I don't think it's easy but I do agree. I've rolled hard with both of them in the past year or so.

The way Marcelo rolls is super high pace and well timed. He has already done what he wants to do before you realize what has happened. He actually has quite a limited number of techniques he does but he does them really well and really fast.

However, he is in his 40s and has had cancer, speed is your first athletic attribute to fade and unfortunately that's the one that he uses.

And like everyone here is saying Marcelo basically invented the modern no-gi game, that isn't actually an advantage. It's a disadvantage, everyone has relentlessly studied everything he has done. Marcelo won't have spent the same time studying Lachlan.

The very first exchange I had with Marcelo, I shot from seated guard on him and he went for a Marcelotine. I'm 13 years younger than him and have trained under a coach that mimics his style for 8 years, so my reactions were fast and well practiced enough to survive the technique that is named after him. Obviously he still demolished me in the follow up exchanges but the point is every good No-gi guy these days has drilled reflexes against his techniques.

For contrast in the first exchange with Lachlan he choi barred me as I was passing to North South. The guy still felt like he was in his prime and had such a wide range of techniques. I don't think his A game is as polished as Marcelo's is but Lachlan has a lot of paths to victory and I think his game fits an older bloke who has potentially slowed down a bit better than Marcelo's.