Tom DeBlass is a prominent member of the grappling community. The experienced black belt, former MMA fighter and respectable coach earned his bjj black belt under Ricardo Almeida. Tom has told stories about parts of his journey before like in this inspiring video attached below.

He’s also been quite outspoken about his trouble as a blue belt. He quotes that time as very trying and says:

“There was a time as a blue belt I was close to quitting.

It was the first expert division I did and I ended up losing. I waited around at the tournament all day, paid money, and lost. I tried to think of all of the reasons I shouldn’t be “wasting my time” on Jiu-Jitsu, and I had thought of some really good ones. However, there was one problem.

I claimed I loved Jiu-Jitsu, and when you love something you love on the good days, and bad days.

I looked at myself in in the mirror and reminded myself that one day I would look back on that heart crushing defeat and smile.”

He recently talked to bloodyelbow and shared more about his mma journey:

In the first round DeBlass knocked out Lambert and it was that fight that made him reconsider his fighting career:

“In my heart I always missed jiu jitsu. I wanted martial arts to be fun again. I didn’t find pleasure after knocking out Lambert or stopping Carlos. To me jiu jitsu is always so much fun and I couldn’t find joy in MMA anymore.”

Prior to that DeBlass had taken a late notice fight with an injury against Diabate:

“I don’t regret taking the fight against Diabate. I learned so much about myself in that fight. Most people don’t know this, but I had a broken ankle when I took that fight. Despite the defeat, that fight was a great learning experience for me.”

Still to Tom there’s plenty left to achieve:

“My primary goal is to continue to inspire as many people as possible and of course win every competition I compete in. I have been very lucky and blessed to have achieved all that I have at 33 years old.”

His MMA record stands at at 9 wins and 2 losses together with two North American ADCC trials and many other victories!