It’s a sad day for the BJJ community, as Jiu-Jitsu legend Marcelo Garcia has revealed that he has had a cancer diagnosis. Garcia remains one of the most popular figures in the BJJ world to this day thanks to a combination of his incredible skill and achievements, along with his fantastic attitude towards the sport and everyone in it. Garcia has already had an incredible career as a competitor and he achieved more than the vast majority of elite Jiu-Jitsu athletes could ever dream of.
He was honoured for his achievements at ADCC 2022 by being inducted in to the ADCC Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class. This was due to the fact that he is the only person in the history of the promotion to win his weightclass on four different occasions, along with delivering fantastic performances and reaching the podium in the absolute division as well. He had fantastic matches with dozens of competitors over the years, and won most of them regardless of their weightclass. That’s just one of the reasons that Garcia is often fondly-remembered as one of the most exciting BJJ competitors of all time.
Garcia arrived onto the scene as a fresh black belt who competed on short notice at ADCC 2003 and by the time that weekend was over, he had begun his legacy of incredible performances. After eight years of dominance, Garcia retired from competition in 2011 and sunk all of his time into building his team of elite competitors. Now he has awarded dozens of black belts and produced fantastic competitors like Matheus Diniz, Dominyka Obelenyte, Gianni Grippo, and many more.
Now in 2023, Marcelo Garcia has announced that he has recently had a stomach cancer diagnosis and will be undergoing chemotherapy shortly. After three months of that, he will then have surgery to remove the tumour. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Garcia and his family as he undergoes treatment and recovery after.
Marcelo Garcia announced the news that he had been diagnosed with cancer in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
