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)
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