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Tim Radcliffe: Belts are only as good as the person you fought for it
18 Jul 2010
By Jim Page
Tim Radcliffe is a hard-kicking Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert and a thinking man’s fighter in every way. His technical, intelligent approach to the game has so far earned the Nova Forca representative 7 of his 9 wins by stoppage and recently saw him defeat the dangerous young killer, Jason Ball, by unanimous decision.
Tim recently took the time to speak to the MMA Hit Pit about his martial arts background, some of the crazier fights on his resume, future plans and this excellent win over Ball.
(Tim Radcliffe steps in to fight Jason Ball)
How did you first get into martial arts?
Do you know what it was? This sounds ridiculous but it was Rocky 2 – the rematch between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed. It was the first video that I ever saw and from that moment on I actually wanted to be a boxer, but my mum wouldn’t let me; she thought I would get brain damage quite quickly!
She took me to Judo, which started it off. Then I progressed on from that an got involved in Chinese Boxing when I was a bit younger. Kind of followed that for ages then I got a bit bored. You know how when you change jobs? You know what? I’ve done this now, I’m a bit bored… and one of my mates said there’s this grappling thing called Brazilian jiu-jitsu and I had no idea what it was, this was probably around 8, 9 years ago.
I went to this seminar… Jude Samuel was there, Felipe de Souza was doing the seminar and Ricardo da Silva was there, a purple belt. He couldn’t speak any English, he just rocked up. The gym where it was at was in Epsom and we tried to get the guys to teach a [regular] class. I remember getting tied up in knots, thinking, ‘This is brilliant, I’m going to have to have a go at this’ – and Ricardo started taking lessons there.
I was his only student for ages. I didn’t know what I was doing and he couldn’t speak any English, so it was quite entertaining learning jiu-jitsu off him at the time! It was quite funny! Once I started doing jiu-jitsu, I stopped doing everything else and just did jiu-jitsu.
One of the Thai boxers down there said, ‘Oh, there’s this show, Thai boxing and they want an MMA guy on there, blah, blah, you’d be good at it’, so I ended up doing it and I really enjoyed it, started winning and got onto FX3 and that was that really, from that moment on.
So your transition from BJJ to MMA was just on the off-chance?
Yeah. It was maybe 5 years ago on this little show in Herne Bay, it was like this Thai Boxing thing. They [asked me to fight] and because I’d done a bit of stand up before, and I was doing jiu-jitsu at that point, I just thought ‘Why not?’
It sounds a bit nuts, but, I’m a guy, I’ll tick it off my to-do list of things I’ve done like jumping out of planes and stuff. And then once I’d done it I thought, ‘OK, that’s quite cool…’ and once you’ve done it once, people say, ‘Oh, do you want to do it again?’ and I thought ‘Yeah!’
One of the guys I train with is Simon Gill, he was training with Alex Reid a bit at the time, and FX3 was down that neck of the woods, so I got onto that as well. I fought on FX3 four times and that started me off.
Talking early in your career, I was lucky enough to witness your fight with Lee Barnes in Liverpool. That was brutal; that was savage. I had seen you fight a couple of times and thought you were quite good on the ground, but I’d never seen you hammer someone like that. What do you remember from the fight?
I remember taking that with three days notice… which was cool. I thought, that would be cool, I’ll just go up to Liverpool. I spoke to Ricardo and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’
So we rocked up there. I didn’t have a Scooby who he was or what he was going to do. I just remember thinking that he seemed to want to stand, so I thought, ‘Sod that’, we went to the floor and he didn’t seem to have much going on there, so I felt ‘I’m going to end this quite quickly.’
I had never really elbowed someone in the face before at that point and I remember thinking, ‘Can I do it? Can I do it?’ because it’s really weird isn’t it? ... and then, actually, it was alright!
(Tim pounds away with punches from mount position)
Later on you fought another big name in Jason Young. He’s obviously a very dangerous opponent, even if you are a very good grappler and you did well to finish him in the first round.
