As one of Team UK’s elder statesmen on The Ultimate Fighter at 31, you would expect that James Wilks was the one keeping his squad in line and sane in the house for the six weeks of taping. But as it turns out, Wilks got just as much support from the young guns of the team as they got from him as he focused on making it to this Saturday’s welterweight final against DaMarques Johnson.
“It (being in the house) definitely plays on your mind, but it also allows you to focus,” said Wilks. “You haven’t got anything else to think about – like paying your bills, or thinking about the classes I normally teach. You’d like a bit of downtime to go to the movies, watch TV, listen to music, or call your family, but luckily I had a good bunch of guys on the English team, so they were fun to hang out with, along with a couple of the Americans too, and overall the British team was a lot more focused, regardless of their age.”
The TUF9 experience was a unique one for Wilks, and not just because he scored three straight early wins to earn a spot in the finals, but because entering the competition, he was an England native who had made his home in the United States for the last nine years. Must have made for some interesting dinner conversation.
“I feel I’m still British,” said the Leicester native, “but it was a little bit strange, and I don’t think some of the Americans were too happy about it. But the UK team accepted me as their own, which was great.”
Cutting himself off from the outside world for six weeks was definitely an adjustment though, especially considering that he was cutting himself off from his day job of teaching martial arts to everyone from prospective fighters and kids to members of the United States Marine Corps and the DEA. But he did have an ace to fall back on.
“I was in boarding school for ten years, from 8 to 18, so I think that made it easier living in a house with a bunch of guys,” he laughs. “But you still miss the comforts of home, your friends, your girlfriend, and talking to the family.”
If Wilks sounds like a guy who’s got his head straight, he does. His focus is not on the next afterparty or autograph session, but on being a true martial artist, which is something he hopes to impart to his students at his new Lightning MMA academy in California. But in spite of his busy schedule, in his fourth decade on the planet he decided it was time to really take a run at being a professional fighter.
“I’ve definitely gone up and down over the years – I want to fight, I don’t want to fight - and you could see that by the sporadic nature of my fights,” said Wilks, who compiled a 5-2 pre-TUF record that spread out over nearly six years in the pro game. “I’ll fight one or two fights and have a year off or so. But this time I really thought, I don’t want to regret anything. I’m 30 years old, now is the time, the UFC is the place to be, and I really want to make a go of it, test myself and see how far I can go.”
He’s 75% of the way there now, with the last 25% being Saturday’s bout against Johnson. If he wins, he’s got a UFC contract and can focus on life as a full-time fighter, something that he’s prepared to undertake.
“It’s definitely a big change and there are a lot of sacrifices to be made to be training like that twice a day six days a week,” said Wilks. “It takes a lot of mental motivation and you’ve got to decide if it’s really what you want to do. I can’t spend the time going down to the beach and having fun as much as I did before. (Laughs) I’ve got to focus, but if you want something bad enough, you’ll be prepared to make the sacrifices, and that’s what I’m doing.”
On Saturday, he can start to reap the benefits of a lifetime of martial arts training. Pressure? Yes. Is he ready? Absolutely.
“It’s definitely the biggest fight of my life, and certainly not just another fight,” said Wilks. “Being under that pressure and having more at stake drives you to train harder though, and I think it’s gonna drive me to do better on the night.”
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