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WILL BROOKS: FROM ROUGH BEGINNINGS TO BELLATOR COMPETITOR

Tonight at 10pm EST. on Spike TV, Will “Ill Will” Brooks will be stepping in the Bellator cage to face Ricardo Tirloni in a lightweight tournament battle.

Brooks will enter the cage with an undefeated record of 8-0-0, which is phenomenal when you consider that he only made his professional MMA debut in January 2011. However, despite an undefeated record and a spot in the season eight lightweight tournament, the man known as “Ill Will” started off life on a tough path…

“I had a pretty rough childhood in Chicago. I spent most of my time there, moving back and forth from the west side and the south side with my mom, my older sister and my younger brother. Unfortunately, some things happened with my mom's personal life when I was 12 or 13 and my dad had to take over custody of my younger brother and I. We ended up moving to the northern Chicago and Milwaukee side of Illinois. It was a difficult transition for me, being so young, to go from being in one environment to another.“

Things would go from bad to worse for the future MMA fighter, as his relationships with his father began to deteriorate, a new relationship would be formed…

“It was just a big step outside of my comfort zone, especially because I'm just a big Momma's Boy. So, once I was away from my mom and wasn't able to spend time with her like I had been, I had some rough times with my father. At that point, we'd visited him off and on but we didn't have a strong relationship. Being thrust into a new environment, I got into a lot of trouble in school; got expelled from a couple different ones. That forced me out of living with him through my high school years and I ended up going to live with one of my best friends, who's been like a brother to me. His family took me in and treated me like one of their own, and their family became my second family.”

Eventually, the troubled youngster would turn to sports, wrestling and football is where he would excel…

“Throughout these times during high school, football and wrestling, and just competing in general, was my outlet. I still had some other issues but I made sure I was able to make it to football and wrestling practice, and those things kept me going down the right road. I've just held on to my competitive nature and my family and friends always believe that I was capable of doing something special if I was settled down. And recently, I've really bought into it and found a lot of success because of that.”

Relationships would be healed to in the fighters future, just read what he has to say about his mother and father…

“I'm good with my parents now though. I've always been really good with my mom but she had her own personal issues to take care of. She was in prison for a while, and that's what forced my dad into coming to get us and take over custody. I've always respected my mother because she's been a trooper. She's been a soldier for her entire life and that's where I get a lot of my drive from; just seeing what she's been through in her life and what she's overcome. To be where she is now, that's really motivated me to work as hard as I possibly can.”

“Same thing with my father – when you're young, it's always going to be that young bull versus the old bull, and 'who's going to be the dominant one' type of thing. He had his share his personal issues that he was working through too, and we all had to jump into an environment that we weren't used to. Having me and my brother, he wasn't used to being a full-time dad. He was doing the best he could but, unfortunately, I didn't make it easier for him and he didn't make it easier for me. I'm been working on my relationship with my dad right now, and I think we're getting better and better. I think we have a better understanding of who we are as people and that helps a lot.”

Despite the resolve of those relationships with his mother and father, a tragedy would befall the fighter in 2011…

“With my second family, I couldn't be happier. Unfortunately, my second mom passed away in February of 2011, and we're still trying to make a transition from that. She was such a huge part of the family. She was basically the rock of the family. If there was ever anything that needed to be figured out, we all went to her. We're all trying to make a transition in regards to that, and my second father is too, because he's never had to take on all this responsibility without his partner.”

Even after suffering through the loss of his second mother, Lori Jakolat, Will would take the lessons learned from her into his fight career and beyond…

“My second mom was supportive of my fight career and my mom and all my family is now as well. Both moms were very supportive, but at the same time, they were like, “Oh my god, my baby is getting punched!” and things like that. (laughs) But my second mom was a huge part of my life, and still is, for all the lessons she taught me. At a time when I was really emotionally vulnerable and wasn't happy with the way my life was going and who I was as a person, she just refused to give up on me, and refused to allow me to give up on myself. I believe she'd be very, very proud of me. I believe she is very, very proud of me, and looking down on me. I try to keep a lot of her lessons that she taught me in my heart. Every time I go out and compete, regardless of whether I win or lose, I try to think to myself that I know she's with me, and I know the rest of my family is with me. All I have to do is go out and do what I've been blessed to do: just go out, have fun and compete, enjoy it and not put too much pressure on myself.”

