Welcome to Bloody Elbow Presents the ‘Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Our guests this week are Moses Solis and Tom DeBlass.
Welcome to ‘The Open GuardCast Jiu-Jitsu Podcast’, which is a project dedicated to promoting jiu-jitsu professionals. Tune in each week, Wednesdays at 2pm CST, on our ‘Bloody Elbow Presents Podcast Network’, for interviews, and current events going on in the world of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling!
Your host is Danny O’Donnell. In addition to hosting this podcast, he is an MMA journalist contributing here at Bloody Elbow, as well as at Black Belt Mag. O’Donnell himself is a BJJ black belt who trains at the Marcio Andre Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Phoenix, AZ.
Recently, we introduced a jiu-jitsu current events portion of the show. This week we were joined by our guest Moses Solis, a brown belt under Jay Pages, owner of ‘Jay Pages Jiu-Jitsu’, Arizona’s Premiere MMA Training Center.
Tom is a Renzo Gracie black belt, owner and head instructor of Ocean County BJJ, and a former MMA fighter who competed in the UFC, Bellator, and Ring of Combat. The guys discussed Tom’s early days in the sport, becoming an influencer in jiu-jitsu and martial arts, recently signing to ONE Championship, and much more. — At 35:37
Q1: What was your life like before you found Martial Arts, what were you doing and where was your life going? — At 35:58
Q2: Were there any MMA fighters you followed in the early days that inspired you or made you want to get on the mats? — At 37:10
Q3: What was it like when you first stepped inside a Jiu-Jitsu Academy to train? — At 37:52
Q4: Your academy has an amazing competition team but you also have those people that maybe want to train a couple days a week, keep in shape, learn some new skills, is it hard for you as an academy owner to find a balance, like the one that evolved while you were under Renzo Gracie? — At 39:39
Q5: You mentioned there was a time in your life when you were lacking hope and experiencing despair, was competition something that would pull you out of those moments? — At 41:44
Q6: Can you discuss the transition from being on a stable career path as a School Teacher with a steady paycheck to becoming an Academy Owner? — At 43:35
Q7: You had a lot of success on the jiu-jitsu competition circuit, you won the ADCC Trials multiple times, you won bunch of big tournaments in the gi as a brown belt — what made you want to go into MMA and split your time between BJJ competition and MMA, which requires more skill sets? — At 44:50
Q8: On social media and in the community you are someone people look to for inspiration, was that something that just evolved with the Academy over time or did you want to be a leader in the community? — At 46:53
Q9: What advice would you give someone who is an up-n-coming MMA fighter, jiu-jitsu trainer who has done everything they need to do in the training room but wants to be in a position like you, or feels they are a leader and could brand themselves better, is it just “being authentic” or is it more than that? — At 48:31
Q10: One of the things that’s really cool, because of all the work you have put in over the years, is you just recently signed to ONE Championship... Can you talk about how long of a process went into getting that deal done & your impressions of the deal and what it can bring you? — At 50:44
Q11: What ONE has been able to build over in Asia is really incredible, the following: they have all of Asia supporting ONE Championship & the numbers are really staggering... — At 53:54
Q12: With everything ONE has been doing lately with signing submission grapplers & having Super Fight Grappling Matches on their 10th anniv. ONE-X card, it seems like they really see a future in submission grappling... — At 50:12
Q13: I hope one day your body is feeling great so you get to be a part of some of these grappling matches, or maybe some of your students, that would be incredible too… — At 53:44
Q14: Another huge event for jiu-jitsu you have been a part of organizing at the trials level is the ADCC and this year’s event is going to be the biggest of all time. What are your expectations for the 2022 ADCC? — At 56:26
Q15: Talk about the book you just released, “How You Bear It: Triumph and Resiliency in Life”, where people can find it and what they can expect from your book? — At 58:05
You can follow Danny on twitter @DannyOD_BJJ, or insta @dannyod_bjj. The show’s insta is @openguardcast, or on Fb. This week’s interview guest, Tom DeBlass can be followed @tomdeblass and you can follow his academy @oceancountybjj on Instagram.
Be sure to tune in for next week’s show & learn more about the world of jiu-jitsu, on Wed, Mar 23rd, at 2PM CST, for Episode 129. We will have another fascinating BJJ interview; our guest will be Owen Livesey; as well as current events going on in the world of jiu-jitsu and submission grappling!
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