Elite grapplers Cole Abate and Dante Leon have both just signed ONE Championship contracts and will now be making their respective debuts for the promotion soon. Both of these signings represent huge moves by ONE Championship, as they are both among the very best in the world. They will now bolster what are already pretty impressive submission grappling divisions, as the promotion has been working very hard to fill out full rosters in several weight classes. With reigning champions like Mikey Musumeci and Kade Ruotolo along with multiple other top competitors, there’s plenty of potential opponents waiting for both Abate and Leon.
Although both Cole Abate and Dante Leon will be able to make a big impact at ONE Championship, Leon in particular is going to be one to watch. He is coming off a bronze medal in the absolute division at ADCC 2024, and he actually beat two of this year’s champions on the way to the podium. That was actually the second time that he won a bronze medal at ADCC as well, as he finished third in the under 77kg divisio nat ADCC 2022. With such an impressive track record, Leon is going to immediately become a big threat in several of the promotion’s weight classes.
Abate might not have the same record as Leon, but he’s also much earlier in his career as well. Abate is almost ten years younger than Leon and was only promoted to black belt just a little over a year ago. Abate was one of the top prospects in the sport throughout his early teenage years though and he actually won ADCC Trials as a 16 year-old blue belt. He’s beaten several ADCC veterans over the last few years and has gone on to establish himself as one of the best in the world, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares at ONE Championship.
ONE Championship announced the news that Cole Abate and Dante Leon had signed to make their promotional debuts in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
