James Wilks Does Not Represent U.K. MMA
by Zak Woods on Jun 21, 2009 2:00 PM EDT
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James Wilks absolutely demolished DeMarques Johnson in the The Ultimate Fighter season 9 finale. It was by far and away the most impressive performance by an English fighter during the entire season.
The positive reviews and early admiration is all warranted except for one dirty little secret that Wilks and the UFC would like you to conveniently forget. Wilks doesn't represent British MMA in the least. True, he is a citizen of the United Kingdom and was born under her majesty's reign but that has no relevance on his skills as an MMA fighter.
Wilks has lived in the United States for the past nine years. That was back when the Unified Rules of MMA were still being written by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. Wilks was present in the States during the entire boom of MMA and has been training in the States for his entire career. Thus James Wilks' level of skill is not an accurate reflection of the quality of MMA in England.
James Wilks is the equivalent of Giuseppe Rossi. For those that are not familiar with Rossi he is an American who plays for the Italian national soccer team. Why? Because he is extremely talented and everyone knows that the U.S. is awful at developing soccer talent. So Rossi, whose ancestry is Italian, got dual citizenship and entered a European soccer farm system. Now he plays for the Italian national team and scored two goals against the U.S. in the Confederation Cup. Would any reasonable person assert that Rossi's success demonstrates that American soccer can now compete at the same level of top European soccer. Absolutely not. If anything his success highlights the fact that American soccer development is sub-par. This is exactly what Wilks' victory demonstrates. It is not a affirmation of British MMA, in fact it is a repudiation of it.
This raises an interesting point, when and how do we associate a fighter and their nationality?
For instance Dan Hardy trains in the United States, does that make him U.S. fighter or a U.K. fighter? Well his citizenship is English but his MMA skills are a reflection of American, not British, training. How do we draw the line? I am not sure where and how it should happen but I do know that in Wilks' case we can conclude that his skills are not a reflection of the talent development in the U.K. due to his nine year residency in the States.
Thus James Wilks does not represent English MMA.
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Erm, yeah, everyone knows this. Literally everyone. It’s not even as if the UFC have tried to deny it, their promo package focused extensively on Wilks living and training in California.
However, Dan Hardy is most definitely a product of the Nottingham Rough House – just because he’s trained all over the world doesn’t suddenly not make him a non-British MMA product. What a ludicrous thing to say. All his main coaches and training partners are British and the majority of his training takes place at the Rough House.
But oh no! He spent a couple of weeks with Freddie Roach and Eddie Bravo! Can we claim him now! He’s pretty much American now guyz rite!!!
Very silly, sub-Sherdog stuff this.
Unless we can claim Rampage, in which case fine.
I think my point was that we can’t consider Wilks an accurate representation of the state of MMA in England bc he has lived in the US and trained in the US for 9 years. Something you don’t dispute besides stating his citizenship is English.
My citation of Hardy was simply to acknowledge the fact that people train in different places and to highlight that it is a gray area. However in WIlks’s case it is not due to the length of time.
Besides as someone who has actually talked to Dan Hardy he does in fact train the States full time now.
watchkalibrun.com
Poppycocks.
Does that mean, in a few short years, we can take Rampage and Kongo as our own? Cor blimey guv’nor!
it has nothing to do with claiming a fighter as English or American or Brazilian or Japanese. The simple fact is that Wilks’ skills do not represent British MMA. it isn’t just training, Wilks wasn’t introduced to MMA in England he didn’t develop his skills in England etc. etc. His career arc does not accurately represent the growth and development of MMA in the U.K.
watchkalibrun.com
Zak – Dan doesn’t train full time in the USA. He lives in the US with his Girlfriend and does travel around and train in LA and LV. But he always flies home 4-8 weeks before the fight to train at the various Rough House bases with his team and is cornered by Nathan Leverton (his UK Jits coach), Jim Wallhead (team mate at RH) and Owen Comrie (his UK Thai Coach)
So don’t try and claim Dan just yet !
Also the difference between Hardy and Wilks is that Hardy rose through the UK MMA ranks. For more Wilks isn’t a UK MMA fighter, just a guy with UK citizenship and i dont think he should of been in the series at all, especally as guys like Jim Wallhead (who came through the UK system) missed out.
I really do wonder
Will we be losing David Beckham as well soon?
“one dirty little secret” – did you actually watch all of the episodes…for instance the one where he talks aboiut living in california and walks the TV camaras around the new MMA gym he is opening in the sunny state.
To me this is ‘one dirty little bitter post’. I really do wonder if not one of the UK guys made it to the final and had not totally cleaned up like they did you would have still wrote this article?
The general feel of this whole post is like your saying ‘UK, your not that good so don’t get to exicted’.
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