On Wednesday, Who’s Number One (WNO) returned to action with a card featuring three title matches and, in the main event, an exhibition match between Gordon Ryan and Philip Rowe. Ryan did what was expected, dominating Rowe and even letting him work in dominant position several times just to show an escape. And lower on the card Beatriz Mesauita, Ffion Davies, and Mikey Musumeci secured WNO championships.
In his first appearance since March of this year, Gordon Ryan submitted UFC welterweight Philip Rowe four times over the course of 15 minutes. Ryan used a variety of techniques, opening with a classic inside heel hook to establish dominance early. From there, he attacked from different positions, and gave up position on several occasions, allowing Rowe to take his back only to escape it.
In the women’s bantamweight title match, Beatriz Mesquita started slow but used her guard passing and top game to shut down Luiza Monteiro’s tricky open guard. Mesquita was able to solidify dominant position on a few occasions, giving her a clear-cut decision victory and the title.
Ireland’s Ffion Davies impressed in her WNO debut, earning the flyweight title in a wrestling-heavy affair against Nathalie “Tata” Ribeiro. Although Ribeiro held her own on the feet, Davies proved to be the superior takedown artist, and generally did the better work on the mat to win a clear but competitive decision.
Levi Jones-Leary showed that his berimbolo game can be adapted to no-gi, as he used an early back-take against WNO veteran Oliver Taza to set the tone of their match. Despite a handful of leg lock entries from Taza, Jones-Leary’s guard was simply too much, giving him a unanimous decision victory.
And rounding out the main card, Mikey Musumeci got back in the win column with a 51-second submission win over Richard Alarcon. Musumeci immediately sat to guard and quickly achieved a deep leg entry where he attacked a heel hook, earning the tap and the WNO bantamweight title.
