| Jason Ball | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 10, 1983 |
| Other names | Daddy Cool |
| Nationality | English |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 11.9 st (76 kg; 167 lb) |
| Division | Lightweight Welterweight |
| Reach | 74.0 in (188 cm) |
| Style | Boxing, Jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Escrima |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Fighting out of | Yorkshire, England |
| Team | Manvers Fight Factory |
| Rank | purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu green sash in Escrima green belt in Capoeira |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Mixed martial arts record | |
| Total | 28 |
| Wins | 18 |
| By knockout | 9 |
| By submission | 7 |
| By decision | 2 |
| Losses | 10 |
| By knockout | 1 |
| By submission | 4 |
| By decision | 5 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 0 |
| Other information | |
| Notable school(s) | BJJ at Gracie Barra; MMA at Mick Shores Academy; Boxing at Doncaster Pro-Am |
| Website | http://www.jasondaddycoolball.info/ |
| Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog | |
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Jason Ball (born November 10, 1983) is an English professional mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division. He began his professional MMA career in January 2005 as a welterweight, and has held the welterweight belt for the UK based organization Ultimate Force before surrendering the belt after making a career-altering decision to drop to lightweight.[1] He is currently lightweight champion of the U.S based MMA company, The Real Fighting Championships. He received the nickname "Daddy Cool" in a changing room in Germany waiting for a fight because he was notably relaxed and calm, and a training partner (Lanus Jones) exclaimed: "You do realise you're fighting in a bit?!"[2] GroundandPound lists Ball as the #9 lightweight fighter in Europe.[3]
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Ball started out at as a pure grappler, with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu being a focus early in his amateur career. He competed in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu London Open at age 19 as a White Belt, and subsequently took home a Silver medal.[5] After learning Capoeira, he began training in several other martial arts disciplines, including Escrima, Jeet Kune Do, and Dog Brothers.[6] Ball began taking fighting more seriously and progressed to Vale Tudo, Muay Thai, and Boxing to help round out his technique, and he became a natural with his fists in the octagon.[7] Displaying a well-versed arsenal that encompasses both the standing and ground game aspects of Mixed Martial Arts, Jason kept the fight standing up and attacked his opponent with fast hands, winning his first professional fight via corner stoppage.[8]
Jason did the majority of his base training at Mick Shaw's Academy in Doncaster, England. The current training includes several segmented sessions of grappling, one-on-one sessions and boxing in one day.[9]
Jason has trained with several big names, including England's own Ryan Rhodes. Ball has gained a passion for boxing, and has TKOed two BJJ black belt fighters, and there is reason to believe he may pursue boxing professionally as well. Jason also trained with Team Rough House in May 2010, including Ross Pearson and Jim Wallhead.[10]
Ball has gone 6-3 since dropping to lightweight and has not expressed interest to go back up to welterweight. He continues to work on his boxing and muay thai striking because he wants to appeal to a greater audience, since, as he says: "not a lot of people know exactly what's going off when it's grappling."[11]
Jason was due to face Daniel "Denzil" Thomas at Kudegra 2, on October 9, 2010, the promotion folded prior to the event.
Jason Ball faced James Edson Berto for the first time on July 24, 2009 in Tampa, Florida. The fight was a nontitle affair, though James was the RFC Lightweight champion at the time, and it went to a three round decision. To spectators it seemed as though for every punch Berto threw, Ball had three to answer with. Ball won with a split-decision victory, which came as an upset to the Florida audience being that James was a local favorite to win.[12]
The next time these two fighters would meet is November 13, 2009 in Tampa, Florida once again. This time it would be for the RFC Lightweight belt that Berto retained, and it would be five rounds. Berto surprised Ball in the beginning round with a new level of aggressiveness and pace. In addition, it seemed Berto had developed improved ground-grappling skills. This caught Ball off guard for the better part of the first round, though Ball retained a high level of pace and punching combinations. It could be said that for every punch Berto threw, Ball now would return with five of his own.[13] After halfway through the second round, Berto began to show signs of gassing out, and although his punches appeared to be more powerful yet slow, Ball kept a high intensity throughout the five-round fight. Berto attempted to sidestep the flurry of punches by taking the fight to the ground. Ball had outboxed Berto once more, this time more decisively for a unanimous decision victory, subsequently earning him the RFC Lightweight belt as well.
Jason faced grappler Tim Radcliffe June 19, 2010 at the Troxy, London at UCMMA: 13 Feel the Pain.[14] The first round started off with a headkick from Radcliffe followed by two takedown attempts.[15] With two minutes left in the round, Radcliffe finally secured a takedown and controlled the fight with ground and pound. Jason came out more aggressive in the second and stalked Radcliffe, and outboxed him.[16] The third round was the closest of the three, starting out strong for Jason, as well as reversing his position on Radcliffe with a sweep from his back, using his legs. The scores were not announced for the rounds but it was a unanimous decision for Radcliffe.[17]
Despite being labelled a striker by several promoters, Jason has 7 submission victories to his name and is capable of submission off his back, despite only being a purple belt in BJJ. He also has a green belt in Capoeira, one of the disciplines that ignited a desire to learn more about fighting, and to this day his Capoeira training is evident in his feet, picking and choosing his shots.[18] He has a purple belt in BJJ from Gracie Barra.
Jason is revered in his gym for having an iron chin, with his only professional TKO loss coming by way of doctor stoppage due to a badly broken nose against Paul Jenkins.[19] Jason was also involved in a 4-man tournament, and went on to win two fights in one night on November 11, 2006 against Arron Barrow and Dave Hirst, winning both in the first round. He submitted Barrow with an armbar and TKOed Hirst due to corner stoppage.[20] Ball was crowned the Total Kombat Tournament Champion.
Ball redeemed himself against Paul Jenkins by beating him via rear-naked choke on October 20, 2007, and thusly winning the Ultimate Force's welterweight championship belt.[21] Jason would go on to defend the belt two times, once against Arron Barrow on January 12, 2008, and second against Leslee Ojugbana on May 3, 2008. He put Barrow in an arm triangle choke in round 1 and TKOed Ojugbana in round 2.
Jason then surrendered the UF welterweight belt and dropped to lightweight to fight Aidan Marron at 155 lbs. for the first time.[22] He submitted Marron in the first round with a rear-naked choke. About one year later Jason captured the RFC lightweight belt from James Edson Berto on November 13, 2009.[23] This was the first time Jason had gone a full five rounds at five minutes each, and won a unanimous decision against the powerful striker Berto. He kept a diligent pace the entire fight while his opponent showed fatigue into the remaining rounds of the fight.
| Professional record breakdown | ||
| 28 matches | 18 wins | 10 losses |
| By knockout | 9 | 1 |
| By submission | 7 | 4 |
| By decision | 2 | 5 |
| Result | Record | Opponent | Method | Event | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 18-10 | Andre Winner | Decision (unanimous) | BAMMA 7 | September 10, 2011 | 3 | 5:00 | Birmingham, England | |
| Loss | 18-9 | Leonardo Santos | Decision (unanimous) | BAMMA 6 | May 21, 2011 | 3 | 5:00 | London, England | |
| Win | 18-8 | Peter Duncan | KO (knees) | BAMMA 5 | February 25, 2011 | 2 | 2:00 | Manchester, England | |
| Loss | 17-8 | Tim Radcliffe | Decision (unanimous) | Ultimate Challenge MMA: Feel The Pain | June 19, 2010 | 3 | 5:00 | London, England | #1 contender fight for UCMMA Lightweight Championship |
| Win | 17–7 | Tim Newman | TKO (knee and punches) | Fight-Pro UK: Barnsley Fight Night 2 | February 20, 2010 | 3 | 3:10 | Barnsley, England | |
| Win | 16–7 | James Edson Berto | Decision (unanimous) | Real Fighting Championship 19: Revenge | November 13, 2009 | 5 | 5:00 | Tampa, Florida, United States | Won RFC Lightweight championship. |
| Win | 15–7 | James Edson Berto | Decision (split) | Real Fighting Championship 18: Pride | July 24, 2009 | 3 | 5:00 | Tampa, Florida, United States | |
| Win | 14–7 | Alexandre Izidro | TKO (punches) | UF: Oblivion | May 16, 2009 | 1 | N/A | Yorkshire, England | |
| Loss | 13-7 | Mick Sinclair | Decision (unanimous) | CG 11: Resurrection | March 7, 2009 | 3 | 5:00 | Merseyside, England | |
| Win | 13–6 | Glenn Mincer | TKO (punches) | CWFC USA: Destruction | January 30, 2009 | 3 | 1:36 | Orlando, Florida, United States | |
| Loss | 12-6 | Paul Sass | Submission (triangle choke) | CG 10: Clash of the Titans | November 29, 2008 | 2 | 1:26 | Merseyside, England | |
| Win | 12–5 | Aidan Marron | Submission (rear-naked choke) | UF: Nemesis | November 11, 2008 | 1 | 2:28 | Yorkshire, England | Drops to lightweight. |
| Win | 11–5 | Leslee Ojugbana | TKO (punches) | UF: Punishment | May 3, 2008 | 2 | N/A | Yorkshire, England | Defended Ultimate Force's Welterweight championship. |
| Win | 10–5 | Peter Angerer | TKO (corner stoppage) | Gorilla Fight 2 | April 5, 2008 | 1 | 5:00 | Mannheim, Germany | |
| Loss | 9-5 | Eddie Ng | Submission (armbar) | Goshin Ryu 23 | February 23, 2008 | 1 | 0:37 | England | |
| Win | 9-4 | Aaron Barrow | Submission (arm triangle choke) | Ultimate Force | January 12, 2008 | 1 | N/A | Yorkshire, England | Defended Ultimate Force's Welterweight championship. |
| Win | 8–4 | Paul Jenkins | Submission (rear naked choke) | UF 7: 2 Tuf 2 Tap | October 20, 2007 | 1 | 2:37 | Doncaster, England | Crowned Ultimate Force's Welterweight Champion. |
| Loss | 7-4 | Abdul Mohamed | Decision | UF 6: Battle of Waterloo | July 21, 2007 | 3 | 5:00 | Doncaster, England | |
| Win | 7-3 | Kam Atakuru | Submission (triangle choke) | Ultimate Force 5 | May 19, 2007 | 1 | 4:24 | Doncaster, England | |
| Loss | 6–3 | David Baron | Submission (armbar) | Ultimate Tear Up | February 24, 2007 | 1 | N/A | Middlesbrough, England | |
| Win | 6–2 | Dave Hirst | TKO (corner stoppage) | Goshin Ryu 18 | November 11, 2006 | 2 | 1:40 | England | 4-man tournament; second fight of night. Crowned Total Kombat Tournament Champion. |
| Win | 5-2 | Aaron Barrow | Submission (armbar) | Goshin Ryu 18 | November 11, 2006 | 1 | 0:40 | England | 4-man tournament; first fight of two fights in one night. |
| Win | 4-2 | Edgar Pilrimis | Submission (armbar) | Ultimate Force 4 | November 4, 2006 | 1 | N/A | Doncaster, England | |
| Win | 3-2 | Paul Cooper | Submission (arm triangle choke) | Ultimate Force 3 | August 12, 2006 | 1 | 1:55 | Doncaster, England | |
| Loss | 2-2 | Paul Jenkins | TKO (doctor stoppage) | UF 2: Bad Friday | May 14, 2006 | 2 | 5:00 | Doncaster, England | Fight stopped due to badly broken nose. |
| Win | 2-1 | Mark Spencer | TKO | Ultimate Force 1 | October 11, 2002 | 1 | 3:56 | Doncaster, England | |
| Loss | 1-1 | Steve Dawson | Submission (triangle choke) | CWFC: Ultimate Force | May 30, 2005 | 1 | 1:37 | Sheffield, England | |
| Win | 1–0 | Dave Campos | TKO (corner stoppage) | Fight Club UK 1 | January 29, 2005 | 1 | N/A | Somerset, England |