Hollywood Mike's WNO Match Rankings: Middleweight
Hollywood Mike's WNO Match Rankings: Middleweight
Professor Hollywood Mike ranks the best matches in the stacked middleweight division at the WNO Championship!
The Who’s Number One (WNO) events have always been about shining a light on the most exciting competitors in the game, and the WNO Championship ended up being one of the most action packed events of all time. In the end, five champions were crowned and over $275,000 in prize money was given out to athletes.
The middleweight division has always been one of the best on WNO. While this division lost two of it’s initial invites in Craig Jones and Andrew Wiltse, it still contained a stacked lineup of young talent including Tye Ruotolo, Mica Galvao, William Tackett and Roberto Jimenez. One of the best stories in the tournament was unranked Jacob Couch taking an invite on four days notice and finishing in third place at middleweight.
Just like I’ve done with lightweight and strawweight, I’m going to rank the middleweight matches in terms of quality for the viewer, finishing up with the best middleweight match of the tournament. God bless you.
10 Tye Ruotolo vs Mica Galvao
Strange that the most anticipated match of the tournament ended up last in this list, but that’s how it is sometimes. This was the rare jiu-jitsu match where the stand up exchanges were actually more exciting than when it hit the ground. Basically a 30 minute stalemate, and I’m sure it will look much different the next time they meet. 1.5 stars
9 Dante Leon vs Jon Blank
Not a bad match at all, just a little slower paced than the ones ahead of it. Dante hit some nice takedowns, Thor hit a couple sweeps, Dante most likely locked up the decision with the reverse triangle attempt inside the last minute. 2.5 stars
8 Jacob Couch vs William Tackett
This match was honestly incredible, just ranked low because of the amount of incredible finishes that took place in this division. 3.5 stars
7 Mica Galvao vs William Tackett
At only 17 years old, Mica Galvao already has some of the best guard passing in the world. He has a quick knee slide and then glues people to the mat from side control and mount once passed the guard, and we see that on display here. No submission in this match, but Mica attacks a couple arm triangles. 3.5 stars
6 Roberto Jimenez vs Jacob Couch
Bonus points for the massive underdog story here. Couch takes out the favorite according to betting lines to win the whole thing in under two minutes with a heel hook. The entire sequence of Jacob flowing through different positions to eventually get the tap is beautiful and definitely worth watching. 4 stars
5 Tye Ruotolo vs Dante Leon
Another brilliant display by Tye, outwrestling Dante on the feet, constantly pressuring from top and locking up the submission with just a few seconds on the clock. 4 stars
4 William Tackett vs Dante Leon
Another highlight reel submission in this one, William hits a calf slicer to get the finish on Dante. 4 stars
3 Jacob Couch vs Jon Blank
Hell of a match, ending in a beautiful sub by Blank from bottom side control. 4 stars
2 Jacob Couch vs Mica Galvao
Amazing submission from Mica here, one of the best of the tournament, diving for an arm lock while passing. Quick match, definitely worth watching this submission. 4 stars
1 Tye Ruotolo vs Johnny Tama
This is about as good as it gets, A big takedown from Tye, classic Ruotolo style diving back take, then throws on a darce out of nowhere to get one of the best submissions of the year. 5 stars