Mica Galvao has just been announced as the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu wildcard representative at under 77kg for CJI 2 later this year. The team have been looking a competitor to fill that slot for quite a while now, as they were one of the first teams to announce their partial lineup and quickly announced all four of the other competitors. While the other four spots were pretty easy choices, the under 77kg division was a tough one because of the number of options they have. John Danaher was originally trying to choose between their own big names like Oliver Taza and Jason Nolf, but he never ruled out the possibility of using a wildcard.
Every team had the option of drafting in one competitor from elsewhere in order to build a strong team and with Mica Galvao interested in joining the CJI 2 lineup, things worked out perfectly for New Wave Jiu-Jitsu. Not only did he win the under 77kg division at ADCC 2024 but he’s been considered one of the best grapplers in the world for several years at this point. He’s also been known to have success against larger opponents too, so he’s a valuable man to have in a Quintet-style event like CJI 2. There are also a few interesting rematches waiting for Galvao and it’ll be exciting to see if CJI 2 can deliver them.
He was submitted by Dante Leon in the ADCC 2024 absolute division and he will also be weighing in at under 77kg for the event, but there’s no guarantee that they’ll cross paths of course. There’s another big rematch with Kade Ruotolo that Galvao has been angling for as well, but there’s no news yet on whether Ruotolo will be competing at the event. There’s still space for him though, as ATOS have three unannounced positions to fill in their lineup and one of them is Ruotolo’s usual weight class at under 77kg. This rematch is several years in the making, as Ruotolo submitted Galvao in the final of that weight class at ADCC 2022.
Craig Jones announced the news that Mica Galvao has joined New Wave Jiu-Jitsu as their wildcard representative for CJI 2 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
