Date of Birth
November 10, 1998
Birthplace
North of Scotland, raised between the coastal towns of Nairn and Findhorn
Team / Academy
The Griphouse (Glasgow, Scotland) and East Coast Jiu-Jitsu Academy / ECBJJA (Dublin, Ireland), under Darragh O’Conaill. Trained earlier in his career under Martin Donaldson and Kevin McAloon at a gym in Inverness, and under Ross Houston.
Belt
Black Belt (awarded 2023 by Darragh O’Conaill)
Belt Lineage
Carlos Gracie → Hélio Gracie → Royler Gracie → Saulo Ribeiro → Darragh O’Conaill → Shay Montague
Weight Class
Roosterweight (~57.5 kg / 127 lb)
Full Bio
Shay Montague grew up in the north of Scotland, between the small coastal towns of Nairn and Findhorn, and has described himself as an unathletic child with no real sporting background before discovering jiu-jitsu around age 16. His interest began through watching UFC and MMA highlights on YouTube, which eventually led him to BJJ footage of fighters like Ronaldo “Jacaré” Souza and the Mendes brothers. Unable to find a nearby gym with the intimidating “big bald muscly men” aesthetic he associated with MMA gyms, he instead found a more varied local BJJ scene and began training at a gym in Inverness under Ross Houston, later working under coaches Martin Donaldson and Kevin McAloon.
Montague trained in the Inverness area up through purple belt, given the lack of a major grappling hub near his hometown, before moving to Glasgow at age 20 to pursue a university degree. There, he joined The Griphouse, and — introduced by fellow competitor Ellis Younger — began making regular trips to train at Darragh O’Conaill’s East Coast Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Dublin, Ireland, one of Europe’s most respected grappling programs.
Competing under the combined banner of The Griphouse and ECJJA, Montague’s results improved sharply from purple belt onward. As a brown belt in 2022, he took third at the IBJJF World Championship after a narrow loss to Reno Niwa in the semifinal, then came back in 2023 to win World gold in dramatic fashion — scoring a come-from-behind back take with roughly 10 seconds left in the final while down 2-0. That 2023 run also included gold at the Pan Championship, Pan No-Gi Championship, European Open, Brazilian Nationals, and South American No-Gi Championship, along with a No-Gi World title — a result that fell just one gold shy of a full brown-belt IBJJF Grand Slam, a feat historically achieved by very few at that level. He also won the Grapplefest under-65kg title at Grapplefest 15. His performances made him the top-ranked brown-belt roosterweight in the world across both gi and no-gi during 2022–2023, and established him as the most accomplished competitor Scotland has produced in the sport.
Darragh O’Conaill promoted Montague to black belt in 2023. As a black belt, Montague continued building his reputation on both the IBJJF circuit and the professional no-gi scene, competing at events including WNO, where he faced Diogo Reis, and at Craig Jones Invitational. In 2025, he became the first Scottish competitor to win an IBJJF No-Gi World Championship, taking gold in the roosterweight division. That result, along with his broader 2025 form, led to a high-profile booking against Mikey Musumeci — a grappler Montague has cited as a formative influence on his own style — for the UFC BJJ bantamweight title at UFC BJJ 5 in Las Vegas in February 2026, a match contested above Montague’s usual weight class.
Achievements
- IBJJF No-Gi World Champion, black belt, roosterweight (2025) — first Scottish competitor to win an IBJJF black belt World title
- IBJJF World Champion, brown belt, roosterweight (2023)
- IBJJF No-Gi World Champion, brown belt (2022)
- IBJJF Pan Championship gold, brown belt (2023)
- IBJJF Pan No-Gi Championship gold, brown belt (2023)
- IBJJF European Open gold, brown belt (2023)
- IBJJF Brazilian Nationals gold, brown belt (2023)
- IBJJF South American Championship No-Gi gold, brown belt (2023)
- IBJJF World Championship bronze, brown belt (2022)
- Grapplefest 15 champion, under 65kg