What we learned from WNO 17 Meregali vs Marinho

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 WNO is finally back and we got a gi main event for the first time in a long time. I'm always worried about gi matches on professional shows, but this match was great and showed that there are people who can deliver good entertaining matches in the gi. Anyway let's get into it. 


Results


Davis Asare def Nick Heflin via decision

Troy Russel def Austin Oranday via inside heelhook

Fransico Lo def William Tackett via decision

Dante Leon def Ruan Alvarenga via RNC

Izaak Michell def Jacob Couch via decision

Amanda "Tubby" Alequin def Alex Enriquez via decision

Rahael Lavato Jr. def Elder Cruz via RNC

Nicholas Meregali def Pedro Marinho via triangle




How People Won



There were 8 matches in total, but I only covered 7 for the sake of these stats. I'm not including gi stats just to keep everything accurate. During this event there were 3 submissions(4 if you count Meregali's triangle) and 4 decisions. Of course I'd like to see more submissions, but I don't feel like the ratio is too bad and the fights that went to decision were good. There were 2 chokes and 1 leg lock, but no arm submissions. Over the last few years I've seen this same trend in Nogi matches where chokes are the most common submission followed by leg attacks and then arm attacks. It is actually more surprising when things don't play out this way. 

One thing that doesn't really come through with stats is how good the matches were. I'd say most of the matches were really good. We got to see action, submission attempts and just generally good grappling. I was happy to see the athletes really go for it and take some risks. 



First up we have submissions. The RNC came out on top as always and the inside heelhook came in second. There were a lot of ankle lock attempts and it seems that recently they have become more popular in pro grappling. Unfortunately in this event nobody could finish one though. We also saw quite a few triangle attempts, which is a bit new. It seemed like they had fallen out of favor, but recently we have seen more people attempting and finishing them. In general it is good to see so many attempts at submissions, which shows people came to finish their opponents. 

 


The single leg and double leg tied for the most common takedown, however the double leg had a higher finishing percentage. There was quite the variety when it came to takedowns and it goes to show that going beyond just 1 or 2 type of takedowns can pay off. 




The hook sweep from butterfly guard proved to be number one at this event. All other sweeps only had 1 completion. It was a bit surprising to see a 50/50 sweep as they generally aren't used at sub only events. 



The smash pass was king here. This mostly came from Fransico Lo using it to escape the outside ashi position that William Tackett kept putting him in. It was a bit surprising that there were no half guard passes despite the fact that it was the most attempted pass. Most people seemed to want to force a backtake instead of pass, but we still got a few nice showings of top pressure. 

 



As you would expect the back was the #1 position. 50/50 managed to get a finish as well though. Other positions often lead to the back and were often used as transitory positions.


Overall

This was a pretty good event and it actually delivered more than I expected. To be honest I was worried that Lovato vs Cruz would be a bad match, but it turned out to be very good and the ending had everyone rooting for Lovato Jr. Meregali showed everyone that the gi can be a viable avenue for professional grappling and others on the card all delivered. There was talk from many of the competitors about wanting to fight for titles. I agree with them and one problem I think pro grappling has is that there are tons of belts that never get defended. Let's see both Lovato and Michell vs Marinho this year.

I'd been complaining about the lack of events this year, but I have to say I was happy with this event and I hope they continue this momentum with another event in July. 

Year to Date

These aren't much different from what we saw last week, but I thought I'd post them here for those that didn't read it.


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