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.
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