BJJ and MMA veteran Tom DeBlass has just been hired by ONE Championship to serve as the promotion’s Vice President of submission grappling. DeBlass has a wealth of experience and has won ADCC Trials multiple times as well as fighting for both the UFC and Bellator during his MMA career, before retiring from combat sports and focusing more on coaching. Although DeBlass has plenty of experience in both MMA and grappling as a competitor, he has also done a lot of work behind the scenes over the years. As an ADCC veteran, he was brought on as one of the organizers for ADCC North American Trials and did a fantastic job for several years.
Tom DeBlass actually left his position as an organizer for ADCC Trials just last year, no doubt freeing up some of his time to pursue other avenues like the new position at ONE Championship. It’s clearly going to take up a fair amount of his time too, as this isn’t exactly an easy job. DeBlass will be having input on an entire subdivision of one of the biggest combat sports promotions on the planet, and working alongside several major figures. In fact, Leo Vieira is already working as the Vice President of submission grappling at ONE Championship and DeBlass will be joining him in performing those duties.
DeBlass will have an impact on the lives of professional grapplers all around the world in his new position, as ONE Championship are known for signing lucrative contracts with their competitors. They have also started to stage title-fights over the last few years and have several vacant titles left for those who are able to build an impressive winning streak in the promotion. The Ruotolo brothers and Mikey Musumeci have all found a welcome home at ONE Championship and several other grapplers have made the decision to sign with them either for a single match or several over the course of years. It’ll be interesting to see what DeBlass is able to do in his new role and who makes their ONE Championship debut in the future.
Tom DeBlass announced the news that he was becoming the Vice President of submission grappling at ONE Championship in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
