Vagner Rocha defeated Kit Dale via decision in front of a home crowd at WNO 29 in Miami in the event’s first card in the Sunshine State. In trademark fashion, Rocha verbally taunted the Australian, winning the early wrestling exchanges and demonstrating tremendous pressure from top position before ending the match on his back where he weathered Dale’s attempts to complete a very close passing attempt.

Rocha was one of nine Miami residents on the card, eight of whom claimed victory in front of their home crowd.

Adele Fornarino earned the only upset over a hometown favorite, submitting Jasmine Rocha in the co-main event with an Aoki lock. That marks Fornarino’s second Aoki victory in her career on WNO. The submission came in under four minutes after a leg shootout, where Rocha had a tight attempt at a foot lock. Rocha was injured by the submission.

Roberto Jimenez defeated Ryan Aitken in a crucial match in the light heavyweight division, demonstrating positional dominance to wear down the 10th Planet product. Jimenez tested Aitken’s tricky guard for the first five minutes, then cracked the code, taking Aitken’s back twice, passing his guard several times and also spending time in mount.

With his victory, Jimenez appears the clear next in line for a title shot at light heavyweight, where the reigning champion, Pedro Marinho, has held the title since early 2022.

In the lightweight division, Max Hanson picked up a controversial victory over Gianni Grippo, where both athletes spent about half of the match attempting to pass each others’ guards. Hanson was a last minute replacement for Owen Jones, who pulled out of the match in the final weeks before the event. Upon victory, Hanson challenged Jones.

Roosevelt Sousa picked up a heel hook victory over Igor Tanabe in less than three minutes, while Luccas Lira picked up a decision over Sean Yadimarco, and Michael Sainz snagged a decision over Natan Chueng.

On the undercard:

Tristan Sainz opened the card with a decision victory in his hometown over Matias Jimenez, brother of Roberto Jimenez.

Andre Porfirio threatened the leg attacks early against German athlete Linus Von Schrenk to win a unanimous decision. Porfirio weighed in 22 pounds over the middleweight limit of 185. During the press conference on Thursday he attributed his error to a confusion about the weight class.

13-year old Joslyn Molina defeated Amy Grande in her WNO debut, picking up the first submission of the night, a Ruotolotine.

In the final prelim of the card, Gesais Cavalcante submitted Jake O’Driscoll via inside heel hook in 88-seconds. That submission landed among the fastest 15 leg locks and within the 25 fastest submissions overall in the history of WNO.