Even as a fighter, Aaron Aby’s biggest challenge has never been inside of a cage.
The last time Aby was in Bratislava, he scored an own-goal representing Wales during a brief stint as a footballer in his youth.
Now, the 34-year-old from Wrexham returns to Slovakia, after what has been a rollercoaster ride, to contest his fourth bout under the OKTAGON MMA banner.
Since his last trip to Central Europe Aby has continued to fight through cystic fibrosis, an inherited disorder that affects the lungs and digestive system.
And he has been diagnosed and received the all-clear from a stage-three cancer illness that once gave him only three to six months to live.
Cystic fibrosis affects the lungs and the digestive system by clogging it with think sticky mucus.
This means that Aby’s lung function will never be the same as his age group’s average and he can’t absorb nutrients from food as well as others.
“A lot of things made me keep going. I always believed quitting was wrong and I still believe quitting is wrong now,” Aby said, speaking to talkSPORT.com exclusively.
“I just can’t quit because if I quit I’ve let myself down. Don’t get me wrong there’s times I can lose because I’ve been beaten by a better guy or things are out of my control.
“But I feel like quitting is in my control, so I just can’t quit because I believe it is bad and I’ve had that in me since growing up.”
Aby was forced to take a break from his professional fighting career in 2017 after receiving the shocking news of his cancer diagnosis.
His parents were even informed at one point that they should consider writing his will, before a surgery in the same year that was required to remove a 15 cm tumour from his stomach.
The Welsh man had been a pro in MMA for four years to this point, fighting for Cage Warriors, a promotion that enabled the likes of Paddy Pimblett and Conor McGregor to make a name for themselves.
After signing for UAE Warriors, an MMA league based in Abu Dhabi, Aby joined European MMA promotion OKTAGON in November 2023.
He then fought for OKTAGON’s first-ever flyweight championship, but was unsuccessful in grabbing the belt when a doctor’s stoppage prevented him from continuing in his bout with Elias Garcia.
Aby’s last bout came at OKTAGON’s Birmingham event in April when he lost to Sam Creasey, who became the first Englishman to win a belt for the giant European promotion.
OKTAGON recently sold close to 60,000 tickets for an event in Frankfurt, Germany, in October – smashing the UFC’s previous attendance record for UFC 243 when Israel Adesanya fought Robert Whittaker in Australia.
Co-founder Pavol Neruda told talkSPORT.com that he aims to build ‘the Champions League of MMA’ in Europe through his OKTAGON promotion and is likely to make a UK return next year.
Aby has won and lost an equal amount of fights in his last 10 octagon appearances, but a man with his mindset refuses to let those defeats get the better of him.
“When I was coming back from the cancer, for me, I wasn’t cured until I competed again,” Aby added,
“Everything really goes through your head. I don’t want to say you’re always positive or you’re always sad or not.
“Surviving is going to go through your head. I used to go through the ups and downs of locking myself in a dark room at night to: ‘Right, I’m just going to get out, crack on and go to the gym.
“I remember one night I had my last chemo and they told me we can’t do anything else. You need to nap, but we need to get you in surgery.
“If the cancer comes back during that time that will be it. And I remember one night I rang up for my blood results.
“They give the wrong blood results, told me the cancer had come back. So I remember sitting on the kitchen floor with my mum crying thinking it was over.
“Then the next dat they rang back up and they had give me the wrong results. So I had the night of thinking it was over to going back, so you go through all these battles.
“Sometimes you just need to bite down on your gum shield and take whatever is thrown at you.”
This weekend Aby faces off against former UFC fighter Zhalgas Zhumagulov as part of OKTAGON 63 in Bratislava.
The 36-year-old from Kazakhstan fought on the undercard of Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor 2 in January 2021 and is making his OKTAGON debut.
Aby has a total 26 professional MMA bouts to date, but, surprisingly, also has a previous career playing a different sport.
As a youngster, the Wrexham man signed for Shrewsbury Town and captained their youth team.
He also represented Wales between the ages of 14 and 17, rubbing shoulders with former Premier League players like Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and Gareth Bale.
“I did one camp with Gareth Bale which was a few days but people like Aaron Ramsey, Joe Allen and that, we played multiple games together,” Aby said, reminiscing on his football career.
“You can see bits in them now that was still in them then. I like to talk about Neil Taylor too because he was first to train and the last to leave, just doing little bit of extras.
“[With Bale it was] a Wales Camp in Ireland. It was maybe 5 days or a week where we took the team over, I actually played for the year above.
“So I would have probably been like 14 or playing for the 15s or the 16s and we went away and it was Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales in like a tournament for the week.
“You couldn’t have imagined that Bale would end up playing for Real Madrid one day.
“It’s just good to see those kids come through not gamers or anything where they weren’t going out, they were like active kids and just like sport.
“Playing and seeing that still in them now is awesome to see when you see them and you’re like they deserve it.”
Aby confirmed his fight with Zhumagulov this weekend is arguably his toughest test to date, considering what he’s done in the UFC.
He plans on taking the Kazakhstan man into ‘deep waters’ towards the end of the bout to then get the finish.
Aby also asserted that this is his last OKTAGON bout under contract, but he hopes someone will come his way to offer him something soon.
UK fans can buy Aby’s fight, as well as the others on the OKTAGON 63 card, for £10.80 on Oktagon.TV. The main card is set to begin at 4.30pm BST with the Welshman the first on the bill.
