Cage Warriors

“Judo” Jim Wallhead (18-5-0) is another rising UK star who is managed by Warrior Promotions. This 25 year old, Father-of-one has been fighting professionally since April 2005 and has earned an excellent reputation and critical acclaim for his performances which have seen him signed by the USA based Bellator Fighting Championships.

Holding a Judo Black Belt, this three time Under 21 British Judo Champion and former British Judo Youth Games Team Member started his MMA career as a Light-Heavyweight before joining up with the formidable Team Rough House after meeting Dan Hardy on the UK MMA circuit. Wallhead regularly trains alongside Hardy and other UFC fighters such as Paul Daley, Andre Winner and Ross Pearson. Whilst Wallhead is coached by Nathan Leverton (Head Coach at Leicester Shootfighters) and also by Owen Comrie (A former UK based Kickboxing star)

As well as training with an array of top class UK based talent, Wallhead supplements his MMA training with Strength and Conditioning sessions at the Leicester Tigers RFC Squad which is led by Ollie Richardson of www.fighterstrength.com Wallhead has also travelled aboard and has previously spent time at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Nevada; to tighten his game even further.

Since making his pro MMA debut back in April of 2005, Wallhead's aggressive grappling, ground and pound and increasing stand-up skills have seen him defeat some top European based talent such as the former Cage Rage veteran and Welsh Commonwealth Boxing Team Member John Phillips, the UFC veterans; Steve Lynch and Jason Tan and the BJJ Black Belts Fabricio Nascimento and Igor Araujo.

In his short career Wallhead has also achieved many Title and Tournaments wins too, having won the House of Pain British Title against the former WEC veteran Paul Jenkins in December 2005 (just 8 months after turning pro). Whilst in 2006 Wallhead travelled to Holland and won the 2h2h Under 83kg/183lbs "Road To Japan" Tournament on just 72 hours notice. The Leicester based fighter defeated both the Frenchman Camara Bouna and the Dutch striker Xander Nel to win the tournament. (This tourney win should of gaven Wallhead a chance to fight in Japan, however it sadly never materialised)

However the tournament win did give his career a huge boost and another Title opportunity came around a few months later, when Wallhead travelled to Liverpool to defeat Jason Tan in front of a hostile home crowd at Cage Gladiators 2, where he claimed their British Welterweight Title via decision.

Although Wallhead's career has suffered several detours with losses at vital times, he has shown he can rebound and in 2007, the powerful Rough House fighter won four straight bouts by submission and also experienced success in the Cage Kickboxing circuit too. Whilst in 2008 Wallhead's career took a minor hit after he dropped a narrow decision to the American Top Team fighter Charles Blanchard at the inaugural Cage Warriors USA show.

However Wallhead soon bounced back with three impressive victories which also included a “Superfight” at the M-1 Challenge event in Nottingham. Wallhead was then expected to join the cast of the UFC's “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9 show as one of the Welterweight contestants. But despite being the UK's hottest unsigned prospect, Wallhead did not make the final cut which left both pundits and fans puzzled.

Although Wallhead's 2009 campaign was initially delayed due to illness, he returned to action in May with a huge KO win over the Brazilian Fabio Toldo.  The KO was devastating that it led to one of Wallhead's team mates describing it as “one of the worst knockouts they've ever seen." For a full review on that fight go here.

Wallhead then impressed again in September when he won the Clash of Warriors World Welterweight Title by defeating the late replacement and former K-1 MAX East Europe GP winner Marius Buzinskas by rear naked choke after just 70 seconds of the first round. Wallhead dominated proceedings as he scored an early takedown before bundling Buzinskas to the fence and quickly sinking-in a choke for the win.

Then in November 2009 Wallhead once again showed why he is so highly rated when he defeated the former Cage Rage Champion and UFC "TUF 9" contestant Che Mills at Knuckle-Up At The Manor in Newport, Wales. Billed as 'the biggest fight in the domestic UK MMA scene for years' the fight lived-up to the hype as Wallhead subdued his opponent's striking and used his clinch game to frustrate Mills early on, before dominating the final stanza.  Wallhead took Mills down and opened him up with superior ground work, aggressive ground and pound and stinging elbow shots, which left the Judges in no doubt after a 15 minute war.

This win lead to Wallhead receiving a huge amount of media coverage as many pundits yet again expected him to sign for a big organisation as he won 10 of his last 11 fights.  And in December 2009 Wallhead accepted a long term deal with the Bellator Fighting Championships who were following his progress for some time. Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney described Wallhead as “one of Europe’s top welterweights” and also stated that “ Jim will no doubt use our April tournament on Fox Sports Net to introduce U.S. MMA fans to what European fans already know. Jim is the real deal”.  See here for the full press release.

Wallhead will take part in the Bellator number one contender, 8 man Welterweight tournament which kicks off in April and will be distributed live in primetime on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network affiliates. Whilst the top moments from each week’s live events will then be condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show, broadcast every Saturday night, late night, on NBC. And an one-hour highlight show will air in Spanish on Telemundo every Saturday night from midnight to 1 a.m.

As expected Wallhead's deal with Bellator has created a huge amount of interest in the MMA media and Wallhead has already spoken to MMA Unltd and MMA Junkie and several other media outlets about this deal.

Wallhead is set to make his Bellator debut on April 22nd against the unbeaten American Jacob "Tick-Tock" McClintock (6-0-0) in Texas, in the first round of the Welterweight Tourney. WPFM are proud to support Jim Wallhead as he prepares to take the next step onto the world stage, where he aims to make a huge impression in the next few years. WPFM are currently looking for sponsorship opportunities for this top 10 ranked UK and European Welterweight fighter for more information on how to do this please contact his management team below.  

Also check out Jim's official website here and his facebook fan club here

For more information on Jim Wallhead please contact Ian Dean of WPFM.

Likewise if you are interested in sponsoring Jim Wallhead, please contact the WPFM Commercial Director Tony McDonagh