Issue 037
May 2008
Welterweight Jimmy Wallhead has been described as a living nightmare in the cage. His unforgiving fighting style has so far escaped the attention of the major promotions as most of his destructive performances have taken place on the domestic scene. However, opponents who underestimate the skills of the Leicester-based fighter often find they have cooked up the perfect recipe for career derailment.
Wallhead went on a brutal tear throughout 2007, finishing each of his four opponents with a mixture of nasty ground ‘n pound and submissions before demonstrating his vastly-improved striking ability in a kickboxing bout to round off an extremely successful year. The former doorman began training judo as a youngster, earning his black belt at the age of 16 along with a string of national junior titles. Wallhead has since put these well-developed skills to good work in the cage, showing flashes of demonic brilliance as he propels opponents to the floor.
As he stumbled from judo into a career in mixed martial arts, Wallhead completely overhauled his training regimen to put him on the path to success in the sport. “I knocked judo on the head and went off the rails a bit, did a bit of bodybuilding, working doors and that. I weren’t really training much. Weights, bits and bobs, hitting a bag – I didn’t do any sparring, just a couple of fights in the street! I was just Mickey-Mousing about, not training properly at all.” All that was set to change following a chance meeting with Dan ‘The Outlaw’ Hardy and Muay Thai trainer Owen Comrie at an MMA show. “They invited me over and it progressed from there; that’s when I started doing things properly.”
Training with the renowned Rough House fight team, Wallhead has taken on a rigorous six-days-a-week programme, driving between Leicester and Nottingham to partake in up to three training sessions a day. Wallhead’s desire to improve does not stop with pure fight training; he and fellow Rough House fighter Andre Winner work on their explosive power in torturous sessions with professional strength and conditioning coaches at the famous Leicester Tigers rugby club. “We’re always in good condition anyway, but I think I’ve got a lot stronger since starting at the Tigers. The circuits are absolutely hardcore, it makes you stronger mentally if you do all that stuff, it really motivates you.”
Motivation is one quality that Wallhead has in abundance. With a driving ambition to fight in the UFC, ‘Judo’ Jim has already given an impressive account of himself against two veterans of the promotion, Jason Tan and Stevie Lynch. He earned a split decision over Tan in one of the most hard-fought and closely contested fights of 2006, fighting Tan on the Liverpudlian’s home turf. “I think I won the fight – I caught him a couple of times, dropped him a couple of times, took him down as well. Everyone goes on about how he popped his knee in the first round, but one thing that I wasn’t going on about was that I snapped my posterior cruciate ligament ten days before and fought with a leg brace because I couldn’t actually bend my leg, so I wasn’t 100% either.”
A year and three vanquished opponents later, the Rough House fighter made an impression on the UK scene as he demolished UFC veteran Lynch early in the first round. “I think the Stevie Lynch win was a good win,” he says. “I was happy with that; I think Stevie is quite a tough fighter.”
Even the toughest fighters have trouble in the face of Wallhead’s furious ground ‘n pound game, a layer of damaging potential that seems to come very naturally for him. “I think it’s from doing all of those years of judo, it gives you a strong base, it’s crossed over quite well. It just comes naturally and I feel very strong.”
Transforming talent, hard work and heaps of potential into a successful career is so often dependent on the chances fighters get to show their abilities in front of a larger audience. As Wallhead struggles to gain the respect he deserves, one such opportunity has arisen in the form of his debut fight in the United States on the Cage Warriors USA show . “I’m looking forward to it. It’s the trip of a lifetime, hopefully the first of many – I’m fighting a decent guy [Charles Blanchard from American Top Team]. It would be good to get some exposure out there. I’ll fight in America, I’ll fight in Japan, I’ll fight wherever.”
“I want to be the UFC welterweight champion. The reality of getting there? I don’t know, there are so many good guys out there – but I’d like to compete at a top level, fight top guys, win or lose and just get as high as I can.”
