It’s the name that Lew Long has been calling for for a while. It’s one that has been consistently mentioned by the Welshman. On February 9th Lew ‘The Foot’ Long will finally meet ‘Judo’ Jimmy Wallhead when the new signees to Bellator’s roster meet in Newcastle.
The story of where the seeds of this fight began where told for the first time when I spoke to ‘The Foot’ in a pretty animated phone call where he explained, “Here’s the story, it’s only a little thing, some people might say I hold a grudge but I went to my first ever MMA show ‘Enter the Rough House’ Jimmy was fighting. I was back stage with Ricky Wright and Denzil Thomas. After he finished I asked him ‘has Judo helped you with your MMA?’ and he was like ‘no mate’ and walked off. It always stuck in my mind. I thought one day I’ll fight you for that.”
Since the match up has been made Wallhead has made no secret of his desire to ensure Long regrets calling for the fight. Telling Front Row MMA that, “I’m going in there to f–k him up”, Wallhead has vowed to remind people of his previous calibre. On hearing of Wallhead’s comments Long seemed slightly amused as he joked, “Is that what he said? I just think that’s a bit mean that is,” pausing to laugh he continued, “Why can’t we just all just calm the f–k down and have a cup of tea?” Pausing to refelct Long added, “If he didn’t come in there to f–k me up or hurt me why fight him then?”
“I’m a Valley’s man. We’ve a different mentality down here. Why be angry? So Jimmy is going to kill me is he? Put yer money on me then. There’ll be better odds.”
Reflecting on Wallhead’s comments further Long has his own theory as to why he seems so assertive as he offered, “In all seriousness, he knows. The louder he shouts, the louder the little voice of doubt in the back of his head is gonna shout back even louder. Late at night it’s gonna be there. As the saying goes If there is no enemy within, the enemy outside can do us no harm.”
“It’s a fight that excites me stylistically and physically we match up. It’s a fight! He’s a great fighter. It’s a fight that deserves to be on the main card.”
Long is hoping to come out of the clash unscathed and want a quick turnaround for his return to the cage. As early as the week following the event with an adversary who has particular ties to Ireland. “Ideally I want to come away from this with no injuries,” he said. “I’d love to fight Dillon Danis on the Bellator Ireland card so I can punch him in the f–kin head. I hate the style of BJJ grappling, that annoys me. Looking for leg locks on the floor. People who pull guard, they just annoy me. After Wallhead I wanna punch Dillon Danis’s lights out in Ireland.”