Oban Elliott Calls Out Ranked Welterweight

Published by Paul Browne on March 4, 2025

Oban Elliott Ready To Return To The Octagon

Few rookie fighters in recent UFC history have captured the imagine of the fanbase quite like Oban Elliott (12-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) has. ‘The Welsh Gangster’ put on one of the most memorable performances in Dana White’s Contender Series history in mid-2023 when he rallied to pull off a sensational comeback victory over Kaik Brito and secure a UFC contract.

Having made such a splash upon entering the big leagues, the 27-year-old went on to enjoy an excellent first year inside the Octagon which culminated in him knocking out Bassil Hafez at Madison Square Garden in November.

With 3 UFC wins on his resume in 2024, Elliott has been crying out for a step up in competition, but those calls appear to be falling on deaf ears.

“I thought I would have had a bit of fight news by now”, said the former Cage Warriors welterweight during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show on Tuesday. “I don’t know what’s going on. They must be cooking something big. I don’t know what’s going on, Ariel. What’s going on?”

Elliott Staying Ready

UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs. Brady goes down later this month at London’s 02 Arena, and with the fight card packed with British talent, Elliott revealed he had hoped to given the green light to fight close to home.

“I said, ‘Well, it’d be good to go in March. London will be perfect’. They said ‘That’s looking full’. So I thought maybe it would be the one…is it this weekend with Pereira? (UFC 313)…Is it this week? Yeah, I thought maybe it would be that card. And I’m still waiting, still waiting. But I’m staying ready. And it’s good because I’m in a better place. I’m in it. I’m in it. I’m in a very good place. Very dangerous place now. So as soon as I get that fight news, that’s right. This is it. Hey, Sean Shelby, I’m seeing all these guys get fights booked, but still no news for the biggest, the baddest, the meanest, and the maddest of them all, brother. Let me see it!”

With Val Woodburn, Preston Parsons and Bassil Hafez already on his list of Octagon conquests, Elliott now has eyes on the welterweight top 15.

“I don’t know what’s going on. What is going on?” he asked Helwani frustratedly. “Like, I was sorry to see Carlos Prates got booked to fight (against Geoff Neal at UFC 314) because I would have loved to fight him next. Who are they going to give me? There’s this talk online, me and (Jorge) Masvidal, it’s a fan thing. Nobody knows what’s going on with him. Maybe they’re figuring that out. Who knows? There’s a lot of guys I could get in there with, and I think I’ll beat them all”.

Oban Elliott Calls For Fight Against Vicent Luque

“Well, there’s two, I guess”, Elliott replied when Helwani asked who his dream opponent would be. “I think Masvidal on International Fight Week, come on, that would be out of this world! But I think someone like (Vicente) Luque. He’s just at the bottom of the top 15. I think someone like Luque would be good. Maybe Luque. Because Prates is booked. I kind of wanted that one (Prates). I wanted that one because that’s like, somebody who everybody is kind of scared of in a sense. And we joined the UFC at the same time. So it would make sense to get us in there together, I think. But he’s booked. But they offered me Jake Matthews in Australia, but I was injured. We told him there’s no problem with the matchup there. But I can’t do it. I can’t do that time frame. I can’t fight injured anymore. There’s no way”.