Judo Jimmy Wallhead’s return to the cage

A huge thanks to Chris, a member of the Cage Warriors Forum who stepped up to write this great article for Warriors Of MMA.

This past Saturday night the 22nd may brought the return of Judo Jimmy Wallhead to the co-hosted Cagewarriors and 10th Legion event at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. Jimmy is what most people would call the unluckiest fighter in MMA with the opportunities that somehow have seemed to evade this very popular, humble and well skilled fighter over the years. Originally tipped to fight the very durable Mickey Gomez who unfortunately had to pull out 3 days prior to the event after sustaining ligament damage whilst in training it would seemed that on such short notice, Jimmy’s bad luck was set to continue and that he wouldn’t end up fighting at all. However, there was one glimmer of hope for Wallhead as UK MMA warrior known for his Cinzano man like attitude of anyone, anytime, any place – Shaun Lomas agreed to take the fight on 2 days notice posing a tough test for Jim as Lomas is very well known for competing in not only MMA but K1 and Boxing. Lomas had no intention of giving Jim an easy ride and planned on ruining the comeback of Judo after such a lengthy lay off.

As the fighters graced the cage that night the crowd showed a mutual feeling towards the cage as to what would happen, a win for Lomas – huge, a loss for Wallhead who knows. They both entered, Shaun sporting the huge smile he always does as this is his way of having fun, and Jim looking more focused, game faced and determined to execute the game plan of which he was bringing to the table and that’s exactly what he did, the fighters shared glares and then touched gloves at the signal of Marc Goddard to engage, the fight was quickly taken to the ground by Jimmy and after some good transitioning he was able to work the choke and finish Lomas in just over 2 minutes of the very first round. It was a pleasure to see Judo Jimmy Wallhead back in the cage and he gave us all an insight into his future with Bellator in his post-fight interview, things definitely seem to be back on track now for Wallhead who improves to 19-5 with a very good performance turned in. Again, respect to Shaun Lomas who took the fight on short notice and was a very worthy challenger however he just didn’t have an answer for Jimmy’s slick abilities.