I didn’t know of him at the time. I didn’t really follow the MMA scene, I just thought ‘Oh, there’s this fight and I’ll go along and I’ll do it.’ again, I took that on a week’s notice, but I think he did as well.
I remember beforehand someone saying that he was really good on his feet, so Ricardo said, ‘Just drag it to the floor and get it over as quickly because you haven’t been training, you fat bastard! Don’t get tired!’ (laughs)
I remember getting the takedown. He made a mistake; he went for a rubbish guillotine which meant that basically he put himself on his back. From there, I think it just played out that he was a bit more inexperienced on the ground, I could see that. Once I got him there it was alright. It was kind of inevitable that I was going to get him.
But to be fair, I remember thinking about how that fight could have been if he hadn’t pulled the guillotine. He was quite difficult to hold down; I thought, if he can keep this fight on its feet, that would have ended differently - but as it was, the submission appeared.
I saw on your record that you fought Joachim Engberg on a K-1 show in Scandinavia a while back. How did you get the chance to fight over there?
That came about through [Liverpool promoter] Chris Zorba actually. I’m not sure how it worked out, but I got a call from Chris and he said, ‘Look, I’ve got this fight, I thought I’d put you forward for it.’ I then spoke to Paul Hennessy and said ‘Yeah, I’ll do it!’ it was on three weeks notice as well.
Again, to be honest, I just thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll just go over to Scandinavia. I’ve never been there; I’ve never been to Sweden before…’ It was just the most professional show I have ever seen. It kind of put the UK into the shade a little bit, fighting in a 5,000-seater stadium. All the fighters got their own changing room. It was very, very professionally run. The crowd was great.
I remember my opponent being really big, because we fought at a catch-weight of 73kg. He gave me quite a good hiding in the first round, got mount, got my back and all sorts of stuff.
In the second round, I got over the nerves of being somewhere else, of being in a ring, which was odd, instead of being in a cage. I got the takedown, got the reversal, took his back and finished him with a rear naked choke which was good – it was great!... and then went out and had a massively good time in Malmec! The after-fight was brilliant!
Unfortunately, moving onto a loss of yours – Francis Heagney caught you with a guillotine not so long ago. How did you deal with that defeat?
I don’t want to bang on about it, but I managed to injure myself really badly about a week away from that fight. I kind of did-it-anyway, thinking I’d somehow pull through, but I cracked a bone in my leg and tore a ligament – just a random training accident where one of the guys went for an easy heelhook and I kind of fell over which cranked it on automatically. I was hobbling around into that fight and I didn’t really move properly and all of that stuff.
It was one of those moments where you learn a lot by thinking, I should have just pulled out of that fight beforehand. But to be fair, he’s tough as old boots that guy and he caused me a lot of problems. It was one of those fights that when I look back, I wish I hadn’t done it because it kind of put me back a few steps in terms of moving on and up the ladder I guess.
You’ve moved up the ladder since, by beating Jason Ball – but if you had the chance to go over old ground and finish off any business with Francis, would you want the rematch?
I would probably make me feel better if I could avenge the loss, but I’m not really bothered by that kind of thing. A loss is a loss, hey-ho. He beat me, it’s all good.
(Tim goes high with the left kick)
In the first round with Jason Ball, I was very impressed by the way you used heavy low kicks to lull him into thinking it was a Thai-boxing match.
Yeah, I’ve been working quite hard, especially since Christmas, on my stand up, my Thai-boxing stuff. I train with the guys at Nova Forca and we’ve got as number of good stand up guys there now. It will always be known as a jiu-jitsu club, but the stand up classes there are getting much better and I’m training with some good guys there.
But I’ve been supplementing it by going down to Keddles and training with those guys as well, kind of through the connection with Jimi [Manuwa], because Jimi trains there and at ours. Because we’ve got that bridged gap, I rocked up there about Christmas time and been fairly regular down there, working on the technique side of thing a lot more as well. I think I’ve put in some good steps, I think I’m getting better on that front.
Do you notice the difference yourself in the gym?
