Former GLORY kickboxing world champion Jason “Psycho” Wilnis will be making the move to mixed martial arts after inking a deal with Netherlands based promotion Levels Fight League.
During his kickboxing career, Wilnis faced a who’s who list of top fighters and he holds wins over notable names such as UFC middleweight king Israel Adesanya, Alex Pereira and Joe Schilling.
The victory over “The Last Stylebender” came by unanimous decision back in 2017 in one of Adesanya’s final kickboxing bouts before making the full time move to MMA.
Now Wilnis will follow Adesanya into MMA where he hopes to make an immediate impact with Levels Fight League with his debut fight expected to be announced in the coming days.
“I like to compete and challenge myself. I’ve done kickboxing for years and achieved a lot. Now it’s time to hit them with the smaller gloves,” Wilnis said in a statement to MMA Fighting. “The MMA ruleset is what is attracting me to the sport. In kickboxing you are limited and MMA is an extension and allows you to go further. So that will be fun. The fanbase for MMA is also larger than kickboxing and I want to bring my skills to entertain a new & bigger audience.
“LFL is the perfect event for me to be introduced to the sport. They are doing great things for MMA in the Netherlands and I am happy to make my debut on their event. I’ve been planning this move for a while now and working with my coach Fikri Tijarti, wrestling, working with different bodies in gyms in Utrecht and Rotterdam all throughout lockdown preparing for this move to MMA. It’s going to be exciting!”
Hailing from the Netherlands, Wilnis, 30, has been a professional fighter for the past 12 years so he has plenty of experience as he makes the move into MMA.
Levels Fight League is a new promotion that launched just recently with their first card featuring a number of memorable finishes including Robert Valentin surviving a crazy slam to earn a submission victory in the main event.