On Friday, Dec. 6, 29-year-old submission grappling phenom Dante Leon makes his ONE Championship debut at ONE Fight Night 26, live from the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. His opponent will be husband to ONE royalty, Angela Lee. Combat Press interviewer Dan Kuhl had a chance to speak with Leon ahead of one of the biggest matches of his career.
How did you end up where you are today?
“I pretty much put all my eggs in this basket. I, kind of, have to do jiu-jitsu at this point. I’ve competed everywhere. I’ve had great experiences all over the world with different organization, different promotions. ONE is one that I’ve never had experience with. I’ve never had any experience on that side of the world. I’ve never been to Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, places like that, where they have so many shows. Between the excitement of a lot of the matches over there, the potential of a lot of matches that are coming up, the opportunity that lies with ONE, and my ability, I think this is coming at a great point in my life and my career. I think I have what it takes to really shake things up over there ”
When did you get into jiu-jitsu and where did you start?
“I was about 12 years old, I first trained at Tecumseh Jiu-Jitsu. It’s a gym in Tecumseh, Ontario, about 30 minutes away from where I grew up.
“I started with a guy named Dean Hersche. He was a brown belt under Saulo Ribeiro, and he had a gym in Tecumseh. Through a network of gyms in the Tri-State area between Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, there were quite a few gyms out that way, because Saulo and Xande both lived in Toledo. That would be where Matt Jubera trained – he was pretty much in Detroit all the time. When I had some success competing, my dad was at a place with work where he was able to retire.
“So, he was at a place where he could commit more time to commuting. So, we decided we wanted to step-up training. I’d been training a little more, as I’ve wanted to compete more, so we ended up training in Detroit, which, at that time, Saulo and Xande were just pretty much like four to six months out from being there. They left and moved to California, and a lot of the people around that area – a lot of the older school guys like Matt Jubera – were already gone. So, when I went there, the gyms weren’t the biggest gyms, but they still had a little deeper roots, as far as competition jiu-jitsu went, so it was a little better, a little more fitted, towards the training that I needed.”
What was high school life like?
“I was just kind of the dude that didn’t do what the other kids in high school did most of the time, because I was training or competing. You know, dances, semi-formals, things like that, weren’t my thing. I don’t think I went to a single one, so it was pretty much that my time was spent training, traveling to train, traveling to compete, and things like that. It was pretty rare, outside of, like, just hanging out with a couple of buddies on a weekend. It was a little different, but, I mean, I had a lot of fun in high school. I didn’t ever look at it as, like, punishment. Looking back on it, it’s not like I would have rather went to semi-formal than some random tournament, so it was alright.”
What experience did you ever have working or earning money?
“I had no experience through the first few years of high school, and, once I finished high school, I went to college for a little bit and realized that wasn’t for me. So, I dropped out, and I went all-in on training and starting a gym. So, within the next few years after that, I had a gym started with my business partner, and today, we have two jiu-jitsu gyms and an MMA gym and have made money and found some success that way.
“My dad wouldn’t let me work. My dad said I could stay home and do the chores on the farm and train. That’s your job. It’s pretty much a hobby farm, so I had horses, had a pet goat, and stuff like that ”
Why are you so successful today?
“I work my ass off. I have some natural ability with jiu-jitsu, and, unlike most people with natural ability, I didn’t shit on my skills, and I didn’t, you know, try and shortcut anything. I did everything quite thorough. I worked really hard. Like I said, I didn’t take any shortcuts, and I’ve always, really, as cheesy as it sounds, I’ve always just believed in it. I always really truly believed that I was going to be great at this. I truly believed I could make a career and a living at this, even in spite of scaring the crap out of a bunch of people in my family by telling them that I thought this was what I was going to do and what I was meant to do. But, I was always very confident that I was going to do it. I always had this part of me that knew I could do it, and I think that went a long way.”
Growing up playing hockey, did you ever have a time where you just wanted to grab someone by the shirt and punch them in the face?
“I had some incidents – and I played hockey – so, I might have gotten a misconduct or a stern talking to, because I was a little too rough. I wasn’t like the craziest kid, but I was definitely not the softest kid in the world. I always had a little bit of a temper and some aggression, so jiu-jitsu was a great way to kind of mediate that. Because, I’m not necessarily into punching and kicking or hurting anybody, but it is a way for you to get that kind of rush of a physical altercation. At the same time, you’re not really hurting anybody too bad, especially in the training aspect. So I think, because of how my personality and attitude was, I think jiu-jitsu was a really good fit from the beginning.”
I remember speaking with Rich Byrne and Rolles Gracie back when you were going to first compete with KASAI, and they were really high on you; how has your experience been since then?
