Issue 094
November 2012
Submission wizard Jimy ‘The Kid’ Hettes is taking the featherweight division by storm and has captured tons of attention – not that he wants any of it!
NAME: JIMY HETTES
AGE: 25
STARTED: 2009
TEAM: NORTHEAST JIU JITSU
DIVISION: FEATHERWEIGHT
STYLE: GRAPPLING
RECORD: 10-0
When you live in a small broken-down old coal mining town in northeast Pennsylvania – where half its residents are 45 and older, and 10% of all households are living under the poverty line – there aren’t too many ways a young kid can get his kicks.
“You either train or you go to bars,” Hettes explains to Fighters Only of his hometown of Swoyersville. “Some people do both.” Hettes chose only the former, admitting he’s only been in a bar maybe four times in his life. “A lot of my friends went that route… I was fortunate to not get sucked into that type of atmosphere.”
His parents, mother Cathy, a secretary, and father Jim Sr, a warehouse worker until an injury ended his career, sacrificed to give what they could to Hettes and his two younger brothers. “Our parents did the best they could to put food on the table,” he says. “They would cut back on themselves to make sure I had food to eat.”
They also instilled in their children an ironclad work ethic, he admits. Holding down a job, heading to the academy and studying – without really taking a break in between – was normal for Hettes as a teen and into his early 20s. At some point during those years he admits to being taken aback by the lackadaisical lifestyles of his peers.
“I never thought anything of it; I thought that’s what everyone did until I saw how much downtime they had,” he says. And now that Hettes is in the UFC, he thinks nothing of training four times a day. Contrary to other fighters who look upon training camp as a pestilence, the 25-year-old relishes it.
Like so many others, Hettes got his start in traditional sports like baseball and basketball under his father’s coaching. He began boxing at 14, and wrestling in junior high. He then discovered BJJ at age 16, but it wasn’t for any of the reasons often given for someone’s attraction to the martial arts.
He wasn’t bullied in school and he wasn’t an outcast. Instead, he envisioned a career in law enforcement, but knew that not being the biggest guy around, he needed an equalizer to deal with the criminal element on the streets. Hettes began at Gracie Northeast PA, and then moved to the smaller Swoyersville Submission Wrestling.
When he began, he was solely a grappler, entering as many BJJ tournaments as he could, nearly every weekend. One weekend, there weren’t any tournaments, so he took an amateur MMA fight, which he won in a method that has become his trademark – in the first round, via submission.
“After a while, when I had a couple wins, I decided to make it a career,” Hettes says. It was also at his first pro fight when he picked up his ring moniker. One of the officials looked him up and down – saw he was wearing fighter gear – but wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. He then remarked, ‘Who’s fighting, the kid here?’ and Hettes’ nickname was set in stone.
One of his last – and toughest – fights on the regional circuit was against East Coast journeyman George Sheppard at CageFight 6 in November 2010. Sheppard, who had formerly fought at 170lb and was known for his knockout power, did something against young Hettes no one had been able to do up until then – take the fight into the second round. The stakes were higher because Sheppard won round one convincingly, battering Hettes with hard strikes. But he returned in the second, taking Sheppard down and sinking in a rear naked choke for the tap.
Entering the UFC undefeated in eight starts, the slick southpaw was matched up with Ultimate Fighter alum Alex ‘Bruce Leeroy’ Caceres at UFC Live: Lytle vs Hardy in August 2011. Hettes sunk in a rear naked choke on Caceres in the second round – without any hooks in – and got the flamboyant fighter to tap.
Nam Phan, another former TUF competitor, was next up, at UFC 141 in December. And, although this was his first pro fight he didn’t win by submission, his performance was nothing short of masterful. A BJJ purple belt, Hettes easily handled Phan, a black belt, on the ground and made sure it got there by launching Phan with a number of judo throws. Indeed, Hettes’ ground dominance led UFC commentator Joe Rogan to jokingly refer to him as a ‘ringer,’ implying that his belt rank should be much higher than purple.
Despite earning props from both Dana White and Rogan, keyboard warriors wondered after the fight why ‘the kid with no muscle mass’ got to be on the main card, Hettes says. “When I read stuff like that, I just laugh,” he says. And on his belt rank, he believes belt promotions are so often political, a process he eschews, so he’s content with his current color.
Although a rib and intercostal muscle injury kept him out of a fight with Steven Siler at UFC on FX 4 in June, Hettes insists he’s healed and gunning for a swift return. He’s also been training with former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, UFC middleweight Tom DeBlass, retired Brazilian black belt Ricardo Almeida – all in New Jersey – and even Renzo Gracie’s school in New York City.
The group, which also includes fighters Chris Liguori and Kris McKray, is unofficially known as The Iron Army, a play on Edgar’s ‘FE’ nickname, also the periodic table symbol for iron. He still finds time to return to Swoyersville, where he trains stand-up at World Class Boxing with Sean Diggs and at Swoyersville Submission Wrestling.
When in Jersey, he stays with Jerry Nappi, Edgar’s father-in-law; and at home in Pennsylvania, he has a room at a friend’s house. “I don’t need much – a whole room to yourself seemed like a pretty sweet deal,” considering that growing up, he shared a room with his two brothers, he says.
The difference between the two areas is a wide chasm, however. In northeast Pennsylvania, there are some good fighters, but there are also quite a few “hobbyists,” he says. “In Jersey, you have a lot of guys who do it full-time. Some of them are really determined… A lot of the fighters I train with are coaches too, so they don’t show you what doesn’t work. Everything they show you is tried and tested.”
A typical day for Hettes might begin with BJJ at Ricardo Almeida’s academy in Hamilton, NJ, followed by strength and conditioning at All-Star Sports Performance with Brian Blue in Toms River. Then later, another training session with DeBlass or Nick Catone. “Sometimes we go to Elite Wrestling with Steve Rivera,” he adds. “We usually go to Renzo’s on Monday – there’s always good guys on the mat there.”
In July, Hettes, along with the 300 or so others on the UFC roster, journeyed to Las Vegas for the organization’s fourth annual Fighter Summit. They listened to lectures about ways to lengthen their careers, maximize their exposure on the Internet and invest their earnings wisely.
“It was boring as hell,” Hettes says. All the Twitter contests and live vlogging – Hettes says he’d rather hang out with the small but close circle of friends he has, or maybe jump on a skateboard and have his dog pull him around.
He adds: “I don’t like being around a lot of people… Some people like the limelight, all the attention; I’m the opposite. I’m not going to lie – I know there’s going to be some point in my life where I’ll try to make as much [money] as possible – but right now I just want to fight.”
