“I am 10 times the man for it,” Elliott said of his miserable year. “Every setback I’ve had in my life, it’s been the fuel to go. I word-for-word said it — John Gooden came to my house and I said, ‘If I do drop a result, I do lose one, that’s just gonna piss me off even more and push me further to where I wanted to go in the first place,’ and that is exactly what has happened.
“Chael Sonnen said it best, ‘Never piss off a gangster, and he is gonna find out why you don’t.’”
Not that he needed additional motivation or drive heading into what is now a grudge match for him with Micallef in Sydney, but the end-of-January assignment date also allowed the 12-3 talent fighting out of Merthyr Tydfil to channel the emotions from what is always a difficult time into his preparations.
READ: The Ultimate Fight Card Of 2025
“Honestly, Christmas is the most difficult time of year for me because January 5th marks the day my dad died, and this time of year — I don’t mean to get upset now, but it does get me,” said Elliott, pausing to wipe tears from his eyes. “He took his own life, and this time of life marks the beginning of the end of him.
Elliott’s father was the one that first introduced him and his brother to the UFC and set them about training, with the young lads wanting to do anything else but in those early days. Once his father passed, Elliott dove into chasing his mixed martial arts dreams as a way to honor his dad, with his signing with the promotion following his hard-fought win on Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series standing as a huge moment for him and his family.
Now, he’s preparing to step into the Octagon two days after what would have been his father’s 64th birthday, against someone that has gotten under his skin, and it has him chomping at the bit to make the extended voyage back to Australia.
Subscribe to my channel
