotion before retiring from the sport.

Galvão was a competitor in the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in Barcelona, Spain where he placed second in the -88 kg class.

Galvão has won the 2011 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship (weight and absolute) Brazilian National Championship, World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and Pan American Championships multiple times and has also taken third place in the 2007 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship at both -77 kg and openweight.

More recently, Galvao had a standout performance in 2011, first by winning the Ultimate Absolute NYC by defeating standouts Antonio Braga Neto, Vinny Magalhaes, and Rustam Cshiev.

At the 2011 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship Galvão captured gold in both the -88 kg and absolute weight classes defeating Rousimar Palhares and Pablo Popovitch, in each respective finals.

Galvão defeated Braulio Estima by rear naked choke in their Superfight at the 2013 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.

Galvão faced Chael Sonnen at Metamoris IV on August 9, 2014.

He won the bout via a rear-naked choke submission.

On August 30, 2015, he defeated Roberto Abreu via points (6-0) at the 2015 ADCC Superfight.

At ADCC 2017, Galvão defeated Claudio Calasans via decision.

At ADCC 2019, Galvão defeated Felipe Pena via points (2-0).

Despite initially going back and forth on whether or not to retire from the sport altogether, Galvao confirmed in 2021 that he will be returning at least one more time to defend his ADCC superfight championships at the 2022 World Championship event.

In November 2021, Galvao became part of the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame thanks to his records as the longest-serving superfight champion and most decorated competitor.

At ADCC 2022, Galvão lost his superfight title to Gordon Ryan, being submitted by a rear-naked choke.

Despite being retired from MMA for over a decade, Galvão revealed on November 30, 2020 that he was planning on making a return to professional MMA competition at some point in 2021.

On November 8, 2021, it was announced that Galvão had signed a multi-fight contract with ONE Championship.

He made his promotional debut in a grappling match against ONE Middleweight and ONE Light Heavyweight Champion Reinier de Ridder at ONE: X on March 26, 2022.

They grappled to a draw after 12 minutes after neither could find the submission.

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Mitsuyo "Count Koma" Maeda → Carlos Gracie, Sr. → Helio Gracie → Rolls Gracie → Romero "Jacare" Cavalcanti → Alexandre Paiva → Fernando "Tererê" Augusto → André Galvao

The book focuses on "learning the transitional skills of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission wrestling through proper diet, calisthenics, and technical drills".