Tainan Dalpra is now going to take on Oliver Taza on the main card of Who’s Number One 22 on February 9th, 2024. This will actually be the biggest challenge of Dalpra’s no gi career to date, as he has only recently made the transition after conquering the gi grappling world. He spent years at the very top of the competitive circuit in the gi despite still being very early in his career, winning the IBJJF World Championship several times over and beating pretty much every other grappler in the middleweight division in the process.
Dalpra announced in 2023 that he was going to start venturing out into no gi competition, something he hadn’t done since he was stepping on the mats as a juvenile long before he ever reached the top of the mountain. It wasn’t long before he made his black belt no gi debut, as Dalpra opened the main card of Who’s Number One 21 against Troy Russell. It was a good choice of opponent really as Russell is a veteran competitor who had already appeared for the promotion before, and could test Dalpra without throwing him in the deep end.
Dalpra passed that initial test with flying colors though, as he submitted Russell with an armbar after just a little over four minutes of action. It was clear after that performance that TainanDalpra was ready for the next step up in competition and as a veteran of the ADCC world championship, Oliver Taza is an ideal candidate. If Dalpra is able to win this match then it would be a good sign that he might be able to shake things up at ADCC 2024 and the organizers will likely considering an extending an invite to him.
FloGrappling announced the news that Tainan Dalpra was going to face Oliver Taza at Who’s Number One 22 in a recent post to their official Instagram account: