Shane Hill-Taylor

His Brazilian teammates nicknamed Shane Hill-Taylor Bruxo, the wizard, for his unpredictable scrambles, and the 2018 Worlds showed why. At featherweight the American beat Thiago Macedo on advantages, Isaque Paiva 2-0, Marcio Andre on advantages as well and, in the final, Leo Saggioro 4-2, two years after getting his black belt.

Born on December 8, 1995, in Suitland, Maryland, he played football and did taekwondo before finding Jiu-Jitsu at 8 at a Team Lloyd Irvin summer camp. He stayed on in the kids program with Donald Achnick and began competing in 2005. He won Worlds as a juvenile blue belt in 2012, at purple in 2015 and at brown in 2016. Lloyd Irvin gave him his black belt in June of that year.

At black belt he took bronze at the 2017 Worlds and silver at Pans in 2018 and 2019, the latter after losing the final to Matheus Gabriel on a penalty. At ADCC 2019, at 66 kg, he lost his first match to Nicky Ryan. In 2021 he won Pans, beating Gabriel Sousa 4-2 in the final, and returned to the world final after getting past Diego Sodré in the semifinal, but was submitted with a triangle by Fabricio Andrey.

In the following years he also competed at lightweight and in invitational events. At The Crown in 2024 he beat Marco Mendes and lost the semifinal to Diego Pato. That same year he had a superfight with Zach Kaina at the IBJJF No-Gi Grand Prix. He still represents Team Lloyd Irvin.