Kaynan Duarte vs Nicky Rodriguez is now the main event for Who’s Number One (WNO) 27 on April 18th, 2025. The matchup has been confirmed very far in advance, with the announcement being made at the end of the live broadcast of Who’s Number One 26. It’s also one of the biggest matches that could possibly be made in the no gi grappling world right now. With Gordon Ryan being pretty inactive in the last few years it might just be the biggest match imaginable, especially because his most recent performance saw him suffer an injury that will take him out of competition for a while.
During that same weekend, Nicky Rodriguez won the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational at over 80kg and had the best performance of his career so far with four submissions in four matches. Kaynan Duarte did exactly the same in the under 99kg division at ADCC 2024 and submitted all four of his opponents too, except he actually took it a step further on the final day of the event. Duarte also won the absolute division at ADCC 2024 and submitted three out of his four opponents during that run as well, making him the double champion that year and earning him the right to challenge for the ADCC superfight title in 2026.
Given that the rivalry between CJI and ADCC 2024 was one of the biggest storylines of the year, the people who won gold were always going to end up matched against one another. Although there were plenty of interesting potential matches emerging from that weekend, this one between Nicky Rodriguez and Kaynan Duarte is potentially the biggest. They have actually met twice before though, with Duarte winning the first on points and the second by submission. They were both back in 2019 though and a lot has changed since then, with both men undergoing massive development in their skills in the last 6 years.
The WNO 27 main event match between Kaynan Duarte and Roberto Jimenez was announced during the live broadcast of WNO 26, which is available to watch on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch. The trailer is also available to watch on Instagram:
