This article about Mica Galvao winning the super grand slam is part of our ADCC 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Mica Galvao has just joined an incredibly small list of professional Jiu-Jitsu competitors by winning the coveted super grand slam. It’s the rarest achievement in the sport and in fact, Galvao is only the second person to ever win it after Rubens ‘Cobrinha’ Charles became the first in 2017. It’s an incredibly challenging thing to do, as it requires a competitor to have the absolute perfect run of performances across both gi and no gi tournaments through almost an entire year. Galvao managed to do it though, starting 2024 in impressive fashion and continuing his string of wins all the way through to ADCC 2024.
In order to win the sport’s super grand slam, a competitor must win all four major IBJJF tournaments in a calendar year first. That alone is a rare accomplishment and it requires you to travel all around the world, facing the best gi competitors in multiple continents. The IBJJF grand slam consists of the IBJJF European Championship, the IBJJF Pan Championship, the IBJJF Brazilian National Championship, and finally the IBJJF World Championship at the end of that gruelling schedule. Galvao ran through the first three tournaments in the middleweight division and he capped off his IBJJF run by dropping down in weight and winning the IBJJF World Championship 2024 at lightweight.
Winning the super grand slam has been something that Mica Galvao has been aiming for since before the year began, so a lot of questions arose when the Craig Jones Invitational was announced. It was a tough choice for Galvao as he would be one of the top contenders to win either that or ADCC 2024 and they offered very different things. He was forced to choose between a million-dollar grand prize and a piece of history that was finally within reach after months of hard work. Galvao even cited the super grand slam as his main reason for choosing to stay in ADCC 2024, so naturally there was a lot on the line for him when the tournament began.
Galvao entered the under 77kg division at ADCC 2024 and as the returning silver medalist, he became the top contender when reigning champion Kade Ruotolo left for the Craig Jones Invitational. The first day was pretty smooth-sailing for Galvao as he scored a pretty quick submission win over Luiz Paulo in the opening round and beat Oliver Taza on points in the quarter-final. The second day was much more difficult, with PJ Barch giving him a very tough match in the semi-final. Galvao won that match by decision and booked his place in the final opposite Vagner Rocha, where he won by submission. That performance capped off an incredible year for Mica Galvao and with the super grand slam achieved, he was visibly emotional in his post-match interview.
Mica Galvao shared the news that he had won the under 77kg division at ADCC 2024 and completed his super grand slam in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
