Ben Woolliss cautious heading into The Inner Circle bout against Yuki Yoza: ‘I Cannot Get Careless’

A fighter who nearly lost everything to illness is not about to lose momentum to one bad scorecard.

Ben Woolliss meets former K-1 Champion Yuki Yoza in a bantamweight kickboxing showdown at The Inner Circle 22 on Friday, July 17. The card streams live for members from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

The 32-year-old Englishman announced himself with a first-round destruction of former MMA king John Lineker in his promotional debut this past March. He dropped a hard-fought unanimous decision to former World Champion Petchtanong Petchfergus in May, but that defeat has done nothing to dim his fire.

“Looking back, I think there were more positives for me to take from that fight. I pushed him to three rounds. There were some things I could have done better, but there were also things I did that were pretty impressive,” Woolliss said.

“But I’m not losing sleep over it. I’m just focused on fixing the shortcomings from that fight, tightening up my defense, and working on my attacks against Yoza.”

Ben Woolliss breaks down Yuki Yoza, promises new tricks

Yoza enters on the back of a three-fight winning streak against elite opposition, a run only recently halted by reigning World Champion Jonathan Haggerty at ONE SAMURAI 1 this past April. Woolliss has spent his camp dissecting exactly how his opponent likes to operate.

“From what I’ve seen, I can say that he does not give room for any of his opponents to operate. He loves to close the distance behind those calf kicks of his, and immediately try to swarm you with follow-up shots,” the Englishman said.

“But he doesn’t really do much of a great job with his hands. He does hit you, but it doesn’t seem like anything that will entirely rock me. That said, I cannot get careless against someone who has just as much explosiveness as I do inside the pocket.”

Seven years battling Crohn’s disease taught Woolliss patience, and he insists the fighter stepping into Lumpinee Stadium this time is sharper than the one fans have seen so far.

“Fans can expect a lot more new weapons from me in this fight. Throughout the seven years that I was away due to Crohn’s disease, I have leveled up every single day behind the scenes,” the Grimsby native revealed.

“The discipline and intensity are the same here. I’ve worked my socks off to improve. Whether it’s the right hand or the calf kicks that helped me knock out Lineker, everything will be far more dangerous and sharper.”