Bradley Hill is one of the best BJJ black belt competitors in the UK and he recently put on an incredibly impressive performance in an international freestyle wrestling competition, despite only training specifically in the sport for around six months. It’s an interesting choice of competition for Hill, and not just because BJJ competitors have historically avoided wrestling at all costs and instead chosen to pull guard when the ruleset allows. Moreso because Bradley Hill is not known for his elite wrestling (although he is no slouch in standup grappling at all of course) and is more known for his uniquely impressive use of the Omoplata throughout his competitive career.
Hill has competed on the biggest stages of professional Jiu-Jitsu competition in the past and has even represented his country at several Polaris Squads events. He’s a veteran competitor who has medalled time and time again, even spending a great deal of time diving deep into the rulesets that he has been competing under and popularizing a method of racking up points under IBJJF competition. All of this to say that it’s no surprise that Hill would take an international freestyle competition incredibly seriously and would not be at all phased by the standard of competitor that he would face.
Bradley Hill posted the video detailing his experience competing in wrestling for the very first time to his official YouTube channel, and in it you can see that he really is of an incredibly high standard. He lost to the eventual gold medalist at first but was able to bounce back after qualifying for the repechage bracket and even scored a few technical falls on his way to earning a bronze medal and a place on the podium. Hill will likely be competing on the Polaris mats again relatively soon and it’ll be exciting to see if he brings his new-found love of wrestling to Jiu-Jitsu competition and begins to dominate standing exchanges.
