Hillary Williams: Best non-Brazilian at the BJJ Worlds
With only four years of training, the American Hillary Willians, got on the top of her career yesterday. World champion…
With only four years of training, the American Hillary Willians, got on the top of her career yesterday. World champion on the medium weight division, Hillary was the only non-Brazilian to win a golden medal on Sunday, but on a chat with TATAME she showed very good Portuguese knowledge. On the interview, which you check below, Hillary talked about her weight dispute, the absolute and her plans for the future, which includes a trip to Brazil. Check below the interview with the champion.
Tatame: Even still being a brown belt you beat Carolina and became the champion. How do you feel?
Hillary Williams: I’ve never been so anxious in my whole life. I saw there were only few athletes on the division, only four girls, but all of them were tough, there were two world champions and a brown belt I beat on my first fight, who was also tough. It’s not easy… I’m getting on the brown belt now and this week I’ll complete four years since I first started to practice Jiu-Jitsu (laughs). For me it’s like a dream come true.
I remember being here, on my first World, I watched the female’s finales and I dreamed about being there someday, even if I was not the champion. Now I am, I don’t believe it… Someone has to prove me wrong (laughs). I fought against Carol in Abu Dhabi and we did the best female fight on the finale, but it was dismissed. She’s very tough and I know that, when I face her, a single mistake can cause me a loss, and it almost did. We went for the judge’s decision and I kept hearing people screaming out things… She was indeed blocking my game, it was a hard fight for me, but thanks God I escaped with the gold.
Tatame: What did you think of your participation on the absolute dispute?
Hillary Williams: I fought once against an American and I won. On the quarterfinal, when I would confront Kyra, and of course that Kyra is much more experienced than me, is fighting for a long time and, when she was with half guard, I felt comfortable, I felt good. I gave her some space and she got my back and beat me. That was my mistake. Yesterday I let it go and I knew I couldn’t do the same today.
Tatame: Now you are a World champion… What do you intend to do?
Hillary Williams: I’ll fight the World in Sao Paulo and other championships in Brazil… I’m crazy to come back there… This will be my last year of college, so for now I’m training and studying. I have a lot of friends I knew on the competitions and then they came to Brazil, so that’s what makes me feel comfortable. Everybody’s nice, there are a lot of great people, and especially the ones I deal with every single day, like Cavaca and all the people on Checkmat. I hope I’ll come back soon.
