Aside from Marcelo, off the top of my head, the only other high level guy I can think of is Pablo Popovitch. Pablo subbed him really quickly at ADCC (I think it was less than a minute, could be wrong). Yeah it's true Marcelo tools everyone, so I won't hold that too much against Ben. But that's what I was talking about, high level guys have humbled him in the past. So it's probably made Ben realize he's vulnerable to submission specialists and Palhares is as dangerous with his leg locks as Marcelo with his guillotine or any other high level guy (proven last ADCC when Palhares subbed his way to the finals and put up a close fight against against Galvao in the finals).
As far as drawing Sinistro, Sinistro was a purple belt at the time just like Ben was. If they had another match today, I would expect the same result or Sinistro to be beat Ben soundly since Ben has to split his training in different arts while Sinistro does BJJ all day everyday. Now put today's Sinistro vs today's Palhares in an ADCC rules match, I think Palhares would be a pretty big favorite.
Is it possible that Ben is closing the gap in submission wrestling against high level bjj guys? I guess so, but it's also possible that he's been focusing more on his striking and mma. I don't know a ton of his training schedule so I'll admit I'm just making assumptions. But regardless of how Ben would do against Sinistro, Marcelo, or Pablo today, I still don't think he would initiate a grappling match with Palhares if they ever fought.
