Levi Jones-Leary "Xanadu"

Levi Jones-Leary was born on March 13, 1997, in Bondi, Sydney, Australia. Before jiu-jitsu, he was already a competitive athlete, having spent his youth in soccer and sprinting, and that athletic background gave him an unusually smooth transition once he began grappling in his mid-teens. Seeking better training and stiffer competition than was available at home, he made the move to Unity Jiu-Jitsu's New York location not long after it opened in 2015, joining a room built around head coach Murilo Santana and star competitors Paulo and João Miyao — a decision that would shape the rest of his competitive career.

Jones-Leary's rise through the colored belts was already noteworthy before he ever reached black belt: as a brown belt in 2018, he swept the sport's "triple crown," winning the European Championship, the Pan American Championship, and the World Championship all in the same season. Santana promoted him to black belt in June 2018 on the strength of that run, and Jones-Leary wasted no time adjusting to the tougher competition. In his first full year at black belt, he won the IBJJF European Open and the Pan American Championship, and in the process handed a loss to all-time great Lucas Lepri — a result that made him, at 21 years old, the first Australian competitor ever to win a major IBJJF tournament at black belt.

That victory over Lepri, along with subsequent wins over accomplished competitors like Roberto Satoshi, Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes, and Renato Canuto, established Jones-Leary as arguably the most successful gi competitor Australia has produced. His game is built around exceptional guard retention — particularly a sophisticated lapel guard — paired with a relentless berimbolo-based attacking style that lets him invert into back-take positions against much of the sport's elite.

In February 2023, Jones-Leary added an AJP Grand Slam gold medal in Australia at 77kg, a homecoming victory that crowned him the top competitor at his weight in front of an Australian crowd. He continued building his no-gi résumé into 2024, winning the ADCC Oceania & Asia Trials at 77kg to qualify for the ADCC World Championship — one of the sport's most difficult qualification gauntlets. Rather than compete at the World Championship itself, however, he chose to accept an invitation to the Craig Jones Invitational, where he reached the final and finished as runner-up after a close decision loss to Kade Ruotolo.

Jones-Leary's career illustrates a path increasingly common among elite grapplers today: relocating young to a world-class team abroad, building a reputation through both gi and no-gi excellence, and choosing opponents and events strategically rather than chasing every available title. As one of the sport's most technically distinctive lightweights — instantly recognizable for his lapel-and-berimbolo attacking guard — he remains one of Australia's most significant exports to the international competitive jiu-jitsu scene.

Guard-retention specialist built around lapel guard control and berimbolo-driven back attacks