This article is part of our ADCC 2022 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
It’s official, Andre Galvao will be defending his superfight title at least one more time at ADCC 2022. For around a year now there has been some serious doubt that has surrounded Galvao’s reign as superfight champion with even ADCC organizers being unsure as to whether or not he will compete. While there was always uncertainty, things took a sharp turn towards flat-out impossible quite recently when Galvao effectively priced himself out of the match altogether by asking for a million dollars as his purse, an amount that is certainly impossible.
It’s just our luck that now that one half of the ADCC superfight is finally locked in and guaranteed, the other half is suddenly in jeopardy. Of course, we’re referring to the reigning ADCC absolute champion Gordon Ryan, who recently announced his temporary retirement from competition and cancelled all future matches as a result of his ongoing battle with Gastroparesis. Andre Galvao and Gordon Ryan have had an increasingly tense rivalry lately with both men taking jabs back and forth over social media. All of this culminated in the now-infamous incident backstage at a Who’s Number One event that Gordon Ryan was headlining, where the two exchanged heated words before Ryan slapped Galvao twice.
However, there were several fans who saw the timing of the announcement that Galvao was on board for the superfight as more than a little suspicious. Given that Gordon Ryan’s temporary retirement was just a matter of weeks ago, it’s understandable that fans leapt to accuse Galvao of ducking one of the greatest no gi grapplers of all time. However, a post was uploaded to the official ADCC Instagram account that confirmed that the timing of the announcement truly was a coincidence. In actual fact, Galvao accepted the match on May 1st, around three weeks prior to Ryan’s retirement.
Further down in the comments, ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim clarified his thoughts on the potential for the match everyone has been waiting for, Andre Galvao v Gordon Ryan at ADCC 2022:
“I’m very confident Gordon will be healed and ready for this match”
So while it’s still not entirely a done deal, it certainly seems likely. With the fact that there is still a lot of bad blood between Ryan and Galvao and both men are eager to prove themselves to be the best grappler on the planet, there really is only one thing standing in the way. That means that Ryan has around a year to try and get his stomach issues under control and make it to the mats to cement his place as the best no gi grappler on the planet.
