Las Vegas – Heavyweight Elisha Ellison had his number drawn in the Gable Steveson lottery, and will welcome the Olympic gold medalist to the octagon at UFC 329 on Saturday.
Ellison is 0-1 in the UFC himself, after the “Snack Panther” fell to Brando Peričić in Australia last September. He’s 5-2 overall, and sounds confident heading into the fight with Steveson.
“We get to show the world what we already know, and that will be a win,” he exclaimed during this week’s UFC 329 media day. The pair face off as part of the event’s preliminary card.
Steveson is just 3-0 in MMA himself, green even for a promotional newcomer. “Anybody coming in, especially a big promotion, the UFC, 3-0, you’d be a fool not to call him green,” noted Ellison. “That doesn’t mean I’m writing him off, he obviously has tremendous competition experience in the Olympics, and collegiate wrestling.”
In his own UFC debut, Ellison tried to act like “I’d been there and done this,” especially since he’s got a teammate in the promotion and had been out to events before. He’s learned that “Just being able to embrace it, this is a blessing to be here. Not a lot of people get this opportunity, especially in the UFC.”
While his debut didn’t go his way, “it gave me fight week experience, it showed me some things I needed to clean up, a lot, in my fight game. And we’ve been able to do that, that’s why the layoff was so long,” he added. “So just going out there and showing the people what we’ve worked on, the results, it’ll be worth it.”
A former police officer, Elisha Ellison almost didn’t make it to this moment. There was a point, a low in his former career, where he nearly took his own life. There would have been no UFC debut, no fight on a Conor McGregor card.
“First responders, we see a lot. We go through a lot. I was just dealing with a lot from the military, I didn’t take care of it mentally and it bled over into my law enforcement life. I ended up getting put on admin leave, and I was going to shoot myself,” Ellison revealed. “And thankfully I had a buddy of mine call me at the last second. He and Jesus Christ saved my life.”
His advice to anyone suffering as he once did is simple. “Go get help, bro,” Ellison stated. “I feel like I’m talking to the men out there. We deal with a lot, and we don’t talk about it. Go get help, go talk to somebody. Ultimately, martial arts has been a good outlet for me, therapeutic-wise. But therapy, man. Don’t be afraid to go talk to a therapist. Tell them how’re you’re feeling, get whatever you’re dealing with off your chest.”
Watch the full UFC 329 media day appearance by Elisha Ellison above.
