It was an ascendent year for 22-year-old Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor, the first African-American black belt World champion in history. 

Jamil, as he's known, hails from Team Lloyd Irvin in Maryland. A homegrown product of the team's sizable youth program, Hill-Taylor was the first of two of Irvin's athletes to claim a World gold medal in June of this year, with Mahamed Aly also taking gold. 

The featherweight technician is considered by his teammates Tim Spriggs and DJ Jackson to be the no.1 guy in the gym, and despite his young age he's the first guy people go to with questions about a move or tricky position. 

Hill-Taylor returns to action at the Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship where he will appear in a special no-gi superfight. We caught up with him shortly before he flew out to South Korea to find out what he's been up to. 

Hywel Teague: Jamil, we’ve not seen you a ton since you won Worlds back in June. What have you been up to since then? 

Jamil Hill: The same I thing I was doing before! Teaching training, competitions and seminars. I've done a few competitions since then but not a whole lot. 

HT: You were supposed to compete at No-Gi Pans, what happened there? 

JH: I've had a lingering injury since earlier this year. It got aggravated at Spyder and I didn't let it heal all the way before training again and it got aggravated again at the DC open. I was trying my best to do No-Gi Pans but me and my coaches thought it would be a smarter decision to sit that one out and heal up. 

HT: You’re coming back on Nov 3 for a special no-gi superfight on Korean event Spyder Invitational BJJ Championship. What do you know about your opponent Junyong Cho? 

JH: I don't know too much about him. I saw him fight against Jonnatas Gracie at the Spyder qualifiers earlier this year. He seems to be a tough competitor so I'm looking forward to having a match with him. 

HT: What are your impressions on the jujitsu scene in Korea? You’ve been out there a few times now. 

JH: The jiu-jitsu scene in Korea is awesome! There's a lot of people that support the Spyder events and come watch and meet all the athletes. It makes the event even more fun because the whole crowd is super excited. 

HT: Did you enough doing commentary for Spyder? You proved to be an excellent analyst.

JH: Yes I enjoyed doing commentary a lot. I didn't think I would like it at first but once I started it was super fun! I will probably do more commentary for Spyder or maybe other events in the future if I'm not competing in it.

HT: What's it like competing in superfights instead of tournaments? How does the experience differ? 

JH: It's the same for me. Of course super fights involve prize money and most tournaments don't but when I compete I don't think about the money until after so the preparation for the match is the same as it would be for a tournament. Some people do a lot of game planning for specific people and things like that but I don't focus too much on that. I address a few things the person may like to do but I mainly focus on myself and making sure I'm at my best. 

HT: It's been a few months now since you won Worlds. You had a match on the last Spyder event where you lost to AOJ brown belt Johnatha Alves. Tell me what happened in that match, and how do you feel about the result?

JH: It was a fun match. Everyone should go watch it. I have no other comment about it. 

HT: Was there any soul searching or difficulty after that result? To go from having won Worlds, to losing to a brown belt in the next event? How did you cope with that situation?

JH: No not at all. I was on to the next.

HT: Apart from the match with Junyong Cho, what else have you got coming up?

JH: I'll be competing at the NY open on November 16 and after that the main thing I'll be focusing on is finishing the school semester and maybe some seminars and instructionals

Watch The Spyder Championship Finals LIVE 

9.30PM CST | Nov. 2