One of the best Canadian grapplers on the planet, Dante Leon, has just been booked to compete against Vinicius Lino in the main event of The Tower Grand Prix 4 on May 6th, 2023. It’s an exciting matchup that the promotion has managed to book to headline their next event on the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles, California. They’ve gone from strength to strength recently and managed to attract some fantastic competitors like Jonnatas Gracie to compete at their events, all of which are hosted outdoors at universities on the west coast.
Dante Leon has been a BJJ black belt since 2017 and won the IBJJF no gi Pan Championship in his very first year competing at the highest level. He repeated that feat in 2018 before having one of the biggest years of his career to date in 2019, as he won gold at the IBJJF no gi World Championship and finished in fourth place at the ADCC world championships in his very first attempt. He returned to the most prestigious no gi grappling tournament on the planet in 2022 and did even better than before, taking home a bronze medal in the 77kg division.
While Vinicius Lino is not as well-known on the competition circuit as Leon, he’s a veteran BJJ black belt training at Alliance San Diego and he has huge goals for the next few years. Lino has his sights set on one of the biggest goals in professional grappling at ADCC 2024, and a win over Dante Leon at The Tower Grand Prix 4 would be a huge sign for the future. It’s likely that he’d get a few match offers against opponents of a similar stature in the near-future and it would make him one to watch in the upcoming rounds of ADCC trials.
The news that Dante Leon had been booked to compete against Vinicius Lino in the main event of The Tower Grand Prix 4 on May 6th, 2023 was announced in a post to the promotion’s official Instagram account: