Craig Willingham Jr. signs with SuckerPunch, ready for professional “Grown man business”
The signing season is among us, as SuckerPunch Entertainment signed another top prospect heading into his professional career with world class management. Last week, the news broke that undefeated knockout artist and CFS welterweight champ, Craig Willingham Jr. is now formally “Represented” and signed with SuckerPunch Entertainment.
SuckerPunch Entertainment, spearheaded by Brian Butler Au, and Bryan Hamper, represent the likes of top UFC prospects and champions such as woman’s strawweight champion Zhang Weili, lightweight contender Paul Felder, Carla Esparza and many others.
Willingham Jr. spectacularly made waves in his amateur career by finishing each of his opponents via KO/TKO within the distance. Only two years into his MMA career, the top prospect welterweight sports a spotless record of 6-0.
“First off, it’s an honor to be able to work with such a great company and it feels good to know my work isn’t going unnoticed,” Willingham says. “Everything that happened last year was planned.”
The undefeated welterweight continues with, “I messaged Hamper a year ago, after my second fight and asked to be on CFS. Same goes for Suckerpunch. They sign the best fighters in the world, so I knew by signing with them it would solidify what I already know, which is, that I am a future world champion!”
Craig Willingham was last in the cage in December, 2019 at CFS 4 where he defeated Marc Ari-Lewis via TKO in round 3 to capture the CFS welterweight strap. “Earlier in the year (2019) when I first messaged Hamper, I knew I didn’t have enough experience to fight on such a big show. So, the plan was to fight every month and then when the next card came up, they couldn’t deny me,” Willingham says. “ Each show kept getting pushed back, so I ended up fighting 4-5 times by the time the next show came (and) they announced the tournament. The winner, being crowned CFS Champion but also a shot a management contract with Suckerpunch. Since I fought so frequently, it made me a top contender and gave me a shot at getting the (CFS) title and also the contract,” Willingham proudly states.
“Why SuckerPunch?”, the undefeated prospect rhetorically asks. “Well, what really sold me was the fact that the Bryan Hamper has always kept it straight with me from the beginning.” Willingham continues with, “whenever I had any questions about the MMA world, he’s always quick with a response. Super helpful but super professional!”
Although no immediate plans are set for Willingham to make his professional debut, “due to the world pandemic,” the knockout artist left a message for future opponents: “Its not a game when you get in there with me! It’s grown man business,” from this point out, for Willingham!
