MMA Fighter and coach James Dixon prepares to appear on Oktagon MMA card

National World - LocalTV

James Dixon’s fighting ability is top drawer but his main passion comes in the form of teaching classes about the sport.  We caught up with him as he signs a deal with Oktagon MMA and speaks about his progress in the fighting world.

Transcript

00:00 As Octagon MMA travels to Birmingham on April 20th, Coventry's very own James Dixon will

00:09 make his debut on the highly anticipated Octagon 56 card.

00:14 Known as the Lionheart, Dixon has achieved so much in MMA, becoming Fight UK's MMA featherweight

00:20 champion early in his career, as well as winning multiple Brazilian Jiu Jitsu titles across

00:26 the UK.

00:27 I caught up with him to find out more.

00:31 So James, just tell me about your journey into the fighting world and where did your

00:36 sort of passion for it all come from?

00:39 When I first watched UFC when I was about 14, 15, absolutely fell in love, fell in love

00:44 with it, knew right there and then that that's what I was going to do.

00:48 You know, so I went out, got a job and that paid for my gym membership and literally since

00:53 15 years old until now, 29, I don't think a week's gone by where I haven't been in a

00:59 gym or haven't at least watched any sort of MMA, you know.

01:02 I've been absolutely captivated by the sport and yeah, it's been all systems go since then.

01:09 James also uses his MMA prowess to coach the next generation of fighters inside Lions Gym

01:15 in Coventry.

01:16 I asked him about the impact he wishes to have on these fighters and how quickly he

01:22 sees the progress.

01:24 Coaching I found, I mean, I sort of accidentally fell on coaching and obviously it's progressed

01:30 to then become the head coach of my gym and to have a plethora of fighters underneath

01:33 me, both amateur and professional.

01:36 And yeah, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, it has improved, you know, my martial

01:43 arts skills tenfold.

01:46 We see that the UFC and MMA is getting bigger every year.

01:50 Are you seeing more young people get into it, whether it be young lads, girls and what

01:55 do you think is drawing them into the fighting world as well?

01:58 Yeah, fighting's been snowballing in terms of all this MMA has in terms of popularity.

02:08 There's been multiple different periods of time where MMA has got massive and probably

02:13 the most recent in terms of MMA would obviously be Conor McGregor.

02:16 Everyone's heard of him and he's really made, at least in the UK, but obviously worldwide

02:22 as well, but at least in the UK is very much a household sport.

02:26 Now, not many people will not know what MMA and UFC is.

02:30 So yeah, yeah, it's been absolutely huge in terms of popularity, kids and, you know, Ronda

02:38 Rousey when it comes to girls.

02:40 It's been nonstop and I do, I don't know where the ceiling is going to be met, you know,

02:44 it's going to continue to be big and I do truly believe it will be bigger than your

02:48 normal Western boxing.

02:51 As James embarks on another incredible journey in the world of professional fighting, he

02:56 will continue to inspire fighters both locally to him in the Midlands and across the UK.

03:03 Thank you.

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