Q: Give us a little background into your martial arts training.
Charles Wilson: I started martial arts at a pretty late stage. I didn't start officially until I was twenty-four and since that time I have been doing exclusively Shaolin Kung Fu. You know, that's my bread and butter. It's mostly standup, we do some ground but it's mostly the Kung Fu version of the ground. A lot of leg sweeps and things like that and some of that is acclimated to mixed martial arts but for the most part my traditional training is all Kung Fu.
Q: Are you one of these guys that's holding down a full time job and fighting and training when time permits?
Charles Wilson: Yeah, basically I run a martial arts school. That's what I do for my job. My time for training is when I have a few minutes here or there or if I have an early class I might train but I don't spend four or five hours a day training. I just don't have the time to train like that. I've been training my traditional martial arts for twelve or thirteen years. So every time I teach a punch or throw a punch in class, I've trained it. I don't go eight weeks out and then start hitting it hard. I do something martial arts related every day. So when it comes to fight time, it's about getting cardio up and things like that.
Q: How did you make the transition from Shaolin Kung Fu to MMA?
Charles Wilson: I started out just like most traditional martial artists. I did point karate, did that for years. Did a couple of tours of kickboxing and I liked that but it's limited to only standup, kicks and punches. I did a little Wing Chung which is a lot of close in fighting and again I liked that as well but it was limited. I tried my hand at grappling and liked that, but again it was only one thing, on the ground. I couldn't stand up and use my standup, so that's when I found out about MMA a few years ago. I tried it and that's as close as I can get to using my standup and my close in fighting and my takedowns and my ground fighting so that's where we are now.
Q: I read an interview with you where you said that in point karate, a lot of the technique was getting overshadowed by the "flash." Can you go into that a little bit?
Charles Wilson: That's true. A lot of the times, you know, the point karate and the associations are big business. You would get some high level fighters and it was basically a complicated game of tag, who could touch the other fighter first. It didn't necessarily have to be a good technique or any kind of power behind it, you just had to get in and touch the guy.
Then it became favoring the quick guys or smaller guys because there's only a certain area you can hit and you try to touch him fast and if you touch him you get the point. So you didn't have to be a well rounded martial artist in point fighting. Don't get me wrong, I love it because it teaches you a lot. It teaches you how to be fast, it teaches you timing, and it teaches you ring leadership and things like that but in terms of technique it was limited.
Q: Do you feel that your background in traditional martial arts give you an advantage in MMA?
Charles Wilson: You know what, I think it does. I think it does because I look at a lot of MMA now and I see, for the most part, a lot of the fighters are brawlers. You have guys that are disciplined in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling but outside of that you don't really have a lot of guys that have a background in a martial art. They didn't study or learn stances, blocks, and kicks and punches so when they're tired or when they're facing a guy that's just as tough as them they don't have anything to fall back on. Then they become limited.
You know, you've got two wrestlers that are stuffing each other's shots and then it becomes who gets lucky with the overhand right, not necessarily who has the best footwork, who has the best technique. I do think that sometimes I have an advantage with my traditional martial arts. I don't train like other people train, you know? I run a traditional martial arts school. I train probably one tenth of what your average MMA guy trains. But I do fairly well because I have a lot to fall back on.
Q: Are there aspects of your more traditional training that you've had to weed out of your game because they simply don't work in MMA?
Charles Wilson: You know what? No. I hear that a lot. If anything there's a lot of techniques that I have to take out because they're illegal. I'll still throw my jump kicks, I'll still throw my flashy techniques, it's the same thing. If I were facing a wrestler and he shoots in, I have a hundred techniques that I could use in a street fight but I can't use any of them in MMA. So if anything my techniques are limited, and if given the opportunity to take them out, I can't use them because of the sport. I can't hit the guy on the top of the head, on the back of the head, or in the spine. He can put his head down and put his knee on the ground and there's nothing I can really do except for go to the ground and try to pull guard or something. I don't necessarily weed out anything because there's nothing I won't try.
Q: So what you're saying is that it's more about the legality of the techniques as opposed to techniques that don't work?
Charles Wilson: Exactly, exactly. But like I said, the same moves I throw in point karate and kickboxing are pretty much the same moves that I throw in MMA. The only difference is that now a lot of it is on the ground so I have to adapt. And of course, you know, a guard is a guard and a mount is mount no matter what you're doing. You sit on top of a guy and you punch him in the face and he's going to give it up.
Q: Is your family supportive of your MMA career?
Yeah, my wife, she helps me train. She was actually my instructor in traditional martial arts. She's competed in the World Combat League, point karate, and Olympic style Tae Kwon Do. She's a fighter so it's an opportunity for us to go out and fight and show what we can do so she's behind me one hundred percent.
Q: You've competed in Chuck Norris' World Combat League before. For those who might not be familiar, give us a few of the differences between fighting in the WCL and fighting MMA.
Charles Wilson: The biggest difference would be in the World Combat League, Mr. Norris wants two combatants to stand toe to toe and slug it out. You wear your boxing gloves and for three minutes he wants you to just throw. There's very little retreating, very little countering. You've gotta be fast, you've gotta be strong, and you've gotta be accurate. In MMA you can use the whole ring or the whole cage. You can clinch, if you get tired you can take them to the ground if you feel you're better on the ground. With the World Combat League, it's two guys going toe to toe to see who can last the full three minutes.
Q: Chuck Norris has actually come out and said that the WCL is mixed martial arts. Do you agree?
Charles Wilson: He's trying to combine it but it's just not as full-fledged as regular mixed martial arts. It's the boxing, it's some of the close in fighting that you see in muay thai, and it's the speed of point karate. So in that respect it is mixed, it's just not the ground game. People give Chuck a hard time because he favors that standup but he's been doing grappling for years. You know, he learned how to go to the ground and he's been training with the Machado brothers for years. It's just his thing, he's done a lot of point karate, a lot of full contact karate so he's just going back to what he loves. He knows that ground fighting is an important aspect but he's just a businessman like everybody else.
Q: Have you ever seen Stephen Ledbetter fight before?
Charles Wilson: I have, I actually saw his fight against Jeff Curran so I'm a little bit familiar with him and what he brings to the table.
Q: In your preparation for MMA fights, do you try to watch a lot of tape or put forth a specific gameplan for an opponent?
Charles Wilson: I do, I do. If the footage is out there I will watch it. You'd have to be crazy not to. I try not to change too much. That's where I get in trouble with my limited time to train in trying to adapt to what a wrestler would do or what a grappler would do or whatever. So what I try to do is figure out what their tendencies are and keep that in the back of my mind while I'm training and doing what I do.
Q: Is there anything in particular that you worry about more than others when fighting a guy like Stephen Ledbetter?
Charles Wilson: This fight's gonna be interesting, you know? This is his backyard so he's gonna have the crowd and everybody else pulling for him. He just fought on the big stage so he's not gonna be worried about the pressure or anything. I know he's strong on the ground, his boxing is improving so he is not one to be taken lightly and I have to keep an eye on just about everything that he does.
Q: Do you have a favorite move?
Charles Wilson: I don't, I don't. I try not to look at it like that. I like throwing my kicks and my punches and I'm getting more and more comfortable on the ground so in terms of fighting I'm still learning the MMA game so I don't have any signature moves or anything like that. I'll go to decision if I have to or I'll try an armbar on the ground or a knockout punch standing out. It's whatever works.
Q: Do you have any heroes or mentors?
Charles Wilson: I'm a big fan of B.J. Penn, I like the way he fights and his toughness. I like that he fights at whatever weight class, whenever. I like (Georges) St. Pierre. To me he's one of the most well-rounded guys out there. With his standup, his punches, his kicks, and now his ground is coming along as well so I would say those are my two favorite fighters to watch right now.
Q: Anybody you want to thank or give a shout out to?
Charles Wilson: Just my students back at my school who are always there with me win or lose. They always come to my fights when I'm local and they take my classes and believe in what I do and what I teach. My wife, who is always in my corner supporting me and giving me the time to train when I need to, so my family and my students are the ones I want to thank.