Athletes
Oban Elliott | Staying Present In The Moment
Welterweight Oban Elliott Looking To Climb The Rankings In Upcoming Bout Against Seokhyeon Ko On June 20, 2025
This was not how Oban Elliott pictured things going in his pro MMA career. Confident from the time he was five years old that he would one day have the three letters U-F-C on his four-ounce gloves, all of a sudden, he had a 4-2 record and a UFC contract seemed far, far away.
Or was it?
“There were a lot less of those thoughts than you might realize, because I was thinking to myself, I was overshooting at the time,” said Elliott. “But by overshooting, it wasn’t in the sense of me overestimating my abilities. I was trying to sprint before I could walk / jog, and I wasn't focusing on the moment in front of me. I was just staring up at the UFC in the distance and I was just trying to cut every corner and do everything I possibly could to get there as soon as possible.”
GET YOUR TICKETS: UFC Baku | UFC 317 | UFC Nashville
That meant winning fights in his head before he won them in reality, and once he was in the cage, he was rushing, eager to get another notch in his belt that would get him to the UFC.
“I just felt like this is a rush,” he continues. “I'm like, I need to get this out of the way so I can fight again and get that out of the way and then fight again, get that out of the way. And then eventually I’ll get my contract. I was just trying to speed that whole process up and, by that time, I was rushing my work in the cage and after I went 4-2, I kind of sat there and I thought, my belief hasn't wavered, but I need to just f**king chill out.”
He laughs. It’s a week away from a trip to Las Vegas’ APEX to face Ramiz Brahimaj on May 31. A day later, those plans changed when visa issues moved his fight to Baku this weekend, when he’ll face South Korea’s SeokHyeon Ko. Inconvenient? Yes. Stressful? Not really. Remember, he learned to chill out back in December of 2021.
And when he returned to the Cage Warriors cage in May of the following year, “The Welsh Gangster” was a different fighter. He submitted Herkus Lukosiunas in less than three minutes, kicking off a four-fight winning streak that landed him a spot on season seven of Dana White’s Contender Series.
Massive Canelo vs Crawford Bout Slated For Netflix
In his Las Vegas debut, Elliott earned a hard-fought decision over Kaik Brito and that UFC contract he coveted. All he’s done since is extend his winning streak to eight with two decisions over Val Woodburn and Preston Parsons, and a spectacular knockout of Bassil Hafez in Madison Square Garden last November.
That last bout at UFC 309 confirmed what Elliott always believed about himself but also backed up the claims of fans and pundits that he is the next big thing at 170 pounds in the UFC.
“I've felt like I was made for bigger things since I was a little kid,” said Elliott, who began training in his native Wales since the age of five. “And I think that's what led to a lot of my frustrations as a kid, because I was a crazy kid. I wasn't happy being at school. I wasn't happy fighting as an amateur. I wasn't happy fighting as an early-level professional because I just thought I was destined to be a UFC fighter and I just wanted to skip that whole start of it because I just couldn't wait to be there. It's crazy you asked me this because when I got to the UFC, that's when I kind of relaxed. You say that it feels like I've been there for 10 years, and it's because I've spent 20 years preparing myself for what I felt was the inevitable.”
I don’t know if “relaxed” is the word I would use to describe Elliott’s run in the UFC thus far, but there is an apparent ease to what he does in and out of the Octagon. From his performances on fight night to his post-fight time on the mic and his dealings with the media, it’s as if he’s trained his whole life for this moment. He’s genuine, isn’t trying to hard to make waves, and when it’s time to fight, he fights. That combination is rare, and he admits to have been chasing this forever. So it’s interesting that the young man with such tunnel vision has his bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of West England.
A backup plan, Mr. Elliott? Not quite, but it was a chance to get a student loan, relocate to an area where he could train in an MMA gym, and get his degree in the process. But the main thing, as always, was the fighting.
“And it paid off, because while I was at university, I had seven amateur fights, signed my first professional contract and I had my two first professional fights right before the time I graduated,” laughs Elliott, who clearly is not counting on a backup plan. He’s all-in on Plan A, and he feels that we haven’t even seen the best of him yet.
FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X | On Threads
But it’s coming.
“Do you know what's crazy about what you just said,” asked Elliott as we discussed fighters who are killers on the regional scene but freeze in the big show. “I felt like I was frozen on the regional scene and truly came alive in the UFC.”
Tags