Marcelo Garcia highlight reels are never hard to come by, his career was typified by fans one elite grappler after another falling victim to what is probably the best Butterfly Guard game that the world has ever seen. Garcia regularly over-achieved as one of the lightest men in the Absolute division, to the point where he started to garner a reputation as a giant killer and people quickly stopped doubting his ability to overcome opponents regardless of significant weight disadvantages. His Bronze and Silver medals in the ADCC Absolute division are a testament to the fact that a man from the -77kg category can beat some of the biggest and best grapplers on the planet provided that they’re good enough.
While ADCC spent a few years lacking a smaller man to take on the biggest men in the sport, Lachlan Giles recently followed in Garcia’s footsteps at ADCC 2019 by earning a bronze medal after submitting the -99kg Champion, Kaynan Duarte. While Giles is a man to be feared in his own right, regardless of any size advantage his opponent might have, Marcelo Garcia still reigns supreme as the greatest small man in the absolute division and the above highlight reel only proves that point. Even the greatest No Gi grappler right now, Gordon Ryan, has been open about considering Marcelo Garcia to be one of the greatest in the sport and his Danaher Death Squad teammmate and new Evolve MMA BJJ Instructor, Robert Degle, is actually the one who put together the above video.
