Nicholas Meregali was born on May 27, 1994, in Brazil, and found his way to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu through an unlikely source — his younger brother. After returning home from training sessions, his sibling would practice newly learned techniques on Nicholas, sparking a genuine fascination with the art. That curiosity became commitment when Meregali began training formally at age 16 at the ACJJ academy in Santo Antônio, under the guidance of instructor Jeferson Adan.

Adan recognized Meregali's aptitude early and provided the structure needed to channel it. State-level titles accumulated steadily, and Meregali announced himself on a broader stage by claiming a Brazilian National title at blue belt. By September 2013, his ambitions had outgrown his environment. Hungry for elite training partners and a more competition-focused atmosphere, he relocated to Porto Alegre — the capital of his home state — to pursue jiu-jitsu at full intensity.

In Porto Alegre, Meregali began training full-time under Mario Reis, one of the most accomplished competitors ever produced in the south of Brazil. The move proved transformative. Reis brought structure, experience, and elite training standards that accelerated Meregali's development at every belt level. Importantly, Meregali never severed ties with his roots — he continued visiting Jeferson Adan's academy regularly, honoring the relationship with the coach who first shaped him.

At purple belt, his dominance became unmistakable. Back-to-back IBJJF World Championship titles in 2014 and 2015 — both earned with double gold performances — established him as the best colored-belt gi competitor in the world. The run continued at brown belt, where he claimed another IBJJF World title with double gold in 2015 and repeated the feat in 2016, making him a five-time colored-belt world champion before ever reaching black belt. Across those years, he swept titles at the IBJJF Europeans, IBJJF Pan Championships, UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro, and CBJJ Brazilian Nationals at multiple belt levels, building one of the most decorated colored-belt resumes the sport had seen.

In December 2016, Mario Reis and Jeferson Adan jointly awarded Meregali his black belt — a ceremony that honored the contributions of both coaches to his formation as a competitor.

Meregali's transition to black belt produced no adjustment period. Competing under the Alliance banner, he arrived at the highest level of gi competition and immediately belonged there, claiming his first black belt IBJJF World Championship in 2017. The title confirmed what the colored belt years had telegraphed: Meregali was among the most gifted gi grapplers of his generation.

A bronze medal at the 2018 IBJJF Worlds represented a brief interruption before he reasserted himself in 2019, reclaiming the world title and adding the BJJ Stars Grand Prix that same year. CBJJ Brazilian Nationals titles in 2018, 2019, and 2022 further demonstrated his consistency across the competitive calendar.

The 2022 IBJJF World Championship marked a particular milestone. Meregali lost the heavyweight weight division final, earning silver in the weight class — but claimed gold in the Absolute division, his first Absolute title and his third overall black belt World Championship. That combination of achievement and adversity in a single tournament encapsulated much of what defines him as a competitor: relentless, submission-oriented, and capable of rising when the stakes are highest. His finishing rate across black belt competition — approximately 71% of matches ended by submission — reflects an aggressive identity that sets him apart even among elite-level athletes.

In 2022, Meregali made one of the most discussed moves in competitive jiu-jitsu: he relocated to Austin, Texas to train under John Danaher at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu. The decision was a deliberate pivot toward no-gi grappling, a discipline in which he had virtually no competitive history at the time. Training alongside partners that included Gordon Ryan, Meregali immersed himself in Danaher's analytical, systems-based approach to grappling.

He made his no-gi competitive debut at Who's Number One on March 25, 2022, submitting Arnaldo Maidana by armbar — a quiet first step that preceded a far louder arrival on the no-gi stage. Meregali credited Danaher's coaching with unlocking a new dimension in his game, noting that the structured environment produced improvements not only in no-gi, but in his gi performance as well.

Meregali has outlined four essential pillars for success in jiu-jitsu: mental strength, tactical awareness, technical skill, and physical conditioning. He acknowledged that his mental fortitude and technical ability were consistently strong throughout his career, but that tactical maturity and physical projection were qualities he developed later. Training under Danaher's system produced specific, measurable gains in grip control, tactical decision-making, positional dominance, and defensive positioning — elevating him from a gi specialist into a well-rounded dual-threat competitor.

When the 2022 ADCC World Championship arrived in September 2022, Meregali entered as a relative unknown in the no-gi tournament world. What followed was one of the most impressive debut performances in ADCC history, as he reached the podium twice — earning bronze in the -99kg weight division and advancing deep into the absolute bracket.

In the absolute division, Meregali navigated the bracket before reaching the semifinals, where he faced Craig Jones in a scoreless, tightly contested match that went the full duration and was decided by judges' decision in Jones' favor. That result placed Meregali in the absolute final against ADCC veteran Yuri Simões. After 15 minutes without a score, the referee's decision went against Meregali, leaving him with the absolute silver medal.