“It’s hard to put, like, one word on it. My experience with KASAI was always fantastic. Rich was always a super nice guy. Him and Rolles really treated me great, and I still have a good relationship with them now. I’ve been all over the world, competing for different organizations – you know, some really close to home and some really far from home. They’ve all had their unique experiences and challenges. Being in different parts of the world, there’s always some challenge or some barrier there that you have to be able to adapt to. But, I think it’s all just prepared me for these bigger moments, you know? I consider ONE FC to be of the upper echelon. So, I think, it’s just that all of them have prepared me for such a huge test on such a huge platform like this.”
2024 has been a busy year for you; what’s up with Kaynan Duarte?
“I don’t know. He’s too hard to move. He’s strong, and he’s one of the best grapplers of all time. I feel like the first time I fought him I didn’t have a lot of answers. The second time, when I fought him at ADCC, I had a few more. So, you know, maybe one or two more tries, I can get it figured out. It was the toughest match this year.”
Outside of Kaynan, what was your toughest match this year?
“I mean there’s a few that come to mind. The match against Giancarlo [Botoni] was really hard, because he’s a he’s a good friend of mine. He’s one of my best friends, so it kind of sucked to have that match, and in the way that it was. He’s obviously super good as well. That was a tough match, and that was tough for a lot of reasons. It was almost as emotionally draining as physically draining. It was at the end of a really long day for both of us. So, you’re both beat up. I mean that that match was really tough on a lot of levels. It took me a while to get over that one emotionally and physically.”
When did you find out about your deal with ONE Championship, and did you have any offers from other organizations?
“It wasn’t not too long ago – probably beginning of November, to be honest – was the conversation I had. I mean, when I first found out about ONE would be years ago, but the first time that it seemed like, ‘Okay, this is the time. Everything’s lining up, and everything’s working out, and I’m going there,’ then, I would say it would be end of October, beginning of November.
“For super fights, I’ve been approached by every single one. I’ve either been on them or been asked to do them.”
What do you like about ONE?
“There’s a few things I like about ONE, and there are a few things that really interest me. One thing is the skill level of the grapplers that they seem to get. I mean, you have Kade and Tye Ruotolo, who are belt holders, and a lot of the challengers who they bring in and a lot of the people who they sign are of the best in the world. When you see them compete against other, you see them have great success. You can see a lot of people who have challenged Kade and Tye go against some of the other best in the world, and they dominate those opponents. So, they have true world-level athletes there.”
How do you feel about Bruno Pucci as an opponent?
“I was really excited. It just kind of landed in my lap, basically, and landed at a time that I was able to accept very short notice, but nothing I’m not used to. The last three matches I’ve taken have all been less than a month’s notice so I feel like, in this sport, if you’re not ready to take opportunities as they come, you’re going to be sitting on the bench, kind of being sad, while everybody else is making money.
“I didn’t really know anything about Bruno before the match, but, after looking into him a little more, I see that he’s a former world class grappler himself at the purple and blue and brown belt ranks. It looks like he kind of changed focus and focused on MMA.
“That MMA training can leave somebody a little bit behind as far as the intricacies of modern competitive submission grappling, but it also poses some other challenges. I’m sure he’s going to be physically pretty strong. I’m sure he’s going to be big. That’s just something that MMA training and MMA fighters are. They’re usually bigger. They’re usually stronger than we are. They’re usually hard to take down, and they’re usually almost always in good shape.”
Have you thought about challenging Kade Ruotolo for the title?
“I like the match against Kade. It’s a match in the sport that has been talked about for a long time, and it’s one of the most intriguing matches possible, because we are two of the best guys in the world. But, we’ve never competed against each other, and we typically compete in the same weight class. That’s something that’s kind of hard to believe, because if you’ve been in the sport and been doing it professionally for the last six years, you think I would have fought everybody. I really have fought everybody, but I’ve never gone against Kade, so it’s always something I’ve been wanting and something I’ve always had in the back of my mind. I’m sure it’s something he’s thought about too.”
Do you have any plans to try MMA?
“We thought about it, but any real legitimate thought? No.”
Why should people watch you fight?
“People should watch my matches, because, not only are they entertaining and not only will they captivate an audience that isn’t necessarily educated on the specific sport of jiu-jitsu, but I have world-class technical ability. I have a world-class skillset in jiu-jitsu, so, more so than just watching someone who’s powerful, athletic, acrobatic and all these things, athletic skills and technical prowess are always things that we are in awe of, and it’s things that we see in a lot of athletes. A lot of times, the beauty of this game is the technical ability, rather than just how how good someone is at sports. So, that’s something that I possess, and that’s something I think is extremely unique to someone who can also be an entertaining athlete.”