“I always used to say I did this for me because this is something that I really enjoy,” Elliott said. “And, at that time, I wasn’t making enough money to really provide for my family. I’m finally in a contract now to where I can make enough money to provide for my family and be comfortable. So as much as it is about the money and about how much I love fighting, it was never really about my kid because my whole life was about my kid. She was always with me. But now with this camp, and me being older and me not being with her for the first time ever, it’s all for her. I have to make sure that the time that I’m spending away from her is coming back in another way. And that other way is financially. That’s the only way that it makes any sense for me to keep doing this. It takes too much away from me to be away from my kid unless I’m getting paid and I’m only getting paid if I’m winning. So it’s all for her. Everything is for her.”
If that’s not incentive, nothing is, and the results have been coinciding with Elliott’s renewed motivation. And heading into Saturday, he believes he’s got a good shot at getting into the title conversation at 125 pounds.
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“If you look at my last five fights, I’m on a five-fight win streak,” he said. “They said I lost to Matheus Nicolau, but I won that fight. I’ve watched it a hundred times. There’s no scenario where that dude beat me in that fight. So, really, I should be on a five-fight win streak. I feel like if I can beat this kid, that puts me in a good spot to where I can get a rematch with Nicolau, who’s number six right now, which is, I don’t want to say an easy fight for me, but stylistically, it’s a matchup that I know that I can win.”
Then it gets interesting for Elliott, who saw his Ultimate Fighter 23 castmate Alexandre Pantoja recently shake up the division when he took the world title from Brandon Moreno in July. With a new king on the throne, the title picture is wide open, and it’s one Elliott can enter with another win or two. And if he gets there, that would be quite a story for someone who didn’t know if he would get back to the top after losing his first title shot to Demetrious Johnson back in 2016.
So what would life had looked like if Elliott upset “Mighty Mouse” all those years ago?
