Nicholas Meregali- Leading BJJ Fighter of 2022

Nicholas Meregali is a well-known Black Belt BJJ player from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Meregali was a student of Jefferson Adan and later started training under Mario Reis. Meregali is famous for his infamous and lethal Omoplata attacks, X-guards, and his aggressive style of jiu-jitsu. Recently he started competing in No-Gi and dominated every single fight against more skilled and older opponents. He is the most famous and talented athlete in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul,

Meregali had been a prominent figure in colored belts ranks. He completed a Grand Slam as a Purple Belt in 2014. Meregali has earned Double Gold medals in important tournaments like the World Championship, Abu Dhabi World Pro, and Pan American Championships.

Nicholas Meregali started his Jiu-Jitsu training with his brother as his brother used to practice Jiu-Jitsu, at an academy situated in the same town. After training, he used to come home and show some movements to his siblings. At that time, Nicholas was just 13 years old. Just as children choose their careers by getting inspired by others, this sport also made him more curious. He joined the ACJJ academy in Santo Antonio when he was just sixteen years old.

Meregali started studying Agrochemical engineering, not because he was interested in this course but because at that time, he did not have any other courses to choose from, as there was only one college in the city. His Family put a lot of pressure on him to study and become a successful person in life. For instance, his parents used to say,

Meregali!, “ you should not be the person that does not study in life”.

Nicolas began training in Jiu-Jitsu at the age of 16 and won many titles along his Juvenile Belt journey, on the state level, in the Purple Belt category. He became prominent when he started his training under Mario Reis, and many other fighters started to recognize him as the best fighter in the Colored Belt category in gi Jiu-Jitsu.

Meregali decided to leave Jiu-Jitsu after he lost in Abu Dhabi and got dishearted.

He stopped fighting and continued his education, but he resumed his training because he was in love with BJJ. It was his passion for BJJ, Meregali always liked doing it because he had been indulged in BJJ from the core.

According to Meregali's teacher:

“To be a man, one has to practice martial art.”

This was the motto that inspired Meregali to keep doing BJJ training.

Meregali left everything and resumed his BJJ training because it worthed a lot of money, money that will give him the lifestyle that he dreamt of while doing something he loved to do. So, he left everything behind and went to Abu Dhabi and became the Champion of his weight class. Meregali trained a lot and participated in Brasileiros. He loved to fight above his weight category.

Nicholas went to California to fight for the World Championship where he got the third position in his category. This incident broke his heart as he felt he had lost everything in life. Nicholas had been training for years and years for this event but his struggles did not get him the results that he was expecting. This was the time when Coach Mario consoled him and suggested that if he wants to be the Champion, he needs to move to Porto Alegre and train with a great team of champions.

Nicholas Meregali got an invitation from Mario to join the academy In Porto Alegre but he had no money to manage his expenses there.

But after some time Mario invited him and allowed him to reside in the gym without paying any fee. Only on this condition, he did agree and went there, he had to lead a difficult life there because he was living with limited resources as he had only a pillow and blanket to sleep on.

He was living a difficult life but at the same time, it was very enjoyable for him because he was training to become the best fighter in BJJ. As time passed, he had lots of friends around him because of his amazing learning capabilities and an elite orthodox approach towards BJJ in terms of practice and general outlook and practice.

He spent all his time training under the supervision of Mario Reis, who took him to the next level in competition. He won many titles as Purple and Brown Belt. After he was well-reputed as the best colored- belt in the world with the gi, he got his black belt in December 2016 from Mario Reis and Adan.

After receiving the Black Belt, Meregali earned some of the greatest achievements of his career as he won the World Jiu-Jitsu championship when he won against an opponent named Leandro Lo ( A well-known BJJ fighter). And next year, Meregali had a memorable victory in BNJJC.

Meregali was disqualified because he did show the middle finger to a spectator who was jeering him. This incident proved a great loss because he was already halfway to winning the Gold Medal in the absolute weight division.

In 2022, Meregali decided to make his transition to Nogi competitions. He had his debut fight against Arnaldo Maidana at WNO, he won the fight via armbar. Then he started training NoGi Jii-jitsu at the New Wave Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Texas under John Danaher. He prepared for the ADCC Championships and won a bronze and a silver medal in weight and absolute weight divisions. Later in 2023, he won WNO, IBJJF Grand Prix, and UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4 and 5.

This fight was among the best finals of the season. It was between the 2017 Heavyweight Champion and vs 2018 Super Heavyweight Champion. The match was played between Nicholas Meregali vs Mahamed Aly.

The match started and at the end of the first minute, Nicholas tried the triangle attack while switching from De La Riva to upper body attack and framing his favorite Omoplata. He successfully slipped his elbow from the attack of Meregali. Meregali applied the elbow attack from the ground but Mahamed Aly managed to escape from that, Meregali played another move and applied the triangle attack and hold it for some time and secured 2 points.

Mahamed Aly struggled to break the guard but until Mahamed Aly could manage to escape, MereGali Applied the back choke and got 4 points. Finally, the Fight ended with Mahamed Aly's submission when he could not survive the Bow and Arrow Cross Choke from Meregali.

The match was between Nicholas Meregali vs Greylor Grout in the Whos Next Finale. Both fighters played really well. Actually, it was Meregali's first No-Gi match. Meregali applied the Armbar attack (The Arms collected and chest on the face of the opponent) and then a splendid single-leg takedown. Both fighters had been struggling over that but Breylor managed to escape the position.

Again Breylor Grout is caught in the smash pass position and later into the control position and advances his hips higher. Meregali was struggling to win over his opponent but the slippery clothes were the reason that his opponent escaped every grip.

Again Meregali applied the third Armbar attack, with the legs over the head but he could not succeed. He had been dominant throughout but Breylor Grout executed lots of escapes. Finally, the fight ended with the Meregali victory when he applied the arm triangle choke from the back.

Marcus Almeida Vs Nicholas Meregali

Nicholas Meregali Vs Breylor Grout

Photo credit: @nicholasmeregali