In a recent post-fight interview, Pedro Marinho sent shockwaves through the jiu-jitsu community when he called out Nicholas Meregali for a match. And it seems like his wish has been granted, as Meregali has verbally agreed to the showdown.
Marinho’s callout came hot on the heels of his dominant performance in the Who’s Number One light-heavyweight title defence against Giancarlo Bodoni. Ironically, the only reason Marinho and Bodoni were scheduled to fight was that Meregali’s match fell through.
After his impressive win, Marinho was asked for his thoughts on the fight, and he didn’t shy away from making his intentions clear:
“Never call me out. I’m somebody really tough in this game. I’ve been fighting the best for a while. So put some respect on my name.”
Pedro Marinho called out Bondoni’s Teammate
Marinho didn’t stop there. He went on to call out Meregali, who is actually Bodoni’s teammate at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu:
“I wanna face Meregali. I just got Bodoni, now I want to fight Meregali from New Wave.”
To his credit, Meregali wasted no time in responding to the challenge and seemed eager to take on Marinho:
“You deserved to make the call. Let’s do it, Flo have my number.”
Watch the clip on Flograpplings’ Instagram
It remains to be seen whether this highly anticipated matchup will take place in gi or no gi competition, but given that WNO has already made it clear that they have no interest in staging gi matches, it seems likely that it will be a no gi match.
One thing’s for sure, though: when these two titans of jiu-jitsu finally face off, it’s sure to be a clash of the titans. Fans of the sport won’t want to miss this one. A date has yet to be set as fans wait for further announcements.
