Craig Jones opens fire on Nicholas Meregali for allegedly having a teenage girlfriend

There's clearly no love lost between Craig Jones and Nicholas Meregali, but Jones has now found a new angle by revealing that Meregali reportedly has a teenage girlfriend. The two men didn't have a particularly long rivalry and in fact didn't even recognize each other for the majority of their careers. It all started when they met on the mats in the semi-finals of the under-99kg division at ADCC 2022, where Jones won a judge's decision and advanced to the final. Since then, they have exchanged several times on social media, but to this day, this is still the only time they have clashed.

A rematch was booked for a Who's Number One event in early 2023, but unfortunately for fans around the world and for Meregali himself, it never came to fruition. The rematch was initially postponed, but well over a year after it was supposed to take place, it still has not been rescheduled. Given that Meregali is 30 and Jones is 32; the longer the rematch is not booked, the less likely it is to take place. That didn't stop them from clashing on social media, and this latest example in particular caused quite a stir.

Craig Jones initially highlighted the fact that Nicholas Meregali allegedly had a teenage girlfriend in a recent post on his official Instagram account. He shared the story of Meregali and then made the following statement:

“Well, well, what do we have here? Mr. “authenticity has a price” celebrating the birthday of his young mature friend, a 19 year old teenager. What is happening?!”

It is of course worth remembering that the legal age of consent in the United States varies from 16 to 18 years old depending on the state. Given that Meregali celebrated his apparent girlfriend turning 19, nothing in the original story suggested anything illegal had taken place. Jones then shared this same message in his story with a rather disturbing statement:

It didn't take long for Jones to reveal what he was referring to, as he quickly followed up with two more stories highlighting some of Meregali's activities on his alleged girlfriend's social media accounts:

Jones is known for his witty sense of humor and he has also included Kendrick Lamar's “Not Like Us” in his Instagram Stories, most notably in the phrase “Hey Drake, I heard you like them young.”. The deduction was pretty obvious, but Jones didn't stop there either. He also made several comments on his original post during the same period and one of them read:

“Where do you find these young adults of 18 years old? High school? Sit over there.

This is most likely another reference, this time to NBC's “To Catch A Predator,” where host Chris Hansen would say what has become his catch phase. “Why don’t you sit over there.” » when he encountered someone talking online to adults posing as minor children. The inferences Jones was trying to make were pretty clear and knowing what he looks like, this probably won't be the last time he brings up his alleged teenage girlfriend when he embarks on a relationship with Nicholas Meregali.