Pedro Marinho defeated Rafael Lovato Jr. to retain his WNO light heavyweight title at Tezos WNO 21 in Austin, TX last night, earning his second successful title defense via unanimous decision in a back and forth match.

The match was cagey at points, with both athletes exchanging heavy collar ties and aggressively hand fighting, neither willing to concede top position. The deciding factor may have been two early takedowns secured by Marinho, which put him on top for brief segments of the match.

Lovato rallied back in the second phase of the match, leaning on Marinho and wearing him down, but Marinho re-asserted himself in the final phase, doing enough to maintain control of his title. He's now 3-0 in the light heavyweight division, with two wins in the 2023 season following his title-winning victory in early 2022.

Marinho was animated in calling for a match against Tye Ruotolo in his post match interview.

Watch the full event replay from Tezos WNO 21 here!

Mica Galvao stole the show with his submission victory over Kody Steele.

The welterweight champion successfully defended his title against MMA and WNO veteran Kody Steele in a battle that delivered on its promise to be full of wrestling exchanges.

Galvao secured the first takedown, a sasae tsurikomiashi foot trip straight into a guillotine. The guillotine was a theme of the match early; Mica attacked it often in the first ten minutes. Kody landed a few of his own near takedowns, but Mica showed more success keeping his opponent down, securing dominant positions, and threatening attacks. In the final moments of the match, Galvao landed a suplex from a front headlock, then established back control. There, he finished the match with a rear naked choke with less than two minutes remaining on the clock.

Mica is now 9-1 in his WNO career.

After the match, Mica called for a match with Nicky Ryan. Nicky joined Mica on the match and accepted the match on the spot. It is scheduled to take place during the first WNO of the 2024 season on Feb. 9 in Costa Mesa, CA.

Diego Pato took the featherweight title off an injured Diogo Reis.

Diogo Reis was injured in a late exchange in his first featherweight title defense against Diego Pato, who had been leading most of the match through his aggressive leg lock attacks. As Reis tried to jump passed Pato's guard, he landed awkwardly on his leg, tweaking his knee and ending the match.

Diego Pato is the new WNO featherweight champion, now with a 3-1 record. In his post match interview, he called for a match with WNO lightweight champion Dante Leon.

Luke Griffith earned another rapid submission on WNO, defeating Roosevelt Sousa.

Griffith scored an inside heel hook victory over Sousa from 50-50 after outwrestling the Fight Sports representative on the feet. The submission came at 3 minutes 25 seconds into the match, making it Griffith's longest match in his WNO career. In his previous two matches, he tallied two of the fastest submission wins in the event's history: a heel hook win over Haisam Rida in 24 seconds and a rear naked choke win over Joe Dierkhising in 87 seconds.

Griffith is now 3-0 on WNO with a 100-percent submission rate. He called for a match against no.2-ranked Craig Jones in his post match interview.

Tainan Dalpra was flawless in his no-gi debut, earning a quick submission over Troy Russell.

The two-time IBJJF world champion showed off a bit of his wrestling, taking the match to the mat where he proceeded to the mount for an armbar victory. Dalpra had not competed in no-gi since he was a juvenile blue belt. In the gi he has compiled a 70-1 record in IBJJF competiton, largely through his passing game and submissions from the back.

His wrestling game had hardly been seen, but he was precise as ever in his takedown game, and played a mount game reminiscent of Gordon Ryan's.

After the match, Dalpra asked for a spot on the WNO 22 card on Feb. 9 in Costa Mesa, CA.

Giancarlo Bodoni won a wrestling stalemate over rival Lucas Barbosa which never made it to the mat.

Bodoni came in as a late replacement in a heavyweight match against Lucas 'Hulk' Barbosa, filling in for his teammate Gordon Ryan who was injured in the final week of preparation. Bodoni and Hulk have had a long history; Hulk entered the match 4-2 over Bodoni, but Bodoni had a huge win by submission in their most recent meeting at ADCC 2022.

Both men played cautiously, exchanging little more than handfighting for 15 minutes. Bodoni got deep on a few shots and sent Hulk briefly to the mat with an early foot sweep. That was enough to convince the judges for a narrow victory.

Helena Crevar showed impressive pace from guard in her second win on WNO.

The 16-year old standout from New Wave defeated ADCC 2022 veteran Julia Maele in her return to the WNO stage. Unlike in her debut, Crevar went the duration on WNO 21. In the first half of the match, she aggressively attacked leg entanglements from all angles, before finally establishing top control, where she worked for submissions from mount to no avail.

Crevar is now 2-0 on WNO, with a huge feather in her cap, defeating the 2022 ADCC European Trials champion, Maele.

In the night's prelims, Owen Jones defeated Dominic Mejia via unanimous decision and asked for a match with Gianni Grippo. 17-year old Mia Funegra had a standout performance in her armbar victory over Janice Russell and called for Jhenifer Aquino, an Atos black belt. Nick Mataya of B-Team hit a quick kimura on Bellator veteran Ian Butler. And Reese LaFever secured a decision win over 'The Giant Slayer,' Estevan Martinez.