All’s well that ends well, as far as Oban Elliott is concerned.
Elliott (12-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) had been preparing to face Ramiz Brahimaj (11-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at UFC on ESPN 68 this Saturday night at the UFC Apex, as he looks to continue his impressive start to life in the promotion. However, delays in his visa approval forced the UFC to cancel the bout.
“I found out Friday night”, Elliott said during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. “They told me the, what's his name? Emil at the UFC called me (when I was in) in Tesco, I was doing a bit of shopping. (He) called me up, 11 in the night, just basically said that they're going to put it to the matchmaker, that I'm not going to get to the United States on time.
“And I said, ‘oh, what do you mean? What if the visa comes Tuesday, Wednesday, you know?’ Because I would have just had to…it would have been really sh** for me for a fight week to get there at like Wednesday, you know? I'd be jet lagged all week, then make weight. But he said basically the commission wouldn't allow that. And there's still no guarantee that the visa would get issued to you (by) Tuesday which means it would get here Wednesday or you know if it got issued Wednesday (then) it's Thursday so it's just leaving it all to chance, and they made the decision so I was thinking ‘f**k’ you know?
"The Welsh Gangster," who earned wins over Val Woodburn, Preston Parsons, and Bassil Hafez during his debut year with the promotion in 2024, barely had time to process the news of his fight being canceled before the UFC put a smile back on his face with a new matchup.
Elliott is now scheduled to face UFC newcomer Seok Hyun Ko (11-2) when the promotion lands in Baku, Azerbaijan, in just three weeks.
“I just thought it was a case of like…’I didn't pull (out), I was happy to do the (trip) you know, regardless of how inconvenient it was”, he told Helwani. “I was happy to do the fight week like that, but I just thought ‘yeah, well the fight's off. when am I gonna fight again?’ But 10 minutes later (the UFC) kindly sorted it all out so wow…I'm still fighting just a couple of weeks later thank god! Yeah, you know (UFC matchmaker) Sean Shelby pulled through!”
