Our head instructor James “Lightning” Wilks now holds the Welterweight Gladiator Challenge title. Take a look at what sandiegomma.net had to say about James performance:
“The first of two title fights had James Wilks marching into the cage (followed by a giant British flag) to challenge Welterweight Champion Mike Robles. This fight had some interesting dichotomies. For starters, Wilks is 6’1” tall and Robles is 5’7” so, when they had their “stare down moment” while the referee gave his “clean fight” spiel, Wilks practically had to bend over to stare Robles in the eyes. It was a noticeable hunch and did not seem to bode very well for the champ. However, as the fight started, Robles came out and dominated the first round from the outset, throwing Wilks up against the cage and, after some nice knees, Robles slammed him to the ground. All of a sudden, there was Mike Robles, towering over his downed opponent just waiting to fling down a calculated fist. It was a nice reversal of the “stare down” image.
Unfortunately for the champ, when I said the plural “dichtomies” it was because the other dichotomy that came to mind was round one versus round two. While Robles owned most of round one, it was round two where Wilks began to take control. Near the end of the second round Wilks landed a calculated left and Robles fell to the floor. Wilks pounced on both opportunity and opponent and began to pepper Robles with punches.Apparently, though, Wilks wanted to win in a different fashion because he suddenly abandoned his gravity-aided blows to go for a submission which, at 4:27 into the second round, is exactly what he got. Right after the tapout, the two fighters embraced for a few seconds in the center of the ring. Then they announced James “Lightning” Wilks as the new champ. Congrats.”
A local newspaper in England, the Melton Times, also wrote an article about James’ victory at the Gladiator Challege:
“WEDNESDAY, 1pm: Former Burton Lazars man James Wilks is making a name for himself in the martial arts world Stateside.
He began his martial arts training as a child with the Kyokushinkai Karate Club at Melton Leisure Centre before moving to California in 2000 to broaden his martial arts experience.
Having exchanged punches, elbows and knees in the first round against opponent Mike Robles, an experienced wrestler from California, Wilks secured victory towards the end of round two.
His superior grappling skills led to an arm bar, a technique which snaps the arm at the elbow, forcing Robles to submit and earning Wilks victory in the title fight.
James had his first professional mixed martial arts fight five years ago, and after a successful debut, now has a record of 4 wins and two losses.
After a two-year break from fighting to focus on training and coaching students, Wilks returned to the sport this year.
Nicknamed Lightning for his flash fast striking, he has an impressive CV, a small sample of which includes United States Marine Corps Subject Matter Expert in empty hands and edged weapons combat, a blackbelt instructor at tae kwon-do and kickboxing and a pistol instructor with the US’ National Rifle Association.”