I think so yeah, but because you’re doing it every day, it’s difficult to notice the conversion you make. But when you see yourself fight afterwards and think, ‘You now what, I think I am getting better’, it is always a nice feeling.
Jason had a great second round in that fight – were you worried at any stage?
Well, not worried, but I remember thinking that I’d tired myself out in the first round and there was an element of trying not to get into a brawl with him and try to get my energy back for the third round. So I was trying to stay away of that big right hand of his. He hits well hard that boy!
It’s one of those things, he started to work me out a bit I think, he was cutting me off and I couldn’t go to my right, to his left because he was using the cage, so I was walking onto his right hand a lot. He played the game right and I tried to stay out of that brawl distance that he wanted, tried to gather myself a bit for the third round.
(The Nova Forca fighter lands a straight left down the pipe)
After the fight, a few of Jason’s supporters suggested that you didn’t do enough to win the third round. How did it go from your perspective? Are you comfortable you won that round?
Yeah definitely. The first round I thought was mine, the second round, I thought I’d definitely lost that, but in the third round, I thought ‘I’ve got the control, he’s defending, I’m pushing for the takedown, I’m going forward’ – I get the takedown and then I get control.
In my mind, I won that round. It was close, but in my mind I had no doubt that I was going to win the fight. It was close, but I did the right thing to win the fight, which was just take control and I feel I did that.
It may also have helped that the first round could have been a 10-8 round. To be honest, I have no idea how they judge the fights, but if it is on control of the fight, in the third round, that is how I think I won it.
Does this mean you’ve got a shot at [Ultimate Challenge Lightweight Champion] Michael Pastou?
That was the idea, but they wanted me to fight Michael on the show in September, but the problem is, I’m getting married on the first weekend of October and I’ve got the Stag do on the first weekend of September, so I’m probably not going to be in the best shape. So I’ve said that I can’t possibly fight.
So that put paid to that one because I’m sure Michael won’t want to wait for ages to have that fight with me. So I’m sure he is going to be fighting before we ever get to face each other again I guess. But that’s just the way it goes, to be honest, the wedding is far too important and I’d get into so much trouble!
Congratulations on the good news! What do you think is next for you in the fight world?
For me, I’ve been chatting to my manager. I enjoyed fighting in Sweden and I’m trying to get out more and fight more in Europe. That’s what I’m looking for the most, the adventure of going to other places and fighting other guys.
I’ll be honest, in my opinion, the lightweights in the UK are good enough that, rather than just fighting each other constantly, which is what we all seem to do, it would be good if they all headed out and picked fights with Europeans and further afield.
So I guess that is what I want to do and I’m looking at maybe Finland in November. Nothing is confirmed yet, but it gives me a bit of time to get back in shape. But for me, picking fights with some of the top Europeans and going to some different places would be cool and that’s what I want to do.
When a good fight in the UK is on the cards, then yeah, I’ll do that too. But I don’t want to just keep doing fights in the UK if you know what I mean. I just think it would be more fun to go abroad.
(The elation of victory)
Are you concerned at all about picking up silverware, or is it all about the fights for you?
It’s all about the fights. You know, when you get offered a fight and you think, ‘That’s a really exciting fight!’ Jason Ball was that fight, Abdul Mohamed was that fight, Jason Young was that fight, know what I mean?
To fight good guys that cause you problems, that’s what it’s all about I think. The belts are only as good as the person you fought for it. I’m not so worried about silverware, it’s just about cracking on and fighting the right people I guess.
Fair play to you. Thank you for your time! Do you have anyone you would like to thank?
Obviously, I would have to thank my missus. Thank you for putting up with me. She is always at the top of my list.
Also I put it all down to the people I train with at Nova Forca, Ricardo, Theo and obviously now the guys at Keddles helping me out. All the guys I train with.
Thank you to Primal Fight Gear for giving me all my gubbins, that’s always good, giving me all my kit; and, obviously, my management for sorting out all my fights.
[Pictures courtesy of www.mmapics.com – full gallery available]
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