Nicholas Meregali is one of the best Jiu-Jitsu competitors on the planet, but he recently revealed some pretty huge plans for his life after he retires from the sport. He’s already established himself as one of the best gi competitors on the planet and has won every accolade in the sport under that ruleset. Although there isn’t anything left for him to win in the gi, he found a new challenge in 2022 when he made the transition to no gi competition. He then competed at ADCC 2022 and although he wasn’t able to add another title to his collection, he put on an incredible performance for someone who had only started doing no gi training shortly beforehand.
He went 3-1 in the under 99kg division and won a bronze medal, before going 3-1 in the absolute to earn a silver medal. He was recently asked about his goals over the next 10 years of his life and he was clear that he still has a few things left to achieve in the sport, and it wouldn’t be surprising if an ADCC gold medal is one of them:
“I have a few things that I want to do in life and Jiu-Jitsu is of course right now my priority so I’m still looking to become the athlete I know I’m capable of. So I have huge room to improve in so many different aspects in my career. Not only technical-wise but also branding, marketing, learning better how to do business. For the next, I would say 7 or 8 years, that is going to be my entire focus. Jiu-Jitsu, only Jiu-Jitsu.”
Everyone plans to retire from competition at some point and not many Jiu-Jitsu athletes are able to be financially secure in their life after retirement, but Nicholas Meregali believes he’s pretty close to reaching that point. He’s already been open about not competing in events that don’t offer enough pay and exposure to make it worth his time, and that attitude will set him up well for the future. He also has things to achieve during his life after competition too:
“So I run things besides that, in the business environment where I’m pretty much preparing myself to retire, financially speaking, pretty soon. This side of my life I’m as well running really well but for 10 years I would say it’s going to be after I’m retired from Jiu-Jitsu. My goal, it’s kind of insane but I know I can do that, and I know people laugh sometimes when I say this crazy idea. I want to join Hollywood at some point. I want to become an actor and challenge myself in different environments.”
He’s not wrong that the idea might sound crazy, but it’s not really all that unachievable. Nicholas Meregali will already have a good start to his plans thanks to the notoriety he’s gained from his Jiu-Jitsu career, so that alone might be enough to get his foot in the door. From there it’s just a matter of perfecting his craft and investing the time in learning, a process he’s already very familiar with. He already seems to have thought about how to achieve this goal too:
“There’s so many ways, I can either become so famous that people cannot deny me, I can become a good actor by learning how to (act), or I can maybe date some superstar, you know? Then I can join that world by dating someone who is famous in that world, and then end up creating connections and networking. The last option I think is the most accurate!”
Nicholas Meregali uploaded the video of him answering questions from his fans and outlining his plans for the future to his official YouTube channel:
