Justin Wilcox has been making waves. Within a month’s time, the AKA standout has gone 2 – 0 against quality competition. His opponents share a common bond as both are members of the Cesar Gracie fight team. Top ranked MMA fighter and Cesar Gracie fighter Jake Shields commented to Wilcox after his most recent fight, “You keep running through our guys!”

 Wilcox took a unanimous decision victory against Moses Baca at the Disturbing the Peace show in which spectators and the media on hand called it one of the bloodiest fights they have ever seen. Wilcox opened up a gash on Baca’s head causing a faucet of blood and resulting in 8 staples.


Wilcox followed up his performance with a late submission of Baca’s teammate, the highly touted David “Tarzan” Douglas. Wilcox got rocked early in the bout by a hard combination of punches from Tarzan that sent him to the canvas. “He hit me and my instinct just kicked in to try and take him down.” Wilcox showed the heart we have come to expect from the San Jose based fight camp. He proceeded to take down Douglas at will securing dominant positions most of the time.

“It felt like I was taking him down with one arm at some points.” Justin’s coach Javier Mendez told him not to forget his wrestling. So many fighters get away from their strengths leading to disastrous results. This was obviously not the result as Wilcox dominated the takedowns, along with the grappling aspect of the fight. “I watched a lot of his fights prior to the event and he did not look like he had too much jiu-jitsu. I was able to pass his guard like butter.”

Wilcox is now setting his sights on more prominent fighters within Strikeforce’s more prominent 155lb fighters like Jorge Gurgel and Lyle Beerbohm. The top of the ladder would be another Cesar Gracie fighter Gilbert Melendez with champion Josh Thomson being a teammate and not a likely opponent in the future.

Shifting gears from fighting to family, Wilcox shared how much the two coincide. “It was the family atmosphere that brought me to AKA. My college teammate Josh [Koscheck] was already out here and he kept raving about the training here.” That endorsement helped to seal the deal with the 30 year old fighter as opposed to joining a camp like H-I-T squad. “I started fighting on the mid-west shows and worked with Hughes right before he started the H-I-T squad. I felt I was already a good wrestler and I needed to improve the rest of my game.

Between that and the atmosphere @ AKA is was an easy decision.” Wilcox showed up in Northern California with his wife Leslie and their daughter. Upon their arrival, he lived for a while with “Crazy” Bob Cook at his Gilroy home. Also residing in the house on temporary basis were fellow fighters Pat Minihan, and Matt Major. “It got pretty hectic in that house having a family there and everyone else was single.” However, this open door example that Cook displayed help to solidify that family atmosphere, and reaffirmed to Justin that he had made the right choice in uprooting his family and bringing them to Northern California.

With a firm foundation in both MMA and family, we can only expect big things in the future from Justin Wilcox.

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