Jay Hieron started fighting in 2003. He went 4-0, got signed by the UFC, and lost his first fight in the big show, to another up and comer, named Georges St-Pierre. Hieron’s final fight was at UFC 156 in 2013 vs. a guy named Tyron Woodley.
In between, Hieron fought everyone, everywhere. He lost a split decision to Ben Askren for the Bellator welterweight championship. He won the inaugural IFL welterweight championship. He also fought for Strikeforce, for Affliction, for the IFC, in all earning a 23-7 record.
The post-fight lives of many fighters are grim; Hieron’s, however, is amazing. He fights on, in the movies and on television, as a stuntman. The Thoroughbred’s approximately 100 film credits include Iron Fist, John Wick: Chapter 2, Gotham, Luke Cage, The Purge: Election Year, The Americans, Better Call Saul, Hawaii Five-0, Mr. Robot, Daredevil, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and The Avengers.
In The Equalizer 2 official trailer, Hieron makes an appearance at the 1:30 mark.
In an extended interview with Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting, Hieron, now 41, discussed the long, strange trip, including why he stopped fighting.
Hieron was fighting out of Xtreme Couture when ‘The Natural’ started transitioning to Hollywood, which provided access to some auditions, when there was no fight on the immediate horizon. It was strictly a part-time endeavor, but when Hieron turned 36 he took a break from fighting as the money wasn’t enough, and realized he was fascinated with movie fighting.
“A fight scene in a movie is all the wrong techniques for a real fight,” he explains. … You’ve gotta kinda put it in your brain, ‘Okay, this isn’t for a real fight. It’s to make a movie look good.’ … I had to let my ego down a long time ago to learn film fighting and how to be a better performer in film, just because I wanted to excel and I wanted to do well in it. It’s like if you’re doing a real fight, you have to have that mind frame going in, where I’ve got to learn what truly works in this arena.
The fight business is crazy, and so is the film business. Hieron got through not by luck or happenstance, but by grinding.
You’ve gotta have tough skin, man, Hieron says. You’ve gotta just move forward if you don’t get something. One door closes, another one opens, and that’s just life, right? You’ve got to keep moving, one foot in front of the other and that’s it. It’s not for somebody who really catches feelings.
[Work] is consistent now. I’m blessed, thankfully. … Even now, I’m waiting for auditions or meetings or whatever the case may be. You work a gig then you’re waiting for the next gig. I’m kinda in a place where I kinda know the phone will ring in time, so I’m not stressing it as much as when I first [started]. Like I said, after my last fight, it was a whole new wild path I had to go down and just kinda start from ground zero. I still had to go out and meet people and I did the whole thing, took classes, everything. I’m still working on everything, man. It never stops. The grind never stops in anything you do.
Hieron still trains at Extreme Couture. So does he still get the urge to fight? When he does, he steps into the sparring cage.
“I get it out of me real quick, says a laughing Hieron. Then it’s, okay, yeah, back to the films.
