Mica Galvao has just publicly agreed to defend his Who’s Number One welterweight title against Nicky Ryan at the upcoming WNO 22 event on February 9th, 2023. Galvao hasn’t been the champion for very long but he’s already been incredibly active in defending his belt. He won the title in impressive fashion back at WNO 20: Night of Champions, where he beat two ADCC veterans on the same night in order to claim the belt. That would have been a great performance in itself, but he also registered one of the most exciting finishes of the night when he launched into a flying armbar against PJ Barch.
Galvao then scheduled his first title-defense against Kody Steele at WNO 21 and although he was the favorite coming into the match, Steele is a tough opponent for anyone. It was a great match right from the start, but Galvao continued his incredible run on the WNO mats by taking Steele’s back and locking up a rear-naked choke for the finish. Mica Galvao was met by Kendall Reusing after the victory as part of her role as one of FloGrappling’s interviewers, and he knew immediately that Nicky Ryan should be next in line:
“I think that there’s someone that I would really love to do a match (with). Since 2021 this match has been ongoing, like people have been calling for it. I don’t see anyone else like better suited for this title-defense than I think Nicky Ryan.”
Not only did Galvao issue the challenge to Ryan during the live broadcast, but his challenge was immediately accepted too. Ryan was actually in the audience for the event and he was invited up to the mats to give his response:
“Yeah, I’m super excited. It’s been a long time coming. Obviously I had a lot of injuries that kept me out of the competition scene but I’m healthy. I’m getting active again and I know I’ll be ready for it.”
The footage of Mica Galvao and Nicky Ryan publicly agreeing to a title-fight at Who’s Number One 22 during the live broadcast of WNO 21 was uploaded to the official Instagram account of FloGrappling:
