As 2021 winds down, Grappling Insider will be recognizing those athletes that made the biggest impact, had the best performances, and found the most success this year. The women’s no-gi scene in 2021 saw veterans surpassed by newcomers as a handful of high-level grapplers pulled ahead of the competition. When
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Newly-crowned Who’s Number One (WNO) heavyweight champion Tim Spriggs isn’t mincing his words in regards to Gordon Ryan. At the WNO Championships, Spriggs surprised many in the jiu-jitsu community when he defeated Haisam Rida, Tex Johnson, and Kaynan Duarte to capture the inaugural WNO heavyweight championship. In the audience for
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At the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships on September 25, Amande Leve shocked the jiu-jitsu world with a dominant decision victory over four-time ADCC champion Gabi Garcia. Garcia was not only heavily favored to defeat Leve, but also favored to win the eight-woman tournament. Leve would have none of it,
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At the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships, Amanda Leve scored one of the biggest upsets in jiu-jitsu history when she defeated Gabi Garcia by convincing decision in the first round of the women’s heavyweight tournament. The match was shocking not only because of the outcome, but also because of Leve’s
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At the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships, Tim Spriggs shocked the jiu-jitsu world when he defeated Haisam Rida, Tex Johnson, and — in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory — Kaynan Duarte to capture the WNO heavyweight title. Following his championship performance, Spriggs hinted at a potential match-up
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The Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships took place on September 25-26, and featured some of the best matches and submissions in jiu-jitsu this year. One of those submissions set the record for the fastest-ever submission in a WNO women’s match; that honor belongs to Amanda “Tubby” Alequin and her 42-second
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Less than one week before the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships, Pedigo Submission Fighting brown belt Jacob “The Hillbilly Hammer” Couch agreed to fill in for Pedro Marinho as a last-minute replacement in the middleweight division. The event featured many of the best grapplers in the world, and represented a
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At the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships, perhaps no competitor was more heavily-favored to win his division than heavyweight Kaynan Duarte. A 2019 ADCC world champion, the top Atos representative had lost just once in the past two years. Going into the finals of the WNO Championships, Duarte was a
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On Sunday, September 26, the Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships finals took place from Austin, TX. The finals were the culmination of five, eight-person brackets consisting of the best submission-only grapplers in the world. The quarterfinals and the semifinals were 15-minute submission-only matches, and the finals were 30-minute matches. View
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The Who’s Number One (WNO) Championships on September 25-26 will feature five eight-person brackets with many of the best grapplers in the world competing in 15-minute submission-only matches. In the days leading up to this event, Grappling Insider will be previewing each of the five divisions. View the men’s lightweight preview here,
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