Tezos WNO 20, known as the “Night of Champions,” lived up to its title with highlight reel worthy performances from some of the most dominant athletes in the jiu-jitsu world. Notably, on the women’s side of the card, we saw a hotly anticipated — and very evenly-matched — battle between ADCC silver medalist Brianna Ste-Marie, and Pans and Worlds gold medalist Elisabeth Clay. Both women have had tremendously dominant years, with Clay most notably turning heads by submitting arguable current pound-for-pound great Ffion Davies and defeating ADCC queen Amy Campo to win $20,000 in a talent-stacked women’s Grand Prix.
While Ste-Marie started strong — smoothly evading Elisabeth Clay’s famously deadly leg entanglement to attack Clay’s back, and earning the judges’ favor at the midway point of the match — Clay rallied in the second half, after a sweep that put Ste-Marie on her back. With gravity and a solid pressure passing system on her side, Clay was able to attack the ADCC silver medalist relentlessly from top half guard. Clay’s comeback won the judges’ favor, earning her the women’s WNO featherweight belt.
Meanwhile, the men’s brackets saw a standout performance from Mica Galvão, who nearly snapped off the arm of B-Team’s Jay Rodriguez and positionally dominated to win the judges’ decision, before landing a spectacular flying armbar on PJ Barch in the finals to claim the WNO welterweight title. A special mention should be made here for Andrew Tackett, who also won in dominant and exciting fashion against Barch before being unfortunately forced to withdraw from the final due to injury.
Diogo “Baby Shark” Reis also had a very good night, taking home the WNO men’s featherweight title after taking the judge’s decision in an exhaustingly athletic and very wrestling-heavy opening scrap with 10th Planet star Keith Krikorian, before a dominant performance against Gabriel Sousa in the finals.
Finally, in the main event of the evening, Gordon Ryan made good on his prediction to defeat Patrick Gaudio by armbar — mystery box gimmick and all.
Full Main Card Results
Gordon Ryan def. Patrick Gaudio (submission, armbar)
Elisabeth Clay def. Brianna Ste-Marie (referee decision)
Nathiely de Jesus def. Rafaela Guedes (referee decision)
Rafael Lovato def. Riccardo Evangelista (submission, triangle choke)
Mica Galvão def. PJ Barch (submission, flying armbar)
Andrew Tackett def. PJ Barch (referee decision)
Mica Galvão def. Jay Rodriguez (referee decision)
Diogo Reis def. Gabriel Sousa (referee decision)
Gabriel Sousa def. Ash Williams (submission, kneebar)
Diogo Reis def. Keith Krikorian (referee decision)
