WNO 12 just finished and I have to say this was a very good event. The most boring match ended in a submission, so I can't complain about it. There were also a lot of new people showcased and many of them showed why they deserved to be on WNO and I'm hoping to see many of them again. Unfortunately the 2 matches featuring the Musumecis were cancelled, however that didn't stop this event from being great.
How people won
This was a great event for submissions. 62.5% of the matches ended in submission and many of them were quick subs that happened within 5 min. The neck was the most common target and this seems to be the case over all the no-gi events I covered. That said this event was very balanced and we saw people going after arm locks, leg locks and chokes, without much bias towards one or the other. Even the decisions were pretty good with people trying to move forward and attempt actual techniques.
I thought I should note that Gordon Ryan submitted Jacob Couch from the mount with what looked to be pressure, so I added that to the neck category.
Results
David Garmo def Benji Silva via Dec
Luke Griffith def Joe Dierkhising via RNC
Sophia Cassella def Jessica Crane via Inside heel hook
Keith Krakorian def Gabriel Souza via Dec
Hassim Rida def Elder Cruz via RNC
Nicholas Meregali def Arnaldo Miadana via Armbar
Mica Galvao def Dante Leon via Dec
Gordon Ryan def Jacob Couch via Pressure
Trends
This WNO seemed to go against some of the trends I've been seeing recently in other events. There were fewer leg locks than usual and it seemed like people were less interested in them. A few people were hunting for them, but overall many people were playing a more traditional passing style game.
Wrestling was still very important and helped a lot of people win their matches. Both Griffin and Rida used the wrestling skills to set up their submissions and most likely would have had trouble using a more traditional approach. This year we've seen many people catch their opponents in the transition from wrestling to submission. On the other side, Meragali's match showed the importance of wrestling and how a lack of it can really limit your ability and stifle your BJJ.
Surprisingly there was a return to people laying on their backs playing guard. I thought more people would be sitting and wrestling up, but many were happy to attempt to sweep and submit in a more traditional manor.
I'm not sure if this event is really indicative of actual no-gi trends or more of a reflection of the athletes involved. The one trend that I would like to see continue from this event is exciting matches where people actually move and try to attack each other with submissions.
What to watch for in each match
Benji Silva vs David Garmo - This match didn't have too much going on and it seemed like they mostly cancelled each other out. Garmo almost hit and unusual triangle to K-guard, but besides that it was uneventful.
Joe Dierkhising vs Luke Griffith - I'd never heard of Griffith before this, but this was his comming out party. This match was short, but sweet. Check out the wrestle up from RDLR and then the single leg to the back.
Sophia Cassella vs Jessica Crane - This was the shortest female match in WNO history. Not much to say, just watch it.
Keith Krakorian vs Gabriel Souza - This was a great back and forth match. Watch Souza's passing attempts and defense. Souza almost passed to north-south multiple times and showed some interesting modern ways to pass. Watch Keith's relentless attacks and leg entries.
Elder Cruz vs Hassim Rida - Watch the takedown defense into the back take by Rida. It was executed quickly and flawlessly.
Nicholas Meregali vs Arnaldo Miadana - Watch the finishing sequence to see how Meregali hits the armbar.
Dante Leon vs Mica Galvao - Dante's takedowns looked really good and he improved his setups for them. He also showed how you can avoid the guillotine while going for them. Mica showed his diving crab ride again and his smooth transition into the armbar. That diving crabride is a really amazing technique and I hope I can add that to my game.
Gordon Ryan vs Jacob Couch - Check out Gordon's pressure passing and just top pressure. He really puts on a side control and mount clinic here and shows how to extract your leg from 3/4 mount as well as isolate arms for submissions.
Matches To Make Afterwards
This WNO helped bring a few new names into the WNO roster. I'd love to see Luke Griffith again and I hope they find a good match up for him. I believe Roosevelt Souza said he wanted to get onto WNO and I think he would be a good opponent for Griffith.
Sophia Cassella also looked amazing. Perhaps a match against Jessa Khan or Alex Nguyen would be good. She has a great style for WNO, but I think she needs time to develop and not get thrown into the deep end too soon.
Rida wants a title shot, but I'm not sure a which weight. At heavyweight I think there are too many people in front of him, but at light-heavy weight, a title shot against Pedro Marino might be interesting.
The hardest person to match up is Nicholas Meregali. He won his match and he's such a big name you can't give him a purple belt nobody has heard of before, but he didn't look that great in his debut. We didn't actually get to see much of what he could do on the ground, so his actual level of no-gi grappling is still somewhat of a question mark. Perhaps someone else that doesn't have much no-gi experience would make for a fair and interesting match.
Overall
This was one of the best WNO cards I've seen and I was happy it lived up to expectations. With the Musumecis pulling out there was a risk of the card being terrible, but all of the fighters went out and made this a good event. I know other might disagree, but I liked that they brought in some new blood and I like to see some different faces. Due to the world wide pandemic the amount of grapplers has been limited and we've seen some of the same people be used repeatedly. I like most of these grapplers, but at some point you run out of match ups and I was happy to see people like Keith Krakorian, Luke Griffin and Sophia Cassella added. They all looked good and now there are more potential match ups available.
I think the Gordon match turned out the way most people thought it would and we got to see Meregali's no-gi debut. To be honest I think he looked kind of rough out there, but he's only been at it a short time and he did manage to win. Hopefully next time he'll be more polished and show the type of technique he's known for in the gi.
Year to Date Stats
Since this event only had 8 matches there wasn't too much change, but you can see here how things are going this year. I wasn't sure what Gordon Ryan won with, so I put it down as pressure.
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