It’s 12.30pm in Laguna Niguel, California, and Condors’ middleweight, Jeremy Williams, is just resting up at home. “I sustained a sternum injury in my first IFL fight and I’m having a tough time trying to heal it up. I’ve been training, but not too hard – just doing some jiu jitsu, some Thai boxing… but no real hard MMA training right now,” says Williams.
Jeremy was in his teens when he started Thai boxing after shopping around with other fighting styles: “I was about 17 when I took up Muay Thai. I tried wrestling in high school, but I was really bad at it, so I turned to Muay Thai and picked it up fairly fast, and really enjoyed it. Eventually I met a jiu jitsu instructor and crossed over to that. Muay Thai and jiu jitsu are now my two main things.
“I was 19 when I started doing the jiu jitsu and enjoyed that very much, so I decided to give MMA a try because I had the background in stand-up and grappling. I was going pretty well from the get-go, and decided to stay with it.”
Today, MMA is the only fighting system Jeremy competes in, and he has had wins over some of MMA’s most respected fighters including Yves Edwards, which Williams agrees is quite a feather to have in one’s cap. “Yeah, it was good. My coach (Chris Brennan) was originally supposed to fight Yves and then he got cut in training, so I took that fight on like ten days’ notice.
“I actually broke my hand seven days prior to the fight, which resulted in my training and cardio being real bad before the event. Taking the bout on short notice was tough enough, and then breaking my hand: I didn’t train very hard the last week leading up to the fight, but it went well and I got the win. He’s a tough guy though – there’s no quitting in him, that’s for sure.”
Although Jeremy is an orthodox fighter, and despite his right hand being the one broken in training, he still elected to go ahead with the fight against Yves. “I wanted the fight, and it was just the bone on top of the hand, in line with my pinky, so it was a small bone and I didn’t feel it that much during the fight. I felt it a couple of times, but it mainly just affected my training the week of the fight, and then I got it casted the day after we fought.”
Jeremy, what weight division did you fight Yves at?
“It was actually a catch-weight. We were both supposed to be 175, back when he was heavier, and I don’t think either of us made weight. I think I was 178 and he was 179; the weight class was 175. I believe he may have had one more fight after ours and then he dropped down.”
How did you come to be with the Condors?
“I had trained with Marco Ruas in the past, and then when he had the opportunity to create a team, he came to me and asked if I’d be interested in fighting again, because I hadn’t fought for about four and a half years. I kinda quit fighting for a while, and then he came to me and I was really excited about the opportunity to fight under Marco and fight within the team aspect, and I really enjoyed the idea of the IFL, so I figured I’d give it a try.”
Did it feel funny not fighting for such a long period of time, and then getting back in there?
“I didn’t really know what to expect for my first fight back: I had a little bit of nerves, but I was more nervous about being nervous for the fight. Then I felt pretty good and I trained really hard – I think I overtrained, to tell you the truth, for my first fight back, with almost 12 weeks’ preparation. But it was my first time back and I wanted to make sure I was mentally prepared. We were up against the Tiger Sharks and my opponent was Bristol Marunde. I ended up going in there and getting out, without it taking too long and it went well.”
On March 17, you defeated Kazuhiro Hamanaka. Can you give a rundown of that fight, please, Jeremy?
“There wasn’t much to it: I had planned to stay up and I thought he was going to want to stand. I knew he was a really good wrestler and I didn’t by any means think I was going to be able to take him down, so I just planned on standing the whole time, didn’t train much ground, and I had a hairline fracture in my sternum, so I wasn’t getting on the ground too much while getting ready for that fight, and I did mainly Thai boxing in preparation.
“He apparently had a different idea and came out and took me down really quick, and when we hit the ground, I was able to set up a triangle and lock it in straight away. At one time I told the ref I thought Kazuhiro was asleep and the ref told me he didn’t think he was, so I kept it for a little bit longer and he wasn’t moving at all. Then I switched to the arm lock to get the ref to stop it, which he did. But I think they ended up calling it a win by triangle choke.”
Do you think Kazuhiro decided to take it to the ground because of your Thai-skills reputation?
“I don’t know. I think the huge height difference would have been the main reason: He was about 5’9” and I’m 6’2”, and he could see I had a large reach advantage. From his previous fights, I knew he liked to stand a lot, but I do think it was because of my reach advantage.”
Does Marco study your opponents and go through a strategy with you, or do you stick to the same game plan for each match?
