ANAHEIM, Calif. – Oban Elliott beat Val Woodburn with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC 298 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Take a look inside the fight with Elliott, who survived a big head kick to win his UFC debut.
Oban Elliott vs. Val Woodburn
Result: Oban Elliott def. Val Woodburn via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Updated records: Elliott (10-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC), Woodburn (7-2 MMA, 0-2 UFC)
Key stats: Elliott outstruck Woodburn 136-30 overall and had nearly 9 minutes of control time.
Elliott on the fight’s key moment
“I feel like I’m an experienced professional at this point, and he hit me. I’m not going to roll over. I’m in a fist fight, a cage fight. What kind of fighter would I be if I get punched in a cage fight and go, ‘Oh f*ck. Oh no. I don’t think I can win this’? It was obviously going to happen. You signed up for it, so that’s a bare minimum. You’ve got to stay composed. You’ve got to keep it together and get the job done, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Elliott on his UFC debut fight week
“I’ve had the most mad fight week. I’m literally living a dream. You’re looking at someone living the full-on dream. That’s how I’m feeling. I was on Ariel Helwani, then I had a video message from Chael Sonnen, and then I went and met the U.K. ‘governor’ Mike Bisping, and then I went and bumped into (Alexander) Volkanovski and then I saw Robert Whittaker. I’m like, ‘(Shut the) f*ck up.’ And then I had some ‘secret juice’ with Paolo (Costa) – lots of secret juice. As I was walking out, I saw Wanderlei Silva. … Then I’ve got to try and keep my head together and go out and win my UFC debut against a really good fighter.”
Elliott on what he wants next
“So how long are you gonna be able to enjoy yourself before you focus and get back in there? One thing at a time. I’m just going to be living it up in America for the next week. I’m staying out here. Hopefully I’ll go and wrestle someone on ‘Monday Night Raw’ on Monday. I’d like to do, 100 percent. We’ll see what happens from here, but I’m going to enjoy tonight, take one thing at a time. I’m not sitting here and going to go planning my future fights. I’m going to take in what I’ve just done, which is phenomenal – scumbag like me coming out to California, winning a debut like that. Unbelievable. I am over the moon.”
To hear more from Elliott, check out the video above.
UFC 298 Images
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.
