The Berimbolo Kid's Match of the Week - Week 17 - André Galvão vs. Clark Gracie - 2011 Abu Dhabi Pro Trails

(The previous edition can be found HERE)

Welcome to another edition of Match of the Week. This week’s match is André Galvão vs. Clark Gracie from the 2011 Abu Dhabi Pro Trails which took place on March 6, 2011 in San Diego, California. 

André Galvão is a black belt under Luis Dagmar (commonly known as "Careca") and fights for Team Atos. Previously, André was part of the TT Team, led by Jiu-Jitsu legends, Fernando Tererê and Eduardo Telles. He would later go on to be one of the founding members of Team Atos, who are currently one of the best Jiu-Jitsu teams in the world today. As of now, André is one of the best black belts in the world and the coach to some of best American black belts, such as Keenan Cornelius and JT Torres. 

André has achieved a lot in his nine years in the black belt division. He is nine time Pan American Champion (2014 weight & absolute, 2013, 2011, 2008 weight & absolute, 2006, 2005 weight & absolute), a three time WPJJ (2014, 2013, 2012) and ADCC Champion (2011 weight & absolute, 2013 superfight), and a two time World Champion (2008, 2005).

For the most part, André is a top player. Every now and again you will see him play guard, but 95% of the time, he will play on top. A lot of the time, André will start off the match with some sort of throw where he can transition to a dominant position, which in most cases is the back. From there, he looks to set up a variety of collar chokes.

André Galvão

Clark Gracie is a black belt under his father, Carley Gracie who is 9th degree red belt and son of Carlos Gracie. In recent years, Clark has been the only member of the Gracie family to compete in the black belt division. In 2013, he proved that he is one of the very best in the middleweight division by winning the Pan American Championship by defeating Marcelo "Lapela" Mafra in the final by his signature choke from the omoplata. 

Clark is a three time American National Champion (2010 black, 2006 purple, 2005 blue), and a one-time Pan American (2013 black), World NoGi (2009 brown), New York Open (2010 brown) and American National NoGi Champion (2009 brown). He is also a World NoGi silver medallist (2012 black), and a World (2011 black), Pan American (2012, 2011 black), and European (2012 black) bronze medallist.

Clark's fast and exciting guard game make him a fan favourite at competitions. One move which Clark is notorious for is his omoplata. Very few people utilise this move as well as Clark does. Other than this, Clark has an excellent open guard and uses it to great effect in order to set up his signature omopltatas.

Clark Gracie

Unsurprisingly, for the entirety of this match, André is on top, and Clark is on the bottom. In this match, both of their games almost seem to neutralise each other. André tries to work some good passes but Clark's tricky guard prevents any of them from being completed. Obviously, you also get to see some lovely omoplata attacks from Clark as well. In my opinion, I disagree with the outcome of the match. It was a super close match, but I still think it was wrong. Let me know if you disagree. 

The video of the match can be found below. I hope you guys enjoy!

See you next week!

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