Brown Belt standout from Worlds 2016- Nicholas Meregali has been chosen, by popular vote, as Leandro Lo challanger in round 1 of Copa Podio!
Mario Reis Brown Belt has his instructor’s full confidence:
“Nicholas suffers so much on the mat, it takes a true, out of the ordinary effort to achieve your goals. We work so that he is an impeccable fighter. Suffer, all black belts suffer, but always make it go a little further, because we have no limits, the brain keeps working and leads us to unimaginable places. Nicholas paid the price for being the champion he is and I see in that suffering something that I don’t see in most black belts so of course I have a lot of faith that he will make it on the Copa Podio victory podium.” – said Mario who was full of praise for Meregali
Mario continued:
“Giving a black belt to him would be a consequence of his work. I hope he reaches the same goals that he did as purple and brown. He didn’t have the visibility he deserved when he was the best purple belt of the world, as brown he’s done things that no other athlete had done.”
Copa Podio will take place July 9th in Buenos Aires, Argentina and 5x Champion Leandro Lo will try to defend against Meregali!
Another draw chosen by the public is Claudio Calasans v Erberth Santos. The remaining 8 competitors will be placed in one of two groups with a random draw. They are: Diego Borges, Dillon Danis, Dan Borovic, Victor Estima, Max Gimenez and John Combs.
Copa Podio rules dictate that athletes from each group fight each other in a round-robin format with different amounts of points awarded for different types of victory. 5 points are awarded for a submission victory while 3 points are for a victory on points, 2 for an advantage victory and just a single point for a draw.
From there the top 2 athletes from each group advance to the semi finals where the tournament assumes traditional elimination rules.