“He definitely studies each opponent, but for every person on our team I think it’s a little bit different. Normally for me it’s the same deal: I’m not a strong wrestler and I’m just going to play the fight wherever it is. If it’s standing then I’ll fight there, and if he takes me down, then I’ll plan on getting back up or just submit him. But normally I’m not going to take people down, and I think Marco believes I can stand and that my jiu jitsu skills are pretty decent, so he seems to make me believe he has confidence in me wherever I go.
“There’s always remotely a game plan whether we’re on the feet or on the ground, or whether the opponent is southpaw or orthodox. You know what his main habits are and you want to train for them, but I tend to believe game plans go out the window when you start getting hit. They’re good to have, but for me I fight my game whatever happens – I’d rather just go in and fight and see what happens.”
You concentrate on your own game plan rather than theirs.
“Exactly. I’ve had a problem in the past with worrying too much on what they’re going to do rather than what I’m going to do. ’Cause everybody told me Hamanaka was real tough to submit: He’d fought a couple of blackbelts and they hadn’t been able to submit him; so if I’d watched those fights and let them get to me, I might have changed my mindset a little bit. So I’m glad I didn’t watch too much footage on him.”
“Fiery?” (Jeremy laughs)
Yeah, yourself included.
“Ha, ha. I don’t know… depends on how you look at it. I think that we have one of the more mellow teams. (Now I’m laughing) A lot of people – the Americans anyway – might look at it that way because of all the tattoos and stuff. But overall, I think we have an extremely humble team – training with Marco you kinda have to, because every day you spar with him he makes you realize how much you suck.”
I didn’t mean you weren’t humble guys; it’s just that you all come across as being fiery.
“No, everyone’s real personable and real nice, and we all get along, which is great. I really enjoy training with the team – we’ve got a great group of guys and everyone helps each other; we’ve all got different styles so it helps us to be more complete fighters. I’m real happy with the team we’ve got.”
On May 19, you take on Brian Foster of the Razorclaws: You’ll adopt the same approach for him too?
“Yeah, same thing for him, I think. I’ve been watching him fight for a few years; we used to fight in the same organization back in the day, and he’s an extremely heavy hitter, he’s always in great shape and comes to fight. He’s a really talented fighter and I actually look forward to being able to fight him. I get along with him, he’s been real nice and respectful to me and I have nothing but respect for him, so I’m certainly excited about that fight. I just plan on being in shape and trying to push the action wherever it is, but realistically, I think it will be pretty hard for me to take him down because he’s such a good wrestler, so I imagine we will mostly stand up for the fight. But as I discovered against Hamanaka, you don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
And you’re saying that Brian’s a heavy hitter; how would he compare to you?
“He hits harder than I do, for sure. I’m not a heavy hitter: I think I hit a lot, but I’m not known for having extreme power in my hands. When it comes to Muay Thai, I was always known as a leg-guy – my knees and kicks. However, with those little gloves, I think anyone can get knocked out on any given day.
“Like I say, I think Brian’s a heavy hitter and I’ll have to watch out for that, but I’m not going to worry about it too much – we all get hit everyday by some guys… I have Justin (Levens) to spar with and he’s a great sparring partner for me in preparing for Brian because I would assume he hits as hard, and probably faster than Brian, so Justin’s going to be the perfect training partner for me. I’ll certainly feel like I’m ready for the fight.”
You have a reputation for delivering very damaging knees and for having powerful elbow strikes, but in the IFL you’re not allowed to use elbows. Are you happy with that rule?
“It’s wonderful for me. There are two things I hate in MMA: one is getting stuck on the bottom and stuck up against the cage by a good wrestler, and there’s no cage in the IFL. And the second thing is, while you’re stuck up against the cage, being elbowed. So those rules are great for me.
“I’d be a little happier if there were elbows on the feet, but it still comes down to dealing with cuts, and anyone can lose – whether you’re winning or losing the fight … you can be totally dominating and then the ref has to stop the fight due to a cut. Plus, when you’re fighting every month or second month, you want to minimize the worry about cuts as much as possible.”
Jeremy, is there anything you’d like to add?
“I’d love to thank Marco for all his hard training – all the time, and Debi Purcell, our assistant coach, for always taking the time to help train me and my team mates; and another guy is Tracy Hess who’s one of my main training partners when fights are coming up, and he’s constantly drilling with me.”
Nickname: Spider
MMA record: 10-2-0 (“My real record.”)
Division: Middleweight
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 6'2"
Date of birth: 1 June ’79
Birthplace: Long Beach, California
Home: Laguna Niguel, California
Team: Condors
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