A pair of top ATOS brown belt competitors, Nicholas Maglicic and Matheus Menezes, have just been promoted to BJJ black belt by the affiliation’s founder and head coach Andre Galvao. It was a very busy belt promotion night at ATOS in fact as several coloured belt competitors reached the next level of their journey, while Ronaldo Junior was awarded the first degree on his black belt and JT Torres was awarded the fourth degree on his black belt.
Nicholas Maglicic and Matheus Menezes were the only two athletes promoted to black belt on the night though, and they’re joining a fantastic black belt team training at ATOS. They’re definitely ready for the highest level in competition too, with Maglicic in particular competing at the IBJJF World Championship 2023 and putting in an impresssive performance. He won a gold medal in the brown belt super-heavyweight division at the event, alongside his teammate Rafael Silveira who won gold in the brown belt middleweight division and got his promotion on the podium.
Although Menezes wasn’t able to win his division at the IBJJF World Championship this year, he did win gold at the IBJJF Pan Championship 2023 in a tough bracket of top prospects. Both men have established themselves as top competitors at the level they were competing at and although it can be hard to make that final step up in difficulty at black belt, they will both be ones to watch for the future. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re able to develop over the course of the next year, ready to return to the world championship and take on the best there is.
ATOS founder and head coach Andre Galvao announced the news that he had promoted both Nicholas Maglicic and Matheus Menezes to BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account: