Paul Elliott Details Training With Tom Aspinall And Phil De Fries Ahead Of Return At ONE Fight Night 14

Paul Elliott is Britain’s sole heavyweight competitor in ONE Championship, and when he returns to action at ONE Fight Night 14, he has plans to reintroduce himself to the division in style.

“King of the North” steps back inside the Circle on Saturday, 30th September, where he’s scheduled to lock horns with fellow behemoth Mauro Cerilli at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

After one defeat and a no-contest ruling in ONE, Elliott is hoping to turn the tide in his upcoming bout. And, as he showcased by dropping Martin Batur in his last outing at ONE 160, the mighty Middleborough man has all the firepower necessary to shake things up in the ever-growing weight bracket.

Over the course of his absence from competition, Elliott has been doing everything in his power to level up his abilities, including working with British UFC heavyweight star Tom Aspinall and KSW Heavyweight World Champion Phil De Fries.

With his next fight mere weeks away, the 31-year-old star believes that his new crew will give him the edge he needs to score his first win in ONE.

“Once I healed up, I focused a lot on my ground game. It wasn’t up to par before. I changed up where I was training. I went to different gyms with fresh challenges,” Elliott revealed.

“I now train with the best fighters in the heavyweight division. Mick Parkin, Joffie Houlton, Phil De Fries and Tom Aspinall. They’re big boys, and I’m now the smallest one there. So for me to work with them, it’s improved my game leaps and bounds.

“I’m a way better fighter now. I’ve got behemoths on top of me, so I’m a lot more comfortable in uncomfortable positions because of that. I’ve completely leveled up. You can’t be around guys like this and not level up.”

With countless rounds banked against elite heavyweights, Elliott is itching to show the world what he’s learned, and he’ll get a proper opponent to do it against when he meets Cerilli.

“The Hammer” has fought the who’s-who of ONE heavyweights, including Amir Aliakbari and former divisional kingpins Brandon Vera and Arjan Bhullar.

While he has a mixed bag of recent results, Cerilli does hold first-round finishes over Alain Ngalani and Abdulbasir Vagabov to his name, so he knows how to get the job done.

Despite his foe’s slate, Elliott believes he’s seen enough to know where he can open windows of opportunity to knock out the Italian star out.

“He’s a big lad with lots of power, but I’ve also seen him get knocked out. And I think that’s where I come in. I think I’ll be able to get it done and get that first win in ONE on my record,” Elliott said.

“Three is my magic number right now. So we will see what the future holds.”

Podcaster, lead MMA writer and analyst for SevereMMA. Host of the SevereMMA podcast, out every Sunday. Economics and Mathematics graduate from UCC. Also write for Sherdog. Previously of hov-mma and fightbooth. As heard on 2FM, Red FM, Today FM and more. Follow me on twitter for updates @SeanSheehanBA and on Facebook Facebook.com/seansheehanmma

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