The room is quiet aside from the faint hum of computers. Jason Wilnis is sat in front of a GLORY-printed backdrop doing pre-fight interviews ahead of tomorrow night’s bout with fellow lowlander Filip Verlinden. He’s already discussed his training and game plan. Then he’s asked about how he mentally prepares for a fight.
He leans forward slightly and stares off to one side for a minute. He starts to say something then pauses; he seems to be weighing up whether to let it out or pass on the question. Eventually he elects to say it.
“I think about crazy things before a fight, but it helps me,” he says slowly. “When I think about these things I go out and fight better…
“I don’t think everyone else can do it but my trainer understands it. We talked about it. Maybe it sounds crazy to people, it’s not normal maybe… I think about things like my family being murdered in front of me. So when the fight starts I am ready to fight, I am strong in my head. I am ready to go.”
People in the room exchange glances. They are waiting for the punchline to drop, but there isn’t one. This what Jason Wilnis actually puts himself through before he walks out into the arena for his fight. No wonder he comes out from his corner like a dog let off the leash. No wonder his nickname is ‘Psycho’.
“Yeah my team gave me that nickname a while ago. It used to be ‘Tyson’ but then they stuck that on me because of the way I fight and the way my face is during a fight, they said I look like a psycho,” he smiles. “I think it started as a joke. I don’t know.”
Wilnis is notable for his aggression even in a sport which has constant brutal exchanges as its distinguishing feature. Three rounds of three minutes duration means that the feeling-out process is largely dispensed with in favor of looking to cause immediate damage; kickboxing fights have the highest finish-rate of any combat sport.
In his last fight he faced Joe Schilling at GLORY 24 DENVER. The October bout was a good one – both of them love a war – but ended in the interval before the third round due to Wilnis having dislocated his toe at the end of the second.
“It was my own fault, nothing he did. He put up a block, I kicked it and it crushed my toe. It’s very frustrating, I get mad when I think about it. I had some good momentum before that happened, I was accelerating. He took the first round but in the second half of the second round I had some good moments,” he says.
“I was getting him good with some punches, he was off balance and I was getting him with a straight right hand on the ropes. But then the referee got in the middle of us and separated us for no reason, maybe to save him, I don’t know. Schilling wasn’t down or anything. I could have got him in the third round if I didn’t crush my toe in the second.”
Wilnis now rides a two-fight losing streak and looks to snap that when he faces Verlinden on Saturday night.
“This is the first time we are going to fight. Actually I know Filip for a while, we always see each other at shows, but it makes no difference. We are professionals and this is strictly business. The only person I would never fight is my brother,” he says.
“He’s good, moves a lot, picks his shots. Good with the knee. But I think he has got a weak body and his stamina isn’t that good. My best weapons? My hooks and my low kicks. But I can do it all, I am complete fighter. I am confident I will beat him.
“I see myself in a good spot [in this division]. When I win this fight against Verlinden… I saw that Dustin Jacoby won the Contender tournament and he wants a title shot, this and that. Well let him first fight me. Let him show that he deserves a title shot, because who did he fight in that tournament, some American guys? Come on man. So, I want him after this fight. Then if I beat him maybe I can have his title shot.”
The title currently sits around the waist of Simon ‘Bad Bwoy’ Marcus. He claimed it when his fight with defending champion Artem ‘The Lion’ Levin ended with the Russian walking out of the ring in the third round, having been docked two points for clinching and subjected to a questionable ten-count in the first round.
“I didn’t understand it, why he stopped fighting. He was the world champion so maybe the judges could have helped him in the later rounds. Anything can happen over five rounds so he shouldn’t have given up like that. If something like that happened to me I would wait, stay patient, go much harder in the next round,” says Wilnis.
Going hard is what Wilnis does best. The Dutch middleweight, who fights out of The Colosseum Gym in Utrecht, is known for always pushing for the knockout in his fights. He has a do-or-die mentality.
“It’s a happy feeling. The best feeling. When I knock a guy down or knock a guy out, I want him to know that he shouldn’t have fought me. I like that feeling, to knock someone out or hurt them,” he says.
“That’s what I am in the ring for to be honest. When people talk bad about you, you just want to knock them out. I don’t feel bad about it. I like it. That’s why I am in this sport.”