Saturday, 7-time World Jiu-Jitsu Champion visits Old School Boxing
Imagine being asked to come up and share the mat with André Galvão, the 7-time world Jiu-Jitsu Champion. That might be the case come Saturday, November 13th at the Old School Boxing Gym on El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego. Beginning at 1 p.m., Galvão will be the guest instructor at a seminar discussing the latest techniques in this discipline.
Now why does the name, André Galvão, sound so familiar? Galvao, is a member of an exclusive group of MMA super-stars who were or are currently members of the famous Black House Team, a fighting group out of Brazil which includes Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira (Former Pride and UFC Heavyweight Champ), his twin brother, Antônio Rogério Nogueira, Anderson Silva (UFC Middleweight Champ), Lyoto Machida (former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champ), Junior dos Santos (who is slated to fight Cain Velasquez for the Heavyweight title), Jose Aldo (Current UFC Featherweight Champ), Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante (Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champ), Paulo Filho (Former WEC Middleweight Champ), and Ronaldo “Jacaré” Souza (Strikeforce Middleweight Champ). And that just scratches the service of the people in this amazing group.
At a Jiu-Jitsu exhibition, Andre Galvao (right) poses for a photo with one of the icons in the sport, Scott "Momo" Calver.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, of which Galvão is a master, is a martial art, combat sport, and self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend himself or herself against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique—most notably by applying joint-locks and chokeholds. Using the techniques of the Brazilian style Jiu-Jitsu has become paramount in MMA. Most fighters prefer to wrestle. In the live sparring or drill play, a major role in training, a premium is placed on performance.
Galvão has won both the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship and IBJJF Pan American Championships seven times and he also took third place in the 2007 ADCC World Championship at both 77 kgs and open weight. He made his MMA debut in 2008, and was recently contacted to compete in the UFC.
Galvao, together with his friend, Kevin Howell, authored the best selling martial arts book, Drill to Win: One Year to Better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Drill to Win focuses on learning the difficult transitional skills of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, submission wrestling, and MMA through proper diet, calisthenics, and technical drills.
