“Mini T” Danial Williams is finding peace and tranquility in his new home in Western Australia.
The 31-year-old fan-favorite will soon return to action against Chinese standout Banma “The Prince” Duoji in U.S. primetime on October 4 at ONE Fight Night 25: Nicolas vs. Eersel II on Prime Video.
That flyweight MMA matchup will go down at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
After years of living in the metropolitan city of Perth, Williams and his longtime partner have recently relocated four hours away to the small town of Manjimup.
The pair had visited the area a number of times on camping trips and weekend getaways, but when a job opportunity for his partner opened up in Manjimup, they pulled the trigger and made the permanent move.
“Mini T” spoke to onefc.com about the decision to leave Perth for the slower pace of a rural town:
“We always wanted to move down there. It’s been a good six to seven years in the making. It was more of like, when I’m done fighting or when we’re a bit older, when we wanna have a family, we’ll move down there. But it came sooner than we expected.
“It’s just a place we always wanted to move down to, to our favorite camping spot. We’ve been there nearly half the year now. And yeah, we’re gonna be there for a long time, I think.”
The change of scenery has proven beneficial for Williams’ mindset.
While he’s revered and renowned as an all-action brawler willing to take on the planet’s most dangerous fighters on a moment’s notice, his fan-friendly style has led to an unfortunate four-fight losing streak.
According to “Mini T,” relocating to Manjimup has been just the change he needed to get his career back on track:
“Obviously, after being on a bit of a skid, you’ve got to look at a few things. Things have got to change. Where my mental space has been, those camping trips led to actually moving down closer to being in rural parts of nature. Moving out of the city has been one of the best things that’s happened so far.”
Being so close to nature – and so far away from the stresses of the big city – has lifted Williams’ day-to-day mood. From green forests to pristine lakes, the region offers a slice of heaven for the Thai-Australian superstar.
He added:
“We live in a beautiful place now. It’s just where all the big trees, big curry trees are. A lot of forests, a lot of dense forest, and a lot of good produce comes out of the city and out of the Manjimup area.
“It’s just where I want to be, [it has] a lot of freshwater lakes and not too many people. I think it suits my vibe and suits my partner’s vibe.”
Williams Details Mental Health Benefits Of Living In Nature
While it’s yet to be seen how the move to Manjimup will affect Danial Williams when he faces Banma Duoji, he can say for certain that it has already improved his mental health by leaps and bounds.
In Perth – a city of over 2 million people – he ran a float tank business in between fights and training camps. That always-on-the-go lifestyle, he said, had him feeling overwhelmed:
“I guess I can get highly stressed over the smallest things. So, just being out in a rural area where everything is a little bit more simple, there’s not too many people and you don’t have too many options for shops and entertainment. So, you kinda get more drawn to the nature, I’d say.”
When life got stressful in Perth, Williams and his partner would find themselves escaping to nature and he would instantly feel recharged.
For the sake of his mental health, the decision to move to the countryside was an obvious one:
“Living a lot more simple has been really good for my mental health because the last few years have been pretty chaotic for me, running a business and fighting. I’m just trying to do too much, and I think that’s why I was doing a lot of camping trips, a lot of escapes.
“Then it got to the point where it’s like, ‘Why don’t we do this full time? We like it out here.’ We love the simple aspect. We love being around nature. So, I think the biggest thing for me, mental health-wise, is just simplifying life and just being where we want to be, which is around nature. Not too much hustle and bustle, which is good for my personality, good for my partner’s personality. It’s been an awesome change so far.”