After putting up a great record of 7-0-0 as a professional, Brooks would go onto capture the biggest victory of his career when he defeated Satoru Kitaoka at DREAM 18. The fight would be a huge upset as Kitaoka had defeated fighters like Paul Daley, Carlos Condit and Takanori Gomi in the past. This is what “Ill Will” had to say about finishing Kitaoka…

“It felt really good going into Japan and finishing Satoru Kitaoka by TKO, because the fight before that, that was my first time going to the judges. I was happy getting the “W” but I'm a finisher. I don't trust judges. I don't trust them. I don't want to leave it in someone else's hands; to decide and tell me if I won my fight. So I'm very focused on continuing to finish fights, and to entertain people. I think people had a blast watching me compete and I had a blast getting the reactions on Twitter and Facebook. I'm just really psyched, man. I'm excited.”

In the opening round of the Bellator Lightweight Tournament, the undefeated fighter in Will Brooks will be facing the tournament tested Ricardo Tirloni…

“My opponent, Ricardo Tirloni, is a huge threat. He's a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and, in a few other fights I've seen, he carries a lot of power in his strikes. He's very tough – I've seen him take some crazy shots from guys and keep on tickin'. I feel I'm going to have to really outlast him and push the pace hard enough where he feels like he has to work a lot harder just to keep up with me. I think he's a really talented fighter and an extreme threat, so I have to be on top of my game. One thing I've done a very good job with is imposing my will. If you give me something, I'm going to take it, I'm going to make you pay for it. That's something I'm really focused on for this fight: I'm going to make him make mistakes, and I'm going to make him pay for it, every single time. I think, with every fighter, there's openings. There's probably openings with my style of fighting that I haven't seen, because I'm still learning. But, based on the video I've seen of Ricardo, there's a few openings that he leaves and I'm ready to take advantage of those. Ricardo is very focused on finishing fights like I am, so, when you get two people like that across from each other in the cage at the same time, someone's getting finished. I think, with this fight, I'm not going to change anything I do. I look for the finish and, if it's there, I'm going for it, whether it's on the feet or on the ground. I definitely don't see this fight going all three rounds, and I'm definitely going to do everything I can to make sure of that.”

If Brooks can get past Tirloni on Thursday Night, he would be one step closer to $100,000 and a title shot against Michael Chandler…

“Winning this tournament would mean the world to me. I can't even put it into words. The biggest part for me is that I really want to dedicate this to my second mom, Lori Jakolat. The rest of my family too, but she believed in me 100% when a lot of people were kind of halfway believing in me – because I didn't give anybody a reason to believe I was going to do anything, or actually follow through with anything. But she believed in me and refused to give up on me. So getting this opportunity to get that belt and win $100,000, it's going to mean so much … I can't even explain it. I'm just jacked. I'm ready to do this thing, man. And it isn't going to be just one time – there's going to be more down the road.”

Despite having an undefeated record, pulling out the upset over Kitaoka and competing in the upcoming Bellator Lightweight Tournament, Brooks is still looking to keep making improvements…

“I'm trying to take everything from everyone. That's exactly where I'm at. I'm trying to make everybody turn around and say, “Damn, we didn't know who that kid was before, but we do now.”(laughs) People have to watch out for me, because I'm gonna bring it every time I'm in the cage.”

Tonight at 10pm EST. on Spike TV, Will Brooks and seven other hopefuls will be stepping into the cage to battle for an opportunity for $100,000 and a Bellator Lightweight Title shot. Also, be sure to check Spike.com at 8pm EST. for six preliminary card fights featuring top prospects looking to impress the Bellator fans.

A special thank you to Will Brooks, David Schwarz and Anthony Mazzuca for this opportunity.

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