Who’s Number One 25 will take place on December 4th, 2024 and two title-fights have just been added to an exciting main event matchup. The main event will be a heavyweight match between Kaynan Duarte and Roberto Jimenez, but naturally there will also be a lot of attention on the two matches before that. That’s because winning a WNO title is a huge achievement in any grappler’s career, and fans will get to see at least one new champion at the very least. While one of the titles up for grabs is vacant, the other is held by a man who is the only champion that division has ever known.
First up is a battle for the women’s under 115lbs title, and the division is without a reigning champion after the belt was vacated by Mayssa Bastos. Bastos won the title at the Who’s Number One Championships way back in 2021, but she hasn’t competed at that weight class for the promotion since then. Now the belt will be up for grabs when Adele Fornarino takes on Alex Nguyen, and both women will no doubt be putting it all on the line to come away with the title. Fornarino will be considered the early favorite after her historic performance at ADCC 2024 that saw her win six matches in a row in order to come away with gold medals in both the under 55kg and women’s absolute divisions.
The second of the two title-fights at Who’s Number One 25 is at light-heavyweight, and the reigning champion Pedro Marinho will be taking on the latest in a pretty impressive list of challengers. He won the inaugural title at the beginning of 2022 by beating Craig Jones at WNO 11. He’s since defended the title on two occasions between other superfights, winning decisions over both Giancarlo Bodoni and Rafael Lovato Jr. His next challenger is Izaak Michell, who has a pair of wins on the WNO stage himself and will be attempting to dethrone the promotion’s longest-reigning champion.
The full Who’s Number One 25 event, including all of the above matches, is available to watch live on December 4th, 2024 on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch.