The Guard of Nicholas Meregali
Photo Credit: Luca Atalla / Gallerr
Watching Nicholas Meregali compete is truly a sight to behold. In a sport that espouses the idea that the martial artist should be in complete control of their emotions in a zen-like state, Meregali flouts convention and in turn feeds off of an unmatched intensity that few can withstand. While even the most heralded of competitors are chastised by a large portion of fans for playing the points system or sneaking by on the strength of advantages, Meregali’s submission-oriented style has even garnered praise from Gordon Ryan, a man who regularly demeans the skill level of his fellow competitors.
At twenty-six years of age, Meregali’s accomplishments are numerous. Even before his entry into the black belt division Meregali was a force, coming a match away from completing the Double Grand Slam at purple belt, or winning his weight class and absolute division at each of the four majors, only to be stopped by one of the greatest submissions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu history.
Edwin Najmi, a Gracie Barra blackbelt and ACBJJ Lightweight Grand Prix Champion, known for his prodigious ability to hit the flying triangle finished Meregali in the opening salvo of their bout at the IBJJF World Championships.
While a humiliating ending to such an extraordinary campaign would have derailed many a competitor, Meregali rebounded by capturing both the weight and absolute title in his next two campaigns at both the purple and brown belt level. Promoted to black belt status in 2017, “Alemão” solidified himself as one of the faces of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu when he defeated Leandro Lo, capturing gold in the heavyweight division at the 2017 IBJJF World Championships.
Meregali’s brilliance lies predominantly in his open guard, which is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous in the sport. To open most matches, Meregali looks to immediately pull into the De La Riva position so that he can start to set up his grips namely on the collar and on the sleeve. A true gi player, Meregali’s bottom game is almost wholly reliant on obtaining a cross collar grip, typically gripping the left collar of his opponent. By initial seizing the De La Riva position with the cross collar grip, Meregali is able to control the posture of his opponent, while monitoring the near side arm of his opponent. This is the crux of Meregali’s game as his strategy is to attack his opponents when their elbow is away from their body.
The grip on Meregali’s chest opens Aly up for attack as his elbow is disconnected from his hip, allowing for a triangle or an omoplata. To attack however, Meregali must break the grip Aly has on his far side pant leg. To do this, Meregali grips the ankle of Aly, switches his hips, and pulls on Aly’s collar to unbalance the former IBJJF World Champion, all the while using his De La Rive hook to push Aly, until he is forced to relinquish his grip and post on the mat, at which point Meregali shoots the for triangle.
While Meregali is proficient at using the standard De La Riva guard to attack his opponents, the real beauty of the position is that it allows Meregali to locate and grip his opponent’s sleeve, as Meregali is really looking for the collar sleeve guard or the deep De La Riva X. Once Meregali has control of either one of these positions, it is almost impossible for opponents to escape without being swept, or submitted. Meregali’s favorite attack from the collar-sleeve is the omoplata, as once his opponent’s sleeve is controlled, Meregali can pull their elbow away from their body, opening the attacking sequence as he can now fit his leg through the recently vacated space.
Against Felipe Andrew, the number one ranked IBJJF athlete in 2020, Meregali has control of the sleeve on the opposite side of the De La Riva. Andrew is standing upright to prevent Meregali from gripping his collar which would allow Meregali to break his posture and therefore preventing Meregali from forcing the elbow to open via a grip or a post. To attack, Meregali goes for a variation of the “idiot sweep”, which is when you cross both of your legs around an upright opponent’s legs and therefore forces Andrew to post, breaking his posture momentarily and allowing Meregali to grip the collar. Once the collar sleeve guard is established, Meregali steps on the far side bicep while pulling on the sleeve to extend the elbow, displacing it away from Andrew’s body and opening the entry to the omoplata. The omoplata forces Andrew to roll, giving Meregali top position, and eventually the back as Andrew attempts to scramble away.
Once again, Aly keeps his elbow out against Meregali, allowing the opening for the omoplata. This time however, instead of of forcing the roll, Meregali uses his inside leg to cup the inside of Aly’s far side knee, collapsing Aly into himself, allowing Meregali to attack the armbar, and then the back in a truly amazing sequence.
With the threat of the collar-sleeve being so dangerous, opponents will often try to opt out of dealing with the position in a few ways. When Meregali enters the De La Riva position, some will try to stand tall to prevent the collar grip and try to break the De La Riva grip. Meregali’s answer to this conundrum is to shoot for the deep De La Riva X position by shooting the De La Riva leg in between his opponent’s legs and cupping the outside of his opponent’s hip with the top of his foot. Meregali then rocks onto his shoulder, extending his legs to force the opponent to post forward. This movement often allows for Meregali to either take the back directly or to come up on a single leg takedown where he often looks to shuck to the back and obtain his hooks.
All of these attacks come from when Meregali is firmly in control of the tempo of the match, as he is usually controlling his opponent’s posture, or his opponents are so defensive about his gripping strategy that they are rendered passive. In the cases where his opponent is able to prevent him from obtaining his preferred grips, Meregali looks to reaffirm his control on the tempo of the match by switching to the lasso guard, or looping one of his opponents arms around his leg. This position is vital to all open guard players and especially to Meregali because it allows him to be defensively sound, as the lasso prevents opponents from throwing his legs to one side, stopping bullfighter and toreando passing while discouraging smash passing as he can maintain the required distance.
Meregali throws in the lasso as Henrique attempts to use the bullfighter pass by flattening Meregali’s hips to the mat, the main component of all pressure passing. The lasso not only keeps Meregali’s hips up but gives Meregali a barrier, to prevent Henrique from passing.
When using the lasso Meregali prefers to use the deep lasso, or going shin deep with the lasso with the top of the foot usually residing on the back of his opponent, as this continuously breaks down his opponent’s posture. Once established, Meregali almost always looks to transition the lasso so that it cups his opponent’s backside in order to launch into his namesake sweep.
Here, Erberth Santos starts in the combat stance position. Meregali looks to initially off balance him by inserting a De La Riva hook while extending his far side leg up and turning Santos’s sleeves, similar to a Romulo Barral style sweep covered in an earlier article. This forces Santos to stand and back away from Meregali which plays directly into Meregali’s preferred range of attack. Meregali then switches to double sleeve control with a lasso on Santos’ the left side. As Santos is hunched forward to hide his hips, Meregali must find a way to close the distance so that his lasso will reach Santos’s backside. He does this by inserting a De La Riva hook as he shoots the lasso in, contracting the distance between the two athletes. From there, Meregali plants the De La Riva foot on the mat while kicking up and pulling Santos’ sleeves inward to complete the sweep and obtain top position.
With the option of passing Meregali from a distance being a low percentage proposition, some attempt to pass low against the two time World Champion, favoring either the double under or over-under pass. While this prevents Meregali from using his vast array of sweeps and submissions he has cultivated using open guards, the collar grip has a built in failsafe, the loop choke. The loop choke is a gi variant of a guillotine as it is finished when an athlete uses the wrist of the collar grip arm to trace the neck of the opponent while using their free forearm arm to push down on the back of their opponent’s head to create pressure. This technique works so well for Meregali because of the constant pressure he puts on his opponents with triangle and omoplata attempts. Both of these submissions become far more difficult to escape once the posture of the opponent is broken, so opponents are always either consciously or subconsciously keeping their head up against Meregali which in turn, opens up the threat of the loop choke.
Once he sweeps his opponent or obtains a dominant position off of a submission attempt, Meregali has a one track mind, obtain his opponent’s back. Often the deep De La Riva X position is once again his preferred method of attack as he is able to stretch his opponent by compromising their base so that the are no longer able to maintain their balance when Meregali starts chasing the back. This has resulted in the double collar choke, his favorite back attack, accounting for 41% of Meregali’s submission wins at black belt, according to BJJ Heroes.
In his most infamous victory, one that got him booed out to the building at Brasileiros, Meregali uses the Deep De La Riva X to widen Kaynan’s base. Kaynan is then forced to post which allows Meregali to put enough weight forward to create the necessary space required to let Meregali to jump to the back, insert his hooks, and finish with his patented double collar choke. Meregali is able to put enough pressure to force the submission once he gets the leg on the same side as the choking arm over Kaynan’s shoulder. Meregali then exclaims in Portuguese that “I’m the King of the shit!”
Those who follow me on twitter know that Nicholas Meregali is one of my favorite athletes to watch in all of combat sports as he exemplifies why I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He has a clear system and method for why and when he attacks that is in a somewhat simple to follow, all the while having a fan friendly style that is extremely rare for gi jiu-jitsu. For an athlete to almost disdainfully ignore one of the core tenants of the sport, in its point system and still time after time come out victorious is extremely rare even more so while submitting the vast majority of his elite black belt level opposition. At only 26, Meregali has a ton of time left in the sport and it will be a pleasure to see how he adjusts his game in the future as he continues to prove that he is one of the best in the world.