It has been a while since we chatted to Jason ‘The Assassin’ Radcliffe. Always easy to talk to and clear about his future goals, we caught up with Jason 7-2 to talk about his last few fights, his feelings about fighting Nathan ‘Mr Bag & Tag’ Jones and his next fight against Curtis Widmer.
We last spoke to Jason before his fight against Marvin Campbell on UCMMA 35. I think everyone was shocked at the stamina and skill of Marvin so we asked Jason to tell us what he was expecting from Marvin on fight night and if he expected him to be so tough.
“I think every opponent has to be tough in some way. I did think he would be a tough opponent and looking at him from across the other side of the cage he looked durable and proved himself to be just that”.
Jason took the win at 3m 13s of Round 3. This is the first time a fight has ever gone past Round 1 for Jason so did he find it tough going into the later rounds.
“I found it very good experience to feel how the third round felt. Marvin was a very durable customer so I just had to dig deep and find a win”.
Jason talks us through the rounds from his view.
“The first round I was just feeling him out to see what he had in his arsenal. The second round was pretty much like the first but I planned to go for the finish. He was holding up very well. So in the third round I had had enough, I was in there longer than I thought I should be so I dug deep and got the finish”.
Many fighters have a kind of alter ego. They are one person outside of the cage and another when they step into it. Jason is no different and sporting masks for his walkout he explains.
“The Assassin is a character. I am Jason Radcliffe outside the cage but once I am in there, I take on the character of The Assassin”.
I wasn’t at Jason’s last fight against Chad Brown on UCMMA 39 back in May. He lost the fight, only the second loss of his career so what went wrong for him in the fight.
“I went into the fight with concussion. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t fight and once I got into the fight itself I was okay. Chad felt strong but I felt he was over thinking so I pushed the pace a little more and went for the take down. As we came down, I landed on the side of my head so my concussion came back and I felt dizzy. I was recuperating from this when he got the triangle and I was caught”.
Taking a loss is always hard for a fighter, especially when you aren’t used to losing and I wonder if it takes a while to pick yourself back up when you do lose.
“I was down about the loss but I am always glad to get back on the horse straight away and get back to winning ways”.
Jason has fought some colourful characters over his career and when I asked him his favourite fight to date, I wasn’t surprised with his answer.
“I guess my favourite fight has to be the one against Jimmy Millar because he did show himself to be the clown that everyone was telling me about. He was definitely pushing my buttons and I happened to miss his singing at the press conference by five minutes. I did enjoy the fight and was happy to get the win”.
When we asked Jason about his toughest opponent to date, I again wasn’t surprised by his answer. I have seen quite a few of Jason’s fights so if I’d been asked to answer the question for him, I would have chosen the same.
“The toughest fight has to be Marvin. Even though he didn’t do too much in the fight, I feel it has to be him as he was durable and we did go to the third round”.
Moving on to Jason’s next fight, we will be seeing him on UCMMA on September 6th fighting against Curtis Widmer who comes from Jimi Manuwa’s Lions Pride MMA. What does Jason know about Curtis and how is he preparing for him.
“I have seen Curtis fight twice already and from what I know of him and his camp, he has good striking and wrestling and good BJJ. He is a good, tough all-rounder so I will have to push the pace on him”.
Curtis is 4-1 and Jason 7-2 so Jason has a little more experience so could this work in his favour and cause a problem for Curtis.
“My experience could cause a problem. I am going to bring something new to the table and hopefully it all goes to plan. My experience could overwhelm him but we will have to wait and see”.
When it comes to records we can see that Curtis has 3 win by TKO and 1 by Decision compared to Jason’s wins of 3 TKO’s and 4 Submissions. Curtis’ only loss came by way of TKO with Jason taking a TKO and Submission loss. Jason also took the Title against Earl Brown on Grant Waterman’s UK1 MMA show. With this in mind can we expect Jason to take this fight to the ground?
“I am happy to go wherever it goes. Anywhere. It is MMA so I am going to fight wherever it takes me and get the win”.
Curtis and Jason enter this fight looking to get that important win. How does Jason see the fight happening.
“I think it is going to be a really rough three round fight which will also be an enjoyable three rounds. I am just going to push the pace on him in all three rounds”.
Dave O’Donnell Promoter of UCMMA is looking forward to the fight and had this to say to us.
“Both of these guys come from great camps and both fighters camps know it is 50/50 and anything can happen. Curtis came from Warrior Challenge and has performed every time he has stepped into the Troxy with two of his fights being Fight of the Night. He does not play safe, it is balls out every time and he is a guy you always want to watch. Both Jason and Curtis will have their hands full. It is a fight you just won’t want to miss. Be there or be square”.
Thanks to Dave for giving us his view on what is going to be an explosive fight. The majority of Jason’s fights have been on UCMMA so we wondered what it was that kept him going back time and time again.
“UCMMA feels like my home ground. I am used to showing up there and giving the fans what they want to see. Dave O’Donnell has always been a good host and the show always turns out to be a great one”.
Jason was due to fight Nathan Jones and it is obvious to anyone who perhaps follows them on Facebook, that there is no love lost between the two of them. It would have been a great fight to watch but the fight was cancelled. Can we ever expect to see this in the future because it is definitely one for the fans?
“I was meant to fight Nathan at Welterweight. Welterweight is a class I will be stepping towards in the future but as we sat and thought about it and checked my weight, we realised we didn’t want to lose a fight due to a weight cut gone wrong. Nathan has lost his last few fights so if he came to Middleweight I would happily beat him seeing as he has been saying how he wants to slap me. So I would love to see this happen at some point in the future”.
Not one to let one side have a say without a response from the other side, I asked Nathan what he thought about fighting at Middleweight.
“I am a Welterweight. I have nothing to prove so there is no need to go to Middleweight. If anything, I need to go to Lightweight. If Jason wants to fight me, he will come to Welterweight as this was where we were originally going to fight for the Fury Title. But I had an inclination that the fight would not go ahead, more to the point, Jason not able to make the weight”.
Oh dear, let us hope we haven’t started another war of words between these two but let us hope we have started the minds ticking over and that we get to see this fight in the future.
Speaking of the future, other than Nathan, is there anyone Jason would really like to face.
“There are a lot of guys at UCMMA and different organisations that are making waves and I like to get in the mix and get ranked. I am, however still flying under the radar”.
Since the beginning of Jason’s professional career back in October 2011 how does he feel he has evolved as a fighter and how does he see himself continuing to evolve.
“I want to evolve in all areas as a Mixed Martial Artist and not be one dimensional. I want opponents to be scared to step in there with me. I have evolved mentally and my arsenal has got a lot better. I am still young and I am still learning”.
Great to catch up with Jason and with about ten weeks to go, we will be keeping our eye on our Assassin and updating you as and when. Thanks to Jason for his time and he would like to thank the following.
“Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far. Thank you to my sponsors; Funky Gums, Cutting Edge Sports nutrition, Amour Wash, Hooligans United and British Fighter. Also to my coaches Alexis and Paul at London Shootfighters and to my management, Mogul Management”.
Written by Suzy Athey, Senior Manager of Athlete Services, Mogul Management.
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