The double podium — bronze at -99kg and silver in the absolute — proved that Meregali's grappling genius was not format-dependent. It cemented his status as a dual-threat competitor capable of challenging the best no-gi athletes in the world, and validated the move to train under Danaher as one of the most consequential decisions of his career.

Following the 2022 IBJJF World Championship, Meregali announced a deliberate departure from the IBJJF competitive circuit in favor of professional superfights — a shift that positioned him in marquee matchups on the sport's biggest entertainment platforms.

The results were emphatic. He headlined WNO's first-ever gi match, submitting Pedro Marinho with a mounted triangle choke. At UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4, he faced Roberto Abreu — known as Cyborg — in a match that went to EBI overtime before Meregali secured the finish with an armbar. At WNO 19, he submitted arch-rival Kaynan Duarte by choke in a no-gi match, a result that carried particular weight given Duarte's standing in the no-gi world. He also claimed double gold at the 2023 Pan Jiu-Jitsu IBJJF Championship in both the weight and absolute divisions, and won the IBJJF Absolute GP 2023, demonstrating he could still dominate within the IBJJF format when he chose to enter.

The breadth of those performances earned Meregali the Male Grappler of the Year (Gi) award for 2023 from JitsMagazine — recognition that reflected both his competitive output and his enduring status as the standard-setter in gi grappling. Within New Wave Jiu-Jitsu, he embraced a senior role, helping newer team members develop within Danaher's analytical framework and contributing to the team's collective growth.

Meregali entered the 2024 ADCC World Championship as one of the favorites in the -99kg division. His quarterfinal match against Michael Pixley, however, produced one of the tournament's defining upsets. Pixley threw Meregali multiple times throughout the match before catching him in a D'arce choke — a result that stunned a field that had expected Meregali to advance deep into the bracket.

Beyond the loss, the match left lasting physical consequences. The throwing exchanges caused a severe shoulder injury: complete tears of both the anterior and posterior labrum, along with damage to multiple shoulder tendons. The injury required surgery and forced Meregali to withdraw from the absolute division entirely, ending his ADCC 2024 campaign before it could be salvaged.

In later reflection, Meregali characterized the loss as partly a product of overconfidence — a tactical error rather than a technical one. The recovery that followed was extensive. He underwent four total surgeries during his time away from competition: two procedures on the shoulder, plus separate operations on his knee and elbow. The full rehabilitation process kept him sidelined for approximately 17 months.

On February 12, 2026, Meregali returned to competition at UFC BJJ 5, facing Nicholas (Nico) Maglicic — his first match in approximately 17 months. The return marked the beginning of a new competitive chapter aligned with UFC BJJ, a promotion whose incentive-based, metrics-driven structure Meregali publicly praised as a model he found appealing. He clarified that his agreement with UFC BJJ is non-exclusive, confirming that the contract does not prevent him from competing in other organizations.

At the time of his return, Meregali walked around at approximately 220 lbs (100 kg), with plans to compete at the 205 lbs (93 kg) limit and in the above-205 lbs (93+ kg) division — both championship tiers he identified as targets. He outlined a schedule of approximately four competitions by late summer 2026, signaling a high-volume return after the extended layoff.

Meregali also used the platform of his return to share views on the broader competitive landscape. He criticized the Craig Jones Invitational for what he described as a divisive effect on the industry. Separately, UFC BJJ had begun discussions around anti-doping testing implementation in 2026, though the scope and specifics of the program remained undefined at the time of his return.

Meregali's approach to jiu-jitsu reflects a sophisticated self-awareness that has deepened throughout his career. He has spoken openly about being against anabolic steroids earlier in his career, and attributed some of his early losses to a lack of physical development — describing himself as "skinny and frail" during those formative years and acknowledging that opponents with superior physicality were able to exploit that gap.

His framework for success centers on four pillars: mental strength, tactical awareness, technical skill, and physical conditioning. Of those, Meregali considers his mental fortitude and technical ability to have been consistently elite from an early stage. What changed — and what he credits most to his time training under John Danaher — was the tactical and physical dimensions of his game. Danaher's structured system produced concrete improvements in grip control, tactical decision-making, positional dominance, and defensive positioning, transforming Meregali from a gi specialist into a well-rounded dual-threat competitor.

The ADCC 2024 shoulder injury, which Meregali openly attributed to a tactical error born of overconfidence, reflects the same analytical mindset. Rather than attributing the loss solely to circumstance, he accepted responsibility for the decision-making that led to it — a posture consistent with a competitor who views his own performance through a critical, improvement-oriented lens. That disposition, combined with a 71% submission finishing rate at black belt, defines Meregali's identity: technically precise, physically imposing, and relentlessly oriented toward the finish.