Nicholas Meregali, known as "Alemão", is a Brazilian black belt from Rio Grande do Sul. He won three IBJJF World titles, including the 2022 absolute, and he reached the ADCC absolute final in 2022. After years with Alliance he joined John Danaher and Gordon Ryan at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu in 2022.
Background and lineage
Meregali began training at 16 at the ACJJ academy in Santo Antônio da Patrulha. He won IBJJF World titles at purple belt in 2014 and 2015 and at brown belt in 2016. In December 2016, Mario Reis and Jeferson Adan promoted him to black belt. BJJ Heroes traces his lineage through Sylvio Behring and Álvaro Barreto to Hélio Gracie. He competed for Alliance through the Dream Art project before moving to Austin to train under Danaher.
Competition highlights
- IBJJF World Championship: −94 kg gold in his first black belt year, 2017, beating Leandro Lo 2–0 in the final. He won −100 kg gold in 2019 and the absolute in 2022, along with bronzes in 2018 and silver at −100 kg in 2022.
- ADCC 2022: bronze at −99 kg after a semi-final loss to Craig Jones. In the absolute he beat Tye Ruotolo in the semi-final and lost the final to Yuri Simões.
- IBJJF Pans 2023: weight and absolute double gold, beating Erich Munis 11–0 in the absolute final.
- Other: BJJ Stars Grand Prix (2019), IBJJF Absolute Grand Prix (2023) and three CBJJ Brazilian National titles at black belt.
His one stain is the 2021 Worlds, where he was disqualified in the semi-final for showing a middle finger to a spectator.
Style and signature techniques
BJJ Heroes lists the lasso guard and De La Riva guard as his favourite techniques. Wikipedia highlights an inventive De La Riva game and his chokes from the back. His numbers are lopsided: 24 of his 62 submission wins on BJJ Heroes are chokes from back control. Armbars (8), triangles (7), loop chokes (6) and kimuras (5) make up most of the rest. In no-gi he has added a mounted triangle and an arm-triangle to that list.
Notable matches
- Leandro Lo, Worlds 2017 final: a 2–0 win over a multiple world champion.
- Mahamed Aly, Worlds 2019 final: a choke from the back for the −100 kg title.
- Kaynan Duarte, WNO 19 (2023): an arm-triangle finish over the ADCC champion.
- Felipe Pena, UFC Fight Pass Invitational 5 (2023): a rear naked choke.
- Michael Pixley, ADCC 2024: his first submission loss at black belt, which dislocated his shoulder and required surgery.