Nicolas Renier

Nicolas Jean-Paul Renier is a Frenchman with Brazil in his fighting style. He started luta livre in 2001 under Flávio Peroba in Rio de Janeiro and became a black belt in luta livre and in jiu-jitsu. In grappling he was one of Europe’s leading names of his generation: he won four European ADCC trials and competed at the ADCC World Championship six times, twice by invitation from organizer Mo Jassim.

On the IBJJF circuit he won the European No-Gi title in 2014, still a brown belt, and, at black belt, took bronze at the 2017 No-Gi Pans. In 2023 he returned to competition at master 2 and was European No-Gi runner-up at middleweight, with bronze in the absolute. That same year he trained with Melqui Galvão’s team alongside Mica Galvão.

In pro events he fought twice at ADXC in Paris, losing to Geovanny Martinez in 2024 and to Piter Frank in 2025, both by submission.

Off the mat he built one of the biggest grappling gym networks in France. In 2023 NR Fight had three academies of its own and about 35 affiliates around the world, 25 of them in France, with more than 2,500 students. Renier also produced the 12-episode documentary “Luta Livre Spirit” in 2014 and became one of grappling’s most-followed content creators.

He told VF Comunica that athletes need to plan for life after competition and invest in themselves, and he summed up his goal for 2024: “My focus this year is to make it work in digital.”