New Labour MP vs MMA fighter: Grappling with ego
Will Stone MP competing in the South West grappling open
6 min read
A new Labour MP is set to go up against a professional MMA fighter, all in the name of charity. Will Stone tells Tali Fraser about the battle ahead, and why he has a 20 per cent chance of coming out on top
Will Stone has stitched himself up. The Labour MP has arranged to take on a mixed martial arts (MMA) professional in a charity fight. Who wouldn’t want to watch that?
Having served in the army, worked as a nightclub bouncer, owned a gym and got to black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the new MP for Swindon North is ready for the challenge posed by his opponent, Matt Inman.
“The odds are in Matt’s favour. He’s a professional athlete, he is better than me, and has achieved more in grappling. But there’s probably a 20 per cent chance I could win. If I can pull him into a certain area, I can win.”
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is most commonly known as ‘murder yoga’. “Yes, murder yoga probably is accurate,” Stone says. It sees competitors engage in grappling, with no punching or kicking.
Will Stone MP in his parliamentary photo
It is a sport popular with celebrities: actor Tom Hardy is a purple belt; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg a blue belt; director Guy Richie is a black belt like Stone. Although Stone had a near miss with one celebrity: “I taught at a charity seminar a couple of years back, and Russell Brand was supposed to be there!”
The man now running Stone’s gym advised him not to go up against Inman if that was who he was paired with, but it made the challenge all the more appealing, even though he previously lost against one of Inman’s coaches, Ross Nicholls, “who absolutely smashed me”.
Stone’s training has reduced since becoming an MP (he used to do 15 classes a week), but he has increased his strength conditioning and training sessions with partners at the weekend, all the while watching old fights of Inman to learn his movements. The kettlebell in his small Westminster flat is proving essential for squeezing in quick workouts.
“I’m putting a bit more effort in. It’s not in front of the TV watching Game of Thrones any more,” he jokes. Stone’s approach to training is one of repetition – drill 50 times, and you’ll get the technique.
“This is the least nervous I’ve been beforehand… Usually, I would really anticipate the week of the fight and become more nervous as it gets more real, but I don’t have the bandwidth to focus fully on this, which is probably a bad thing.”
One of the things I would say to my students is, if I can help you progress your journey in any way, it is to kill the ego
Stone will be competing at Polaris, an invitation-only event and one of the biggest in the world tomorrow. He has previously tried to qualify for the professional grappling showcase: “Occasionally they do trials and the winner would get a slot – I lost twice.
“When I got elected as an MP, Roy, the matchmaker, was like: ‘Do you fancy coming on the show?’ It’s a bucket list. This is the pinnacle of the sport, so I couldn’t really say no.”
Stone winning first place in Kleos grappling competition’s expert division
In the process of his fights, Stone has torn his anterior cruciate ligament twice and “in the 17 years I trained my body, I was always in pain”.
But he is keen not to put people off the sport through tales of his travails. “The injuries people get are mainly self-inflicted. There are always strange things that can happen, but a lot of the time ego is not your friend,” Stone says. “One of the things I would say to my students is, if I can help you progress your journey in any way, it is to kill the ego.”
Is that a helpful lesson for Westminster life? “Massively.” Stone adds: “When we’re talking about new MPs, and I’m not going to slag anyone off at all, it’s such a weird dynamic. You come from being the candidate or the pre-existing MP and in your [Constituency Labour Party], you’re kind of like the world, everybody wants to talk to you. But when you’re here, you’re just another number. I think a lot of people do struggle with that, and ego does get in the way of progress.
“I didn’t make it on the select committee I wanted, which upset me at the time, but today’s a new day, so you just push forward. I know there’s a lot of other people who had the same experience, and for them that’s kind of destroyed them.”
There is a standard reaction in Parliament when people find out he is an expert in ‘death yoga’. “The most common one people say is, ‘Please don’t hurt me!’ And I’m like, well, I’m not just going to start beating people up. I don’t want to get arrested and end my parliamentary career before it’s begun,” Stone jokes.
Stone wearing his Rifles physical training instructor uniform
His parliamentary colleagues haven’t demonstrated much appetite to try the sport for themselves yet. But Stone does flag someone who shows great potential: Al Carns, the veterans minister and former Royal Marines colonel.
“If he wanted to get into grappling, I could probably make him a British champion of his age. I don’t think it’d be too hard to do that. He’s strong. He’s in shape. And, importantly, he’s got a very good mentality.”
It is not the only hobby Stone is bringing to Westminster. He has spoken to Tory MP and former home secretary James Cleverly about their shared love of Warhammer – the tabletop game where players paint miniature figures and battle with them – and wants to set up a group for other fans.
The upcoming fight holds wider meaning for Stone, however, as everyone involved will be fundraising and donating to The Kelly Foundation, a mental health charity in his constituency: “One of my pledges when I was on the campaign was to form a mental health hub in Swindon. Mental health is a huge issue and The Kelly Foundation is probably going to be the best mechanism to grow their organisation to help make that happen.”
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