Andre Galvao and Keenan Cornelius and two of the top competitors of their generations and at one point they were training alongside one another on a regular basis. Galvao won his first IBJJF World Championship immediately after being promoted to black belt in 2005 and he continued to win the world’s most prestigious gi tournament multiple times over his career. He eventually added the first ADCC titles to his resume in 2011 when he became a double champion, and he went on to become one of the most successful grapplers in the promotion’s history.
During the very peak of Andre Galvao’s power in 2013, Keenan Cornelius was one of the top brown belt prospects in the sport and he made the decision to leave Team Lloyd Irvin in order to train under Galvao at ATOS. This change proved to be a fruitful one as Cornelius won an IBJJF no gi World Championship himself and managed to reach the podium of ADCC on several occasions. Although the relationship worked for a while, it had run it’s course by 2019 and Cornelius made the decision to leave ATOS. After training in a few different places and briefly representing BJJ Globetrotters in competition, Cornelius eventually founded Legion Jiu-Jitsu.
Eventually Galvao was made a member of the inaugural class of the ADCC Hall of Fame in recognition for his incredible achievements over the course of more than a decade, and he’s been focusing on coaching significantly more than competing over the last few years. Cornelius has also been much less active in competition than he once was, and he too has been working hard at developing the next generation of top grapplers. Both men are influential figures in the sport and no doubt will be for many years to come, so it’s great to watch them rolling together in training.
The full footage of BJJ legends Andre Galvao and Keenan Cornelius rolling together was uploaded to our official YouTube channel, click here to subscribe for more.
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