Nicholas Meregali and Vagner Rocha will be now be meeting in the main event of Who’s Number One 23 on May 10th, 2024. It’s an unusual matchup given that Meregali has been unstoppable lately and likely have a pretty big size advantage over Rocha, but Rocha is known as a game opponent who will step up to face any challenge. The two men have never met on the mats before, but Rocha does have plenty of history with New Wave Jiu-Jitsu through Meregali’s teammates. He’s had tons of matches against John Danaher students over the years, with some of the dating back to long before Meregali actually joined the team.
Rocha holds a 1-2 record against Garry Tonon from between 2013 and 2017, alongside a pair of losses and a draw against Gordon Ryan from between 2017 and 2021. In recent years he’s enjoyed much more success against members of New Wave Jiu-Jitsu, including a win over Giancarlo Bodoni in 2021 that was less than a year before he became the ADCC world champion in their weight class. The two men didn’t meet at ADCC 2022 though, not until they actually stood on the podium together with Rocha taking home the bronze medal. His most recent performance against one of Meregali’s teammates was actually a huge upset though, as he beat Luke Griffith by decision at the first Pit Submission Series event.
This creates some interest around the match, as Vagner Rocha will get the opportunity get an even bigger win over New Wave Jiu-Jitsu and Nicholas Meregali will get the chance to beat another veteran. This isn’t the only match featuring a legendary competitor at WNO 23 either, as Rafael Lovato Jr will be taking on Felipe Pena. Two-time ADCC champion JT Torres will face Nicky Ryan as well, while there will also be a very interesting title-fight booked for the event too. Although it isn’t serving as the main event, there will undoubtedly be a lot of attention on Mica Galvao as he puts his welterweight title on the line against Tommy Langaker.
FloGrappling announced the news that Nicholas Meregali and Vagner Rocha would be meeting in the main event of Who’s Number One 23 in a recent post to their official Instagram account: