Wallhead, hails from Leicester and is a member of the infamous Team Rough House which includes the likes of Elite XC star; Paul “Semtex” Daley, the recent UFC signee; Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy and the FX3 Lightweight World Champion; Andre Winner (Pictures). The former British Judo Youth Team member returns to action just two months after a superb decision victory over the BJJ Black Belt Fabricio Nascimento (Pictures) at Cage Warriors: Enter The Rough House 7 in July.
As well as training with an array of top class UK based talent, Wallhead supplements his MMA training with sessions at the Leicester Tigers RFC Squad. Wallhead regularly trains at the Welford Road ground as part of his strength and conditioning regime, headed-by Ollie Richardson. Wallhead has also travelled aboard in the last month and spent two weeks at the world renowned Xtreme Couture facility in Las Vegas, Nevada; in an attempt to tighten up his game even further.
Since making his pro MMA debut back in April of 2005, Wallhead's aggressive grappling, striking and ground and pound skills, have seen this talented young fighter defeat some top domestic talents such as the Cage Rage Middleweight: John Phillips (Pictures), and the UFC veterans Steve Lynch and Jason Tan. Wallhead has also tasted success against European opposition, with victory in the 2h2h Under 83kg/183lbs "Road To Japan" Tournament in 2006. Where he defeated both the Frenchman Camara Bouna and the Dutch striker Xander Nel in Holland on just 72 hours notice.
However Wallhead's career has suffered several detours with losses at vital times against the likes of Peter Angerer (Pictures) and UFC veteran Dennis Siver (Pictures) in 2006. And most recently a spilt decision loss to the American Top Team fighter Charles Blanchard at the inaugural Cage Warriors USA show back in March. Nevertheless the 24 year old father-of-one, has shown he can rebound from defeat with with four straight submission wins (and success on the Cage Kickboxing circuit) in 2007. Whilst so far this year Wallhead is currently unbeaten in his last two bouts with two solid wins over Tom Haddock (Pictures) and the dangerous Brazilian Fabricio Nascimento (Pictures).
With 10 wins out of his last 12 bouts (in MMA and Kickboxing action) and rumours circulating about his future, Wallhead will be looking to cement his position as one of Europe's top unsigned fighters and put himself in the shop window during this global televised event. However standing in Wallhead's way next Saturday at the Harvey Hadden Centre is “The Brazilian Bad Boy” Igor Araujo. This slick grappler is 7-1 in his last eight bouts and is a black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. student Aldo Caveirinha.
Araujo also comes into this bout with a wealth of international experience behind him having competed in his native Brazil, in both BJJ and MMA competition. And has fought across Europe in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Russia and even Luxembourg.
A former Middleweight, Araujo has mixed it with some top European opposition in the past such as Boris Jonstomp, Jean Francois Lenogue (Pictures) and Krzysztof "Model" Kulak. However as of late Araujo has been on a tear with seven wins out of his last eight bouts. With nine career submission victories, this top foreign import will once against give Wallhead's submission and takedown defence a good work out when they meet in the ring next Saturday in this Welterweight Superfight.
After confirming this bout Tim Leidecker of SLK Management told Cagewarriors.com “The Brazilian bad boy is currently in the shape of his life, winning seven out of his last eight bouts with his only defeat coming by way of decision in the semi finals of an "old school Vale Tudo" tournament in Russia. It had been his dream to show his skills to a UK crowd for a long time and Igor is very pleased to be given the chance by Warrior Promotions and M-1 to fight next weekend.”
Like Wallhead; Araujo has also returned from a training camp at Xtreme Couture as he was due to fight on another show before it was cancelled, which led to the “Brazilian Bad Boy” taking this fight instead. He will be looking to unleash his skills and claim probably the biggest win of his career at the first M-1 Challenge UK show this Saturday.
So with a potential global audience looking on thanks to M-1's worldwide TV deals, will Wallhead take the final step up and break into the lucrative US and Japanese markets. Or will the Swiss based submission specialist have the tools to scupper Wallhead's plans and make his name in this stacked international event.
For more information on this event which includes ten M-1 Challenge team bouts between the Red Devils vs. Team USA & the Russian Legion vs. Team World. Three huge Superfights (which includes Wayne Buck (Pictures) in the main event) and a seminar featuring the former Pride FC star and current Red Devil Team Member & Coach, Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures) (alongside UK MMA Legend Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman, the young upcoming MMA star & current Cage Warriors Champion, Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) and more) go to http://www.cagewarriors.com/event.25.htm, http://www.cagewarriors.com/event.26.htm, or http://www.cagewarriors.com
M-1 Challenge 7th Edition
27th September 2008
Harvey Hadden, Nottingham, NG8 4PB
Doors Open 5.30pm
To see the latest card go to http://www.cagewarriors.com/event.25.htm
Contact Ticketweb.com to buy your tickets today.
Whilst you can buy Seminar and event tickets on-line on Cagewarriors.com
And you can buy VIP Ringside & All Access VIP Tickets at Cagewarriors.com
E-mail Ian Dean for Discounted Event & Seminar Group Bookings
And to find out more about the M-1 Challenge go to
http://www.cagewarriors.com/m1challenge.htm
Keep checking www.cagewarriors.com for more information