BJJ News — brenda-larissa

She said he told her she would have a great future. Brenda Larissa was 12.

She was twelve years old when Melqui Galvão began grooming her. She was a world champion by the time she found the words to describe what happened.

Brenda Larissa did something the sport of jiu-jitsu wasn't particularly set up to handle: she recorded twenty minutes of testimony, published it under her own name, and described what she said was fourteen years of abuse at the hands of Melqui Galvão, an Alliance black belt, founder of BJJ College i

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu world faced a reckoning it couldn't ignore. The machinery of institutional response had already been set in motion—the IBJJF and CBJJ announced a permanent ban on April 28, the same day police arrested Melqui Galvão in Manaus.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu had one of those moments where the sport's internal machinery finally breaks down in public. Melqui Galvão was arrested on April 28, and by the next day, both the IBJJF and CBJJ had issued permanent bans.

He arrived at Guarulhos International Airport on the night of May 7 with what Brazilian press described as a fixed and defiant gaze. Melqui Galvão spent years with the Amazonas Civil Police, training law enforcement in defensive techniques across the country.