© Marc Wickert
www.knucklepit.com

24 Oct.'06

Chris Wilson is just heading back to the gym, driving his car over into the Team Quest car park. His training is over for today, so he quickly ducked out to have some food before the interview kicks off. This IFL welterweight for the Portland Wolfpack says he is all psyched up for the bout on November 2nd in front of his home crowd.

But when you see Chris fight, it's hard to believe such a determined warrior originally adopted a fighting art to help defend himself. "I have always been interested in sport and I was an active kid. But I guess I first started doing martial arts because of some demonstrations I had seen – plus the fact I was living in Brazil, and I was a little white kid in a poor neighborhood who had some scuffles and bad experiences there. As I had seen martial artists in action, I thought maybe that would help me out," says Wilson.

Due to Chris's parents being Baptist missionaries, he grew up traveling back and forth from Oregon to Brazil for a total of sixteen years. But it was in Portland, Oregon that he first developed a passion for kickboxing: "My kickboxing started when I commenced high school here in the United States, but then when I moved back to Brazil, I continued doing the kickboxing and some jiu jitsu."

On November 2 Chris will be locking horns with Anacondas' Jay Hieron, and Wilson is very keen to add another victory to his MMA record, whilst competing at what is expected to be a huge event for the IFL semifinals. So knucklepit.com caught up with Wilson to chew things over with him before this much-anticipated meet.

Chris, you do amazing knee strikes – with or without clenching. Where did you learn to do such damaging knees?

"How did you know I was doing good knee strikes? Did you see some of my fights?"

Yeah.

"Oh; I wish I could elbow in the IFL. I've got pretty good elbows too, but we're not allowed. But the thing with the knees: it's always been part of my arsenal just because I come from a striking background, and especially because I've been able to develop the timing on them really well. I've been forced to put my knees to realistic use against some of the top wrestlers.

"If you plan to land a knee on one of the guys in this room, you're going to have to time it right. So it's really helped me to develop that game where, if somebody comes in with a shot, or if they change levels on you, they're usually giving you a good angle for you to come up perpendicular into their chest… or face, as it were."

What seems to stand out about your knees is your ability to deliver such damaging strikes – whether you're holding your opponent, Thai-style, or hands-free in a boxing stance.

"Again, it's really from being forced to practice it that way, because of the people I train with. I've learnt to adapt my knee strikes more to an open range… I need to make this guy get into a certain position to be able to knee him well from the outside.

"So, either you commit to a powerful hand strike, which will make him change levels, which will then help you land that knee from the outside, or you set him up by doing maybe a rear-hand cross, lead hook, and then a rear high kick. The next time you do a two-three, he's expecting that high kick and you blast him with the knee.

"I've kinda had to make those things work from the outside. Because a Thai clinch is different to an MMA one, most of the time I can't do the same things in a MMA clinch: It's hard to work it the same way."

Read the full article at Knuckle Pit – click here.