Mica Galvao may actually be destined for an eventual transition to MMA, as he’s recently been training in the sport alongside fellow top BJJ black belt and UFC veteran Rodolfo Vieira. While he has already made a huge name for himself in Jiu-Jitsu, there’s no doubt that Galvao still has a lot of plans left for his grappling career. He’s still a teenager though and has plenty of time left before he even begins his athletic prime. It wouldn’t be unbelievable to think that he might be able to win the highest honours in professional grappling and still have years left before his 30s to make the transition to MMA.
Given that Mica Galvao is already known as one of the most exciting young talents in grappling, he would bring a lot of attention to any attempt at an MMA career he might make in the future. Now it seems like he might actually be laying the groundwork for that potential future early, as he’s recently been training alongside Rodolfo Vieira with a pair of MMA gloves on. Vieira is an accomplished grappler in his own right of course, and at one point he actually stood in a similar situation to the one that Galvao finds himself in now.
Back in 2009, Vieira was just a young unknown brown belt who entered a mixed-levels competition alongside tough black belt competitors like Braulio Estima. By the end of that tournament he had announced his arrival at the top of the sport and earned the nickname ‘The Black Belt Hunter’ thanks to his incredible performance. He was promoted to black belt immediately after and went on to win five IBJJF world championships and an ADCC world championship, cementing his legacy one of the top competitors of all time. All of this was done before he made the transition to MMA, won his way to the UFC, and started earning ‘Performance of the Night’ submission wins.
Rodolfo Vieira is more than just a fantastic training partner for Mica Galvao, he can also give him fantastic insight into his future. He has already walked every path that Galvao might do over his career, whether that be in MMA or Jiu-Jitsu, and he can surely give some great advice. This is far from the first exciting young grappler that Vieira has been working with in recent years too, as he’s also been training with NCAA champion AJ Ferrari as well. It’s likely that he can get quite a lot out of intense training sessions with young stars as well, so these are smart moves for his career too.
Mica Galvao shared photos of a recent MMA training session with Rodolfo Vieira on his official Instagram account:
