Bryce Meredith has given talent evaluators every reason to believe he can develop into a bantamweight contender for Bellator MMA and the Professional Fighters League.
As Meredith makes final preparations for his looming confrontation with the once-beaten MaCalolooy, here are five things you might not know about him:
1. Recruiters were forced to take notice.
Meredith burst onto the national scene as a prep wrestler at Cheyenne Central High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he won four state championships and finished with a 123-8 record. He was recruited by schools all over the country but ultimately settled on North Carolina State University, more than 1,700 miles away from where he was raised.
2. He was always a Cowboy at heart.
After one season at North Carolina State, Meredith transferred to the University of Wyoming and blossomed into one of the best wrestlers in the nation. He won the Big 12 Conference championship at 141 pounds in 2018 and went on to become a three-time NCAA All-American and two-time national runner-up with the Cowboys. Meredith completed his stellar college career with 108 wins.
3. Full-contact fighting beckoned.
Meredith made the natural transition to mixed martial arts at the age of 25 and debuted under the Legacy Fighting Alliance banner with a first-round technical knockout of Steven Merrill on May 21, 2021. Finishes of Jay Viola and Nathan Fought followed in the LFA before he signed with Bellator in 2023.
4. He could not ask for a more capable inner circle.
“Misfit” operates out of the MMA Lab, where he trains under coach John Crouch. The Glendale, Arizona, gym has offered Meredith daily access to a host of world-class stablemates, including current Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight titleholder Sean O’Malley and former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson.
5. Athleticism runs in his DNA.
Meredith’s sisters both played soccer at the collegiate level, Ciara at Colorado Christian University and Faith at Colorado State University-Pueblo.