Naza Malegarie is a decorated Argentinian grappler turned mixed martial artist who currently is signed by Bellator. He started learning Judo and Tae Kwon Do from a very early age. He won the Argentina national Judo championship when he was 13 and 14. His love of martial arts continued when his family moved to Brazil in 2001. By 2004, he was able to win the Brazilian National BJJ championship in the blue belt division at the age of 17. He later earned his BJJ black belt and made his MMA debut in 2007 at the urging of his training partner and UFC veteran Thiago Tavares. 

His early career was fought primarily in Brazil and Peurto Rico. He was able to achieve a record of 19-0 on the South American circuit. Of this fights, he finished 12 of them by submission. Many of his fights were against opponents with winning records. Even with this high level of competition, he was able to win 9 fights in a 10 month timeframe between 2009 and 2010. 

His impressive record earned him a spot in Bellator's Season 4 Featherweight tournament. The fast paced fight say both fighters land many powerful strikes as well as takedowns. Strauss' strength helped him to defend the continual submission attempts from Malegarie. At the end of their Fight of the Night performance, Strauss was able to win the razor thin unanimous decision to move on in the tournament while Malegarie experience his first professional defeat.

His next fight was again in the opening round of a Featherweight tournament. This time it was the Summer Series 1 tournament and his opponent was Jacod Devree. This fight was less exciting than his last, although he used the same techniques. Devree was taken down serveral times but either defended the non stop submission attempts or attacked with his own. In the third round, Malegarie was finally able to secure a mounted guillotine choke to secure the victory and move on to the semifinals.

His semifinal opponent was the hard hitting Marlon Sandro. In a lopsided fight, Malegerie was unable to take his opponent down and suffered greatly on his feet. With his eye nearly closed after the first round, he continued to battle while taking increasing amounts of damage. He ultimately lost his second fight via decision and was again eliminated from the tournament.

Since his last tournament elimination, Malegarie won two fights by tko on the South American circuit. He will return to Bellator in the Season 7 featherweight tournament. His first opponent will be Radley Martinez