Dante Leon Pumped To Finally Land On UFC FIGHT PASS

“Being my size, I’m really the only guy that consistently wins in open classes or heavier weight divisions; consistently wins multiple matches. To string together the victories I did in the open was pretty rare; I don’t know if that’s ever really been done before — that many champions, world champions, ADCC champions to go against when you’re 40, 50 pounds lighter than some of them.

“It was a crazy thing, but nothing that I didn’t think I could do.”

Leon claimed bronze in the absolute division, defeating Mica Galvao, who had won their weight category the previous day, in the quarterfinals before falling to eventual winner Kaynan Duarte. The Harrow, Ontario native credits what he calls a “poker player mindset” for his ability to put his weight class result behind him swiftly and shift his focus to the absolute division.

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“If you’re a high-level poker player, you lose a big hand, you lose a bunch of money, you have to have a short memory because you have to come back, you have to play, you have to get your money back,” said Leon,  If you’re dwelling on lost money, if you’re dwelling on  lost opportunity, you’re gonna lose more money and you’re gonna be behind more.

“Heath (Pedigo) and I talked about that — we said, ‘poker mindset; short memory.’ You’re gonna be upset, you’re gonna look back on it and slap yourself randomly the next day and be like, ‘F***!’ but it’s not a debilitating thing when you think, ‘I know my level, I know how good I am and what I am capable of; I don’t need to make this huge change in 24 hours. I just need to dial in, forget about any of the negative BS that comes along with it, and have that poker mindset.

“‘You lost — dust yourself off, come back, and do it again.’”

The dynamic standout did just that, and now, this week, he’s back on the mats, making his Fight Pass Invitational debut.

“I’m so excited about being on Fight Pass,” he said, a huge smile washing across his face. “My whole career, I’ve never been able to get onto a Fight Pass (broadcasted) event, so to get onto the Fight Pass Invitational is unique and it’s huge; it’s something I’ve been trying to do for a really long time.”

One of the elements of this event — and all of the previous Fight Pass Invitational events — that speaks to Leon is the focus on matchmaking and the potential for future matches to come together a little more fluidly that he sees in the FPI series.

From his standpoint, BJJ matchmaking has lacked some foresight at times, with event promoters constantly wanting to put together matches between the biggest names possible, frequently pairing off the top competitors in their respective divisions, leading to situations where everyone has already competed against one another a couple times and there is no discernible way forward.

“With the UFC, there is always a good setup where there is a main event fight and there is a fight somewhere else on the card where you can have that thought of ‘this guy could fight that guy someday’ and they’re on the same cards, you see them in the same places,” Leon said, drawing a parallel to the MMA industry leader and the setup of Thursday’s event. “It gets that vibe, that energy, gets the crowd and the media engaged in those future matches.

“With this card and how it’s built, I think we have a little of that, as well.”

In his opinion, that foresight is something that has been lacking in the BJJ space.

“It’s not to come at anybody — I don’t think it’s a thing this sport has ever had to consider or think about,” he said, making sure to clarify that he’s not taking shots at anyone in particular, but simply acknowledging where he believes there has been a flaw in the system. “It takes somebody that has that matchmaking experience (to make it work) because they understand how to not make one show, but how they’re gonna make six shows, and they have experience with how to do it.”

Another part of the reason that Leon is thrilled to be stepping onto the mat against Varela on Thursday is that he believes competing on this platform will further elevate his profile with the burgeoning audience that has been getting more and more into BJJ over the last couple years as the sport’s profile has increased.

Despite an outstanding resume and long list of accolades, Leon isn’t necessarily someone whose name people with a passing knowledge of the top jiu jitsu competitors in the world would know. Much in the same way that casual MMA fans and those that parachute in for key events are aware of Conor McGregor, Nathan Diaz, and maybe a handful of others, but have not heard of present day standouts that are ruling their respective weight classes and thriving inside the Octagon, the talented Canadian is overshadowed on the name recognition front by those with larger personalities and greater profiles, like Jones, Gordon Ryan, or the Ruotolo Twins, Tye and Kade.

But pound-for-pound, Leon is one of the best there is, and he’s hopeful that his exciting brand of grappling will help introduce him to a wider audience.

“At the end of the day, people want to be entertained, and there’s a number of different ways to entertain people,” began Leon. “I don’t do a lot of talk or social media; I don’t put on much of a front or much of a show that’s manufactured, but I am very exciting. I have very exciting matches, I’m kind of high-flying, have high energy when I compete.

"I’m not some guy that is 8-0 in the UFC and just takes everyone down, holds them against the cage, and wins a bunch of decisions. I can understand why people don’t like that guy, especially if they’re not talking, but I’m not really that guy. I’m going out, trying to finish as many fights as I can. The thing I put the most effort into is the preparation and the execution on competition day.”

This time around, competition day is Thursday against Varela, in a match Leon sees as an exciting pairing that has the potential to help catapult him into further opportunities later in the year, whether with Fight Pass or elsewhere.

“Andy is a great opponent, he’s a great dance partner for this; he’s an exciting guy himself,” he said of the Las Vegas native, who competed at CJI 1 in mid-August, losing to Jozef Chen. “He’s well-decorated and he’s a good grappler, on top of which he’s a local Vegas boy, so it’s an opportunity to see somebody the fans have seen on the show multiple times and somebody that is kind of the local legend.

“It’s good to go against Andy; he’s tough, he’s stiff competition, and I think he has a lot of hype behind him at all times because of his style and his personality, his attitude.

“Biggest thing is to get through this match — not only to win and have a good performance, but come out as healthy as I can, because I wanna get some more things in before the end of the year,” Leon added when asked about his plans of the rest of the year. “I don’t want to close out the year being lax or resting ’til the start of the year.”