- Andre Galvao vs Rousimar Palhares is set for the ACBJJ 23 main event on Friday, November 13, at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
- The booking is a rematch of the 2011 ADCC final, which Galvao won 9-4 in Nottingham, England — 15 years in the making.
- They meet this time at 100 kg (220 lbs) under Combat Jiu-Jitsu rules, with punches and kicks to the body legal and head strikes banned.
- The ruleset’s 10-9 impact, fight control, and aggression scoring rewards Galvao’s pressure passing while keeping Palhares’s heel hooks live.
- Kelvin Gastelum vs Rodolfo Vieira anchors the co-main, with Edson Barboza expected to appear.
Andre Galvao vs Rousimar Palhares set for ACBJJ 23 Rematch
The Russian Jiu-Jitsu promotion ACBJJ has set the main event for ACBJJ 23, announcing this week that Andre Galvao and Rousimar Palhares will headline the card on Friday, November 13, at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, a venue that has hosted multiple UFC events. The two will compete at 100 kilograms (220 pounds) under Combat Jiu-Jitsu rules.
It is a rematch 15 years in the making between two of the most accomplished Brazilian grapplers of their generation. Galvao, the founder of Atos Jiu-Jitsu, is a five-time world champion and six-time ADCC champion who went 5-2 in a brief MMA run before returning to grappling and coaching.
Palhares, known as “Toquinho,” built his name on the heel hook, winning four of his eight UFC victories by the technique across a 2008-2013 run at middleweight and welterweight.
Galvao also enters the booking facing allegations from former Atos student Alexa Herse, which Galvao denied.
The 2011 ADCC final in Nottingham
The only Andre Galvao ADCC meeting with Palhares came in the under-88-kilogram final of the 2011 ADCC in Nottingham, England. Galvao took gold with a decisive 9-4 points decision, leaving Palhares with silver. Fifteen years later, the rematch climbs to 100 kilograms, but the stylistic question is unchanged: a pressure passer against the most feared leg locker of his era.
What Combat Jiu-Jitsu Rules Change for This Matchup
The ruleset is what lifts this out of routine-superfight territory. ACBJJ is running the main event under Combat Jiu-Jitsu rules, but with a scoring twist that matters for this specific pairing. Davi Ramos, the event promoter and a former UFC fighter, laid out the details:
Combat Jiu-Jitsu allows punches and kicks to the body, but strikes to the head are prohibited. The rounds are scored using the 10-9 system, with three criteria taken into account: impact, fight control, and aggression.
–Davi Ramos, ACBJJ 23 promoter –
Two things shift the math. First, body strikes are live. That hands an immediate edge to whoever can control position and drop offense from the top, and Galvao’s pressure passing is built exactly for that: smother, advance, and now land.
Second, the 10-9 scoring rewards impact, fight control, and aggression rather than near-misses or sweep points, so stalling in a leg entanglement no longer banks a round the way it can under a points system.
That is the heart of the matchup. The Rousimar Palhares heel hook entries are still the single most dangerous weapon on the mat, but the scoring forces the bottom player to either finish quickly or concede ground — every second Palhares spends hunting the ankle with a body striker on top is a second of accumulated damage and control time against him.
For Galvao, the risk runs the other way: committing forward into a pass is exactly the window Palhares has spent a career attacking.
Past Their Prime, or Entertaining as Ever?
For Palhares, this is as significant an opportunity as he has had in years. The UFC released him in 2013 after repeated incidents of holding submissions past the referee’s stoppage, and the reputation that followed made opponents reluctant to sign high-profile grappling superfights. Marquee matchups against a name like Galvao have been scarce ever since.
That scarcity is what gives the ACBJJ 23 headliner its weight beyond the 15-year storyline. A win over Galvao, even under a modified ruleset, would be the biggest result on Palhares’s grappling résumé in years, in front of a Rio crowd that knows both men. His divisive history is part of why the fight sells.
Kelvin Gastelum vs Rodolfo Vieira in the Co-Main
The co-main adds a second crossover hook. Kelvin Gastelum vs Rodolfo Vieira is set for 88 kilograms under standard grappling rules, with no strikes. Vieira, a Rio de Janeiro native, is a five-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion and ADCC titleholder; Gastelum is a former UFC interim middleweight title challenger with the wrestling base to test Vieira in ways few MMA fighters can.
UFC veteran Edson Barboza is also expected to appear on the card, though that slot has not yet been officially announced. His addition would deepen an already strong night for a promotion that has been building momentum through events like its ACBJJ 13 card.
The co-main gives ACBJJ 23 a second marquee pairing, but the Andre Galvao vs Rousimar Palhares headliner is the reason the grappling world will be watching on November 13.
