Originally from Norwich, UK, Dominic Dillon now trains in Brighton and started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu aged 24 years old. His entry into grappling began with Japanese Ju Jitsu which then lead into BJJ later on, as he puts it “I was involved in traditional grappling art of Japanese Ju Jitsu and I really enjoyed the free sparring that was similar to Judo randori so once I started teaching it I was slowly fading out the traditional choreographed techniques and kata in favour of grappling techniques from videos along with the limited ne waza already included in our Ju Jitsu”.
Since then, he has gone on to achieve his black belt after 6 and a half years at the age of 31. He currently trains out of Elements martial arts in Brighton and Umbra combat in whilst in Steyning, with his teachers being Yousuf Nabi and John Hathaway.
When asked about his best techniques, he claimed butterfly guard was his favourite guard in both Gi and Nogi and favours the shoulder crunch sweep in Nogi but uses more grip fighting-based and overhook sweeps in the Gi. When on top, he uses knee slices and leg weaves with cartwheel passes sometimes thrown in too and uses the Kimura as his main submission.
Dillon is also big on competing and typically competes at under 73KG – he claims “I think beating the Omar de Sousa by submission my last year as a brown belt who at the time was the AJP world ranked #1 adult brown belt in NoGi and a decade younger than me” as one of his biggest achievements in grappling. Whilst talking about ageing he adds “My worst injury was a slipped disk, it caused me a lot of problems and let me know I was getting old haha”. He also lists Mike Grundy as the hardest opponent that he’s faced and says “I want to do the IBJJF Nogi and Naga World’s, obviously this year not looking like it will happen so I’m gonna do it next year ideally.”
Dillon has also competed in catch wrestling and competed at the Snake pit Worlds in 2018. We asked him about this and what his views were on the differences between catch wrestling and BJJ. He replied by saying “Yes that was when I submitted Victor Henry in the finale, a black belt under Josh Barnett in 55 seconds at the 2018 Snakepit Worlds. I think one big difference is by and large a lot of pure catch guys do it as a hobby training 3-4 times a week whereas there’s a lot of pro, full-time BJJ guys. But for me it’s all grappling, people get too caught up in ‘oh this is pure this or traditional that!’ At the end of the day, you want to be a good grappler learn as much as you can from as many places as you can, it’s worth noting a lot the big name catch guys in the UK are also some grade in BJJ. I’d also say that the comp scene of catch is very fragmented so it’s hard to clearly say who the best is right now but as it grows with more international matches I think a ranking structure will emerge. Ian Jones from the UK is taking on Curran Jacobs next February so these kinds of matches will start giving a clearer world standing I feel. John Hathaway and I are planning on going over to the states next year hopefully to compete in catch comps over there. John is a 3 time UK Snake pit world champ and unbeaten under the rule set of catch would be an ideal opponent for Curran should he get past Ian I feel.”
Interestingly, it’s his younger brother who he claims is the most influential on his style, adding “My younger brother Oliver. We’ve wrestled together since we could walk and he’s always been a foil to my style and trying to kick his ass has been the driving force in most of my technical developments over the years haha “. Often, other athletes look to superstars such as Marcelo Garcia and Roger Gracie as their biggest influences, which shows quite a different outlook from Dillon.
He is also nicknamed ‘The Koala’ which is quite unusual for a grappler. Dillon claims this name originated from an MMA fight and claims “It was in my third amateur MMA fight which was a short notice bout as the main event on Total Combat against Shane Fuller. In it, I was attacking a heel hook while my opponent was hammer fisting my head and the commentator Tom Vince remarked how I was refusing to release the leg and said I was holding on like a koala to a tree. The nickname stuck and I even have a calf tattoo of a koala now. My students used to say I taught KJJ, koala Jiu Jitsu.”
Whilst on the subject of MMA we then went on to ask him why he moved away from striking into BJJ as he had a good record. This was his response “To be honest, age and losing the love of getting hit in the face. I was ranked in the top 10 in pro K-1 and number 1 in two weight divisions for amateur MMA but eventually after 41 fights my body and mind wasn’t up to the camps anymore. I often think about talking myself into a couple more fights but when you’re having to talk yourself into fighting you know it’s not a good idea. I love competing and plan on keeping active for as long as possible in grappling, for now, I feel in Nogi I can still hang with the elite adult competitors but there will always be the master divisions waiting for me after haha. Teaching is something I’ve always enjoyed doing and my coach Yousuf’s passion for his student’s development has made me endeavour to try and emulate this to be able to pass something on as at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about”.
Finally, Dominic Dillon says thanks to Elements martial arts, Umbra combat, Progress BJJ and One South.
