OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A young Oklahoma City teenager has already found herself at the top of the ranks of the mixed martial arts and wrestling world. Get this, she is only 15 years old. Don’t let her age fool you because when it comes to stepping onto the mat or in the octagon, it’s all business.
Taylor Ellis is fresh off a trip to Abu Dhabi where she won a world championship in mixed martial arts – beating four people, all in under 2 minutes.
“It’s kind of crazy, actually,” Ellis said. “Because again, three years ago before I started this, all I did was Girl Scouts.”
That’s also just after beating a previous world champion in California at a national’s tournament.
“She’s only practiced maybe twice, three times, something like that,” said her dad, Ronnie Hishaw. “It’s like I say, she won nationals and these kids train all day for this.”
While being a powerhouse in the octagon, that’s not all. She has other state and national championship medals and even a belt for wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu too.
Hishaw said the funny part about it is that it all started just to get her some self-defense training.
“She turned out to be pretty good,” Hishaw said. “She started catching on really fast and she started getting really good.”
Ellis said at first, she didn’t even like it. However, when she got into tournaments and started winning, she got hooked. It has been a mostly winning run ever since.
“That’s when I was like, this is what I’m going to do forever,” Ellis said. “Like, I love this feeling. It’s a great feeling.”
With training four to five hours per day and attending tournament for wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts, Hishaw said his daughter is still a teenager. She goes to the mall and hangs out with friends. However, he said the training and tournaments is something she loves. He said that’s the reason she’ll continue to be successful at it.
“It’s been crazy,” Ellis said. “Just thank you to all the people who support me.”
“I don’t put anything on her,” Hishaw said. “I just want her to enjoy the moment, live in the moment right now, have fun, continue to train hard and be an inspiration.”
Ellis is still training to get her blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu. She plans to wrestle at Edmond North in the near future. She said she wants to keep doing tournaments and she even wants to own her own training gym when she gets older.
