Chris Weidman once took to the mats to compete in the 2009 ADCC World Championships, standing across from Andre Galvao in the opening round of the 88kg division. Weidman didn’t get invited to compete out of nowhere either, he actually won his place at the tournament by emerging victorious in one of the highly-competitive ADCC Trials events. This was Weidman’s first attempt at glory on the ADCC mats, and he was several years away from being the phenomenal UFC world champion that he ended up becoming.
At the time Weidman was pretty fresh off his impressive wrestling career, where he became a two-time NCJAA All-American and a two-time NCAA Division I All-American. He had only just transitioned to professional MMA competition, making his debut at the beginning of that year. By the time Chris Weidman faced off against Andre Galvao at ADCC 2009, he was only 2-0 in professional MMA and had limited submission experience outside of his impressive performance at the trials. He had tough opposition in the opening round, as Galvao was already one of the top competitors on the planet at the time.
Galvao was moving up in weight for the first time in 2009, as he had won a pair of bronze medals at ADCC 2007 in the 77kg and the absolute divisions. Despite his impressive performance at the previous ADCC world championship, Galvao still compete in the trials leading up to ADCC 2009 as well and he also won his place that way. Although Galvao was a top competitor at the time, it would still be several years before he established the incredible legacy he currently has. By the time ADCC 2009 came around, Galvao had only won two IBJJF world championships at black belt and had not yet won a single gold medal on the ADCC mats.
Chris Weidman gave Andre Galvao one of his toughest matches of the weekend at ADCC 2009, and he had a few submission attempts throughout their match. Regardless, Galvao managed to score four points on Weidman during their match and he was the one who progressed to the quarter-final. Galvao then went on to beat both David Avellan and Kassim Annan before losing to Braulio Estima in the final of the 88kg division. Both men also entered the absolute division but Weidman was submitted in the opening round by Vinny Magalhaes, while Galvao defeated Tom DeBlass and lost in the second round to Xande Ribeiro.
The footage of the Andre Galvao v Chris Weidman match that took place in the 88kg division of the 2009 ADCC World Championships was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of FloGrappling:
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