Wellington “Megaton” Dias

Wellington “Megaton” Dias is 59, wears a coral belt and has been competing at the IBJJF Worlds since the first edition, in 1996. At that tournament, in Rio de Janeiro, he reached the light-featherweight final and took silver after losing to Helio “Soneca” Moreira. He made the adult black belt podium three more times, with bronze at lightweight in 1999 and at light-featherweight in 2001 and 2002, and won the Pans in 2000 and 2001.

Born in Rio on October 2, 1967, he started Jiu-Jitsu at age five and earned his black belt from Royler Gracie at Gracie Humaitá, the academy tied to Grand Master Helio Gracie. In the late 1980s he left Rio for Arizona and became one of the first Brazilians to teach the art in the United States, before the first UFC, in 1993, introduced Jiu-Jitsu to American audiences. His academy in Phoenix is still open. He teaches there alongside his wife, Luciana Dias, also a black belt, and it is where his daughter Mackenzie Dern grew up. She became a Jiu-Jitsu and ADCC world champion and now fights in the UFC.

His rank has never kept him out of the brackets. Megaton still enters the adult division and was back at the Worlds in 2026. A year earlier, the draw had matched him with multiple-time champion Andy Murasaki, of Atos, in his first match. Among the masters, the results keep coming: double gold at the 2025 International Masters North America, with five wins at Master 6, and, in September 2026, his 20th World Master title, won by submission at Master 7 lightweight. He says he was the first coral belt to complete the IBJJF Grand Slam.

In an interview with VF Comunica, he laughed as he recalled training with Rickson Gracie, his teacher’s older brother. “I hated training with Rickson Gracie,” he joked. “You can’t do anything. He smashes you from every side. You only get to do something if he lets you. It’s the same with Royler.” In the same conversation he talked about wanting a place in the Hall of Fame: “Anyone who spends 31 years on anything has to be recognized, because that’s a lifetime.” Another line became the title of a video on the channel: “I see myself dying on the mat.”