Jiu-Jitsu/MMA Champ Sets Sights on Next Goal

Tom DeBlass has always loved to compete.

From the days when he played soccer in the Berkeley Soccer Association, through his track and field days at Central Regional High School and Monmouth University, DeBlass has pushed himself hard and always strived for more.

It’s no different now for the 29-year-old Forked River resident. The owner of Ocean County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Forked River, who defended his light heavyweight championship at the mixed martial arts competition Ring of Combat in November, is setting his sights on a new challenge: cutting 20 pounds and competing for the middleweight title at the next Ring of Combat, set for Feb. 10 at the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City.

“I wanted to set an example to my students to always push yourself,” said DeBlass, who first began studying martial arts when he took taekwondo as a youngster. He took up jiu-jitsu about 10 years ago, and, through the tutelage of Ricardo Almeida, quickly found it was the challenge he was seeking. Almeida is the first American to receive a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and trained directly with Renzo Gracie, a direct descendant of the family that founded Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

“I made an hour and 50-minute trip to Bordentown each week to train with him,” DeBlass said. “I fell in love with it.”

Jiu jitsu, he said, provides what he feels is a more realistic approach to self-defense, concentrating on a weaker opponent being able to defeat a stronger one.

As his pursuit of the sport has grown, DeBlass has competed in a variety of arenas, from the national and the Pan American Jiu-Jitsu championships (he was victorious at those competitions) to the Abu Dhabi Trials, an exclusive competition that invites the top 16 jiu jitsu competitors in the world, he said. DeBlass took the East Coast North American title at the Abu Dhabi Trials in 2009.

The success DeBlass was having on that level is what pushed him to take the next step, into mixed martial arts competitions, he said. His goal is to make it into the Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions.

The Ring of Combat events are a stepping stone to that goal.

“Ring of Combat is a feeder program for UFC,” he said. “It has sent 63 people to UFC and is the longest running regional competition.”

DeBlass hopes that if he wins the middleweight title, it will secure him a spot in UFC. To do that, however, he has to drop 20 pounds, from his current fighting weight of 205 to 185 – a goal he feels certain he can accomplish through a variety of dietary adjustments.

One of the things he likes about UFC is that “It’s a friendly competition,” he said. “After my last competition (his victory over David Tkeshelashvili) my opponent’s trainer, who was from the Republic of Georgia (a former Soviet republic) gave me his dog tags, because he wanted to thank me for showing so much respect to his fighter.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone or be a tough guy,” DeBlass said. “I just want to test my skills and put it to use.”

DeBlass, a 2000 graduate of Central Regional who once held the school’s long jump record, graduated from Monmouth in 2004 with degrees in elementary and special education, worked as a teacher for a few years but left the profession to start his Ocean County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school. In five years the school has gained such a following that he now has 250 students ranging in age from 4 years old to 65. The school offers classes that are tailored to those just seeking self-defense skills as well as those who want to pursue it from a competitive standpoint.

The school and his students have become a family, and they turn out in force for his competitions.

“When I fight it’s like we fight together,” DeBlass said. “The support from the community and the students has been terrific.”

He’s also grateful for the support of his family – fiancée Delilah and 1-year-old daughter Isabelle, as well as his parents. Deeply religious, he relies on his faith in God as well.

In the end, though, he believes the real lesson for everyone is that hard work will take you further than you can possibly imagine.

“(The competitions) show my students I’m a very, very hard worker,” he said. “They learn that no matter what bumps in the road you encounter, if you keep working you can overcome it and do great things.”