5 Things To Know About ONE Championship’s New BJJ Superstar Meyram Maquine Alves
The highly anticipated arrival of Meyram Maquine Alves in ONE Championship’s submission grappling shark tank has generated tremendous excitement among martial arts fans worldwide.
The 25-year-old Brazilian phenom makes his promotional debut against Ruan Alvarenga in a high-stakes featherweight submission grappling contest at ONE Fight Night 46 on Prime Video. The event goes down live in U.S. primetime on Friday, August 14, from the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
A two-time IBJJF World Champion boasting a staggering 135-16 professional record, Alves is widely considered one of the most decorated and dynamic grapplers of his generation. His debut, however, carries immense personal weight. Alvarenga handed him a bitter defeat outside the promotion in 2025, and the Guigo JJ standout is dead-set on exacting his ultimate revenge.
Before he attempts to even the score on the global stage, here are five things to know about one of the promotion’s most compelling new faces.
#1 Capoeira Came First
Meyram Maquine Alves did not begin his martial arts journey in “the gentle art.” His father, a dedicated capoeira and BJJ enthusiast, first introduced him to the Afro-Brazilian art — which blends combat, acrobatics, dance, and music — at just five years old.
Long before complex submissions entered the picture, Alves was actively developing fluid footwork, exceptional body awareness, and an instinctive feel for reading and manipulating space.
Those elusive qualities are not easily taught on a mat. They are deeply absorbed through years of rhythmic movement, meaning Alves had a massive head start that most traditional grapplers never get. The dynamic flow of capoeira permanently seeped into his grappling game, giving him a creative, unpredictable edge that still defines his aggressive style today.
#2 A Prodigy Forged By The Right Hands
Raw talent gets an athlete noticed, but the absolute right mentor makes them truly elite.
Alves was born and raised in Manaus, a city nestled deep in the Amazon and famously known as one of Brazil’s most fertile martial arts hotbeds. His first coach, Alcenor Alves, quickly recognized his limitless potential and pushed the young prodigy toward a much bigger stage.
That critical recommendation led directly to an athletic scholarship with the prestigious Guigo JJ in São Paulo, where Alves came under the expert tutelage of esteemed coach Luiz “Guigo” Guilherme. At just 15, he made his first international training camp in Maryland, USA, with Team Lloyd Irvin, gaining invaluable exposure at a highly formative age.
Guigo officially promoted him to black belt in 2020, and by the time it was tied around his waist, Alves was already one of the most decorated young grapplers in Brazil. IBJJF World Championships, Pan American titles, and South American Championships followed, rapidly accumulating across grappling’s grandest stages.
#3 He Matched Royler Gracie’s 27-Year-Old Record
Some historical records stand for decades because they seem genuinely untouchable, but Alves boldly had other ideas.
He claimed his first IBJJF World Championship in 2022, emphatically winning the 64-kilogram division with a hard-fought final victory over Diego Oliveira. Two years later, he repeated the feat, dominating a stacked 70-kilogram field before finishing Ademir Barreto by a choke from the back in the final.
Then came his most audacious performance yet in the absolutes. Competing against significantly larger opponents, Alves defeated Angelo Claiborne and Roberto Jimenez before falling to Jansen Gomes in the semifinal.
The bronze medal he claimed matched Royler Gracie’s 27-year-old record as the lightest athlete to ever reach the absolute podium at the IBJJF World Championships. Matching any part of the Gracie legacy is no small thing. The record speaks not just to Alves’s technical brilliance, but also to his refusal to back down from anyone.
#4 He Is A Submission Hunter Of The Highest Order
ONE’s fast-paced, submission-only format handsomely rewards athletes who relentlessly pursue the finish, and it appears Alves was custom-built for this exact ruleset.
Of his 135 career victories, a staggering 68 have come by submission. His most devastating weapons are chokes from the back, which account for 43 of those clinical finishes.
The 25-year-old hunts the back with methodical patience, using suffocating top control to systematically cut off every single exit. When desperate opponents defend their necks, they inevitably expose their arms — and Alves punishes that exact mistake with equal efficiency, having secured 26 armbar finishes across his illustrious career.
In ONE’s format, he will have every bit of the 10-minute opportunity to hunt the highlight-reel finish he wants. When he finally gets his hooks in, the record clearly shows what comes next.
#5 He Holds Victories Over Some Of ONE’s Finest
Even before officially stepping onto the global stage, Alves had already shared the mat with some of ONE’s biggest names.
Fellow Manaus native Fabricio “Hokage” Andrey has been a recurring rival, with impressive wins traded on both sides of a fiercely contested rivalry, including a notable victory for Alves at the Spyder Korea Grand Prix in 2023. At BJJ Stars 18 in 2025, he earned a clean, dominant points victory against ONE featherweight submission grappling standout Owen Jones.
The biggest name on his resume, however, is reigning ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion Diogo “Baby Shark” Reis. The two phenoms have met multiple times across the years. At BJJ Stars 15 in 2025, Alves delivered his most dominant statement yet, cleanly outpointing Reis in the gi.
Those massive victories speak not of a newcomer trying to find his footing, but of a seasoned competitor already rigorously tested by the very best on the planet. On August 14, he finally gets to showcase that elite pedigree on martial arts’ grandest stage against Alvarenga.
