Team Renegade are based in Birmingham and boast a number of the best talents in the MMA world that train and fight at the Renegade facilities and aim to take the brand with them to the very top.
We take a look at their success so far and aims for the future in the sport.
We take a look at their success so far and aims for the future in the sport.
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00:00 Team Renegade are based in Birmingham and boast a number of the best talents in the MMA world that
00:08 train and fight at the Renegade facilities to aim to take the brand with them to the very top.
00:13 Akon Wanlis is a homegrown talent in the lightweight division as he aims to become
00:19 one of the best fighters on the planet. He's grateful for where his journey started.
00:24 The martial arts itself saved my life, it gave me direction, gave me discipline,
00:28 gave me focus and that's what a lot of young kids need today. They don't have nothing that
00:32 they want to focus on. Without martial arts, Akon doesn't really exist. I definitely would push my
00:39 kids into it, I push any one of the kids into it and even if they don't stick to it and fight,
00:44 I wouldn't steer them into fighting but I'd steer them into getting fit and training some jiu-jitsu,
00:50 training some kickboxing and seeing how their self-esteem improves and how better they do in
00:55 their life. Akon has big hopes for his future in the sport. Every time he trains inside the
01:01 Renegade gym, he's watching the current pound-for-pound greatest fighter in the UK,
01:06 Leon Edwards. So what impact does Edwards have on him as a fighter? You know everyone's here to
01:13 learn so you come in and you're on your own journey in martial arts and you grow 1% each
01:18 day and if you can grow 1% each day with the best in the world, you can't go wrong. Having admitted
01:24 that MMA put his life on track, Akon seems to have a bit about him that could take him a long way in
01:31 the sport. So where did he start and were there any early signs that he could become one of the
01:36 top professionals in the world? So Akon first and foremost is an immense fighter. He is on another
01:44 level, he really is. So that's the first and foremost and then everything else what he has
01:48 is added extras on top. When I first met him, I could see that he had the style potential,
01:52 I could see he had the skills, I could see he had everything. You know I mean just need to guide him
01:56 in the right direction for his career and you know we're on the exact trajectory that we wanted to
02:01 be on and right now everybody in the world can see that he is literally shining like a star that he
02:06 is. So it's a very good moment to see. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and moving to Birmingham at
02:12 the age of nine, Leon Edwards was steered into the sport by his mother to get away from the life
02:18 of drug dealing, street fighting and knife crime. Having become the first Englishman ever to win the
02:24 UFC welterweight championship, what does he owe to his hometown gym team and what are his hopes for
02:31 the future? Great great fighters coming from Team Renegade and I think this is where Mixed Martial
02:36 Arts is at the moment. It's good to see you know, this is one of my main reasons why I stayed in
02:41 Birmingham. Just to give the ricochet feedback for me winning the world title. I can see the
02:47 ricochet in the gym. From rising stars to world champions, Team Renegade simply has it all and
02:54 after watching their incredible effort that goes into the training sessions, there's no
02:59 wonder they're producing some of the best talent on the planet.
03:02 (laughs)