In August 2023, Fabricio Andrey explained why he was leaving the team that made him. The explanation wasn't exactly illuminating.

"I felt like I wasn't being valued the way I deserved it," he told BJJEE. "I think it's about respect."

No specifics. No accusations. He took his wife Brenda Larissa, grabbed teammate Luiz Paulo, and signed with Alliance. They went back to training.

Photo: Photo via FloGrappling
Photo via FloGrappling

That sounded like a generic team switch at the time. It sounds less generic now.

Melqui Galvão, the Manaus-based coach who built Andrey into one of the best -66kg competitors on the planet, was arrested by Amazonas Civil Police in late April 2026. The charges: rape of vulnerable persons, sexual harassment, criminal threats, and hacking a victim's phone to destroy evidence. At least three victims have been identified, including a 17-year-old who reported being assaulted during a competition trip to Italy.

The IBJJF and CBJJ responded with a permanent ban. Galvão can't compete or officiate at any event sanctioned by either federation. That's the full institutional ceiling of what those organizations can do.

This is the team Andrey left.

Now ADCC is sending him to Krakow.

He got his official discretionary invite to ADCC 2026, September 12-13 at Tauron Arena in Krakow, competing at -66kg. That's the weight class where he's spent years being one of the most complete grapplers at any given podium, without quite getting the recognition his results earned.

Discretionary invites don't go to just anyone. The committee decided he belongs. Three-time IBJJF World Champion at black belt, multiple Brazilian Nationals and Pan Am titles, a leg lock game built for ADCC's overtime format before that was fashionable in Brazil. He's not the flashiest name in the bracket. He's probably the most dangerous at close range.

What makes Andrey's trajectory worth examining isn't just his technical pedigree or the perfectly timed vindication of leaving when he did. It's the rare moment where an athlete's decision to step away from institutional toxicity happened to align with—but wasn't dependent upon—that institution's eventual public collapse. Most athletes don't get that clarity. Most stay in bad situations because the cost of departure feels too high. The coach controls access to competitors. The team controls the brand. The federation controls opportunity. Athletes are caught in these webs for years.

Andrey's departure in 2023 occurred in an information vacuum. There were no public allegations against Galvão at that time. No civil police investigation. No IBJJF or CBJJ action. He left because something felt wrong to him—or at minimum, because he felt undervalued enough to take his chances elsewhere. That's the kind of call most grapplers never make, because the risk feels astronomical. You're walking away from a proven system, a known coach, established training partners, and the competitive pipeline that coach has built. You're going to a new team where you have to re-establish yourself, rebuild relationships with sparring partners, and prove you're still as good as you were three years ago.

Andrey did exactly that at Alliance. Three years of consistent results. Multiple national and international podiums. A reputation rebuilt on his own terms, with his wife and his chosen teammates, under coaching and structure he apparently found more aligned with his vision of respect and value. The work speaks for itself. He's not going to ADCC 2026 as someone's protégé. He's going as an athlete who earned it.

The -66kg division at ADCC 2026 is legitimately stacked. Krakow's bracket will feature some of the most technical leg lock specialists and positional grapplers at black belt. Andrey fits that tier. He fits it now because he's been competing at that level consistently, but also because he had the autonomy to make decisions about his own development. He wasn't filtered through a coach facing criminal investigation. He wasn't part of an institutional ecosystem that's now under permanent ban. He's clean of that mess entirely.

Back to that 2023 quote.

"I think it's about respect."

Athletes say all kinds of things when they leave teams. New challenge. New chapter. Grateful for everything. Grateful for the opportunity. Looking forward to growth. Andrey's version was notable for what it didn't say. He didn't claim bad training. He didn't put the culture on blast publicly. He said I wasn't being treated the way I deserved, and left.

That's a statement that reads very differently now than it did in August 2023. At the time, it could have meant anything. Maybe Galvão wanted different fight matchups. Maybe there were contract disputes. Maybe Andrey felt sidelined competitively. These are normal griefs in BJJ. Coaches and athletes part ways constantly for reasons that are personnel-based and professional, not criminal.

But the statement also could have meant something else. It could have meant something Andrey couldn't articulate publicly without legal liability or fear of retaliation. It could have meant he saw things, or heard things, or felt an environment that made him uncomfortable enough to leave before he had a fully formed alternative in place.

We don't know. Andrey has never elaborated. He's chosen not to make this about himself or his story. The actual story is three athletes reporting abuse. One was 17. That criminal process matters infinitely more than anything on a bracket sheet or in a commentary booth.

But Andrey's situation does show what it looks like when an athlete doesn't wait for BJJ's accountability machinery to catch up. Because that machinery is impossibly slow. Institutions move after facts are undeniable. Bans arrive after things are already public and impossible to ignore. Athletes stay attached to bad environments because their careers depend on the relationships those environments hold. That's how it usually goes. An athlete reports something. The federation receives reports from multiple people. Only then does investigation occur. Only then does discipline get applied.

Andrey's departure was a career decision. Maybe nothing more than that. But he was off that team, established elsewhere, building wins and credibility under new coaching, well before any investigation started. Well before any arrests. Well before IBJJF and CBJJ action. He didn't need the system to move. He moved first.

The -66kg bracket at ADCC 2026 will be one of the better divisions in Krakow. It usually is. Andrey fits. He'll show up representing Alliance with three years of wins behind him and none of this institutional mess attached. His preparation for Krakow has nothing to do with what's happening with his former coach, because he severed that connection before the crisis existed publicly.

He earned this invite on merit. On results. On a body of work that stands independent from any team politics or coaching apparatus.

The contrast is still there, though.

His former coach is permanently banned from any sanctioned competition or officiating role. He's facing criminal charges. The three victims he harmed are seeking justice through law enforcement, not through BJJ's regulatory bodies.

Andrey is going to Krakow.

"I think it's about respect."

Yeah. It was.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

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