Legendary masters division competitor Wellington ‘Megaton’ Dias has just joined an elite group of BJJ practitioners as he has been promoted to coral belt by his long-time instructor and ADCC Hall of Famer Royler Gracie. Dias is one of the most frequent competitors in the older age brackets and is a regular fixture at the masters world championships among other events. This wasn’t always the way however, and Dias was once a top competitor in the adult division during the peak of his career.
He has stayed with the same instructor for virtually his entire life and has always competed under Gracie Humaita. Dias started out as Judo competitor before he became friends with Royler Gracie as the former was cross-training in his youth. Gracie encouraged Dias to join him in BJJ and the rest, as they say, is history. Dias would go on to receive his black belt in BJJ from Royler Gracie at the age of 18 in 1985. Dias was an elite grappler back in a time when there was very few opportunities for competition, but that didn’t stop him from beating some of the best around even as he grew older.
Dias managed to reach the podium of the IBJJF world championships in the adult division several times in the late 90s and early 2000s, along with winning the Pan-ams twice and the European championship three times. He is the one face that you will always see at the IBJJF world championships as he has competed at the event in either the adult or masters division well over twenty times since it’s inception in 1996, and has won gold countless times. Not only this, but Dias is also the proud father of one of the greatest female Jiu-jitsu competitors of all time; UFC veteran Mackenzie Dern.
The news of Wellington ‘Megaton’ Dias being promoted to coral belt in BJJ was announced by him in a post to his official Instagram account:
