Oban Elliot has so far made a huge statement in UFC with him now becoming Wales’ main man in the octagon cage.
So, what impact has he had representing the nation and what can he go on to achieve at the highest level in one of the toughest sports on the planet.
So, what impact has he had representing the nation and what can he go on to achieve at the highest level in one of the toughest sports on the planet.
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00:00So, James, looking across 2024 and Welsh sport representatives, there's been a fair few fantastic
00:09stories in the world of sport, and I think it's important that sometimes we look outside
00:13of the mainstream football, rugby. UFC, obviously massive and it's a growing sport, really interesting
00:20sport, a lot of involvement in the community as well. Oban Elliott, the Welsh gangster
00:25as he's known, what can you tell us about him and his rise this year? Because it just
00:32seems like he's on this trajectory into UFC now that he's performing at the highest level,
00:39the crowds are coming to watch him and he has massive home support from Wales as a nation
00:44as well. So firstly, what can you tell us about him and how proud are the Welsh nation
00:50to have a representative like this at the highest level in the UFC?
00:54Yeah, it really burst onto the scene. He's been in various mixed martial arts things
00:59for a couple of years now, but he was given his chance in the UFC just around a year or
01:05so ago, and he's won three in a row in the UFC on pay-per-view, the first Welsh fighter
01:09to do that. I don't think that a lot of Welsh fight fans thought it was going to be Oban
01:14Elliott was going to be the flag bearer for Wales, if you'd like. Jack Shaw was supposed
01:19to be that guy. He's had a couple of unfortunate losses recently, so I think that Oban Elliott,
01:25out of nowhere, after a fantastic knockout against Basil Hafez, really just turned it
01:30around. He's come out of nowhere, he did it in Madison Square Garden, one of the most
01:34iconic venues. He had Chael Sonnen singing his praises before it. Fight fans will know
01:41Chael Sonnen is one of the legends of the game. Singing his praises beforehand, spoken
01:46about him afterwards and everything. He looks like he's going the right way. He had an intelligence
01:50to him. He knew to break his opponent down a little bit, and he was going through the
01:57motions, did what he needed to do. He looked like he was winning, but he wasn't winning
02:02on all the cards, so it was never going to be guaranteed. He got his right hook in and
02:05he absolutely floored him, and it was a great moment for Welsh fight fans, absolutely.
02:13Just how far do you feel he can actually go in the sport? We mentioned his rising trajectory.
02:18How far do you feel he can actually get to in the UFC?
02:22Well, the UFC is one of those that you just never know. We all genuinely thought Jack
02:29Shaw was going to be the next guy. We thought that he was going to be the one to take that
02:33step up, but it was an injury loss. He took the one time, which was really unfortunate,
02:41and it just goes away out of nowhere. If Oben Elliott can fight like he did and just fight
02:46the right fighters at the right time, make his way up slightly here and there, a few
02:51fights at a time, he could be a ranked fighter, absolutely. I don't think that people are
02:55looking at him like the next champ, but we'll see where he goes.