Bellator fighter and Highland Martial Arts Centre owner Ross Houston weighing up career options ahead of 2023
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Ross Houston still has things he would like to accomplish in mixed martial-arts – but admits nothing is imminent in his own professional career.
The Highland Martial Arts Centre owner has built a club in Inverness that appears to be going from strength to strength.
Towards the end of 2022, someone was competing with HMAC branding most weekends, a far cry from when the club would send athletes to compete a handful of times a year.
There has been plenty of success too, with the likes of youngsters Aidan Lennan and Niamh Ross becoming world champions over the last 12 months.
Houston, though, has his own ambitions as well as helping others to achieve their goals.
The 32-year-old has already had an accomplished career in combat sports.
Back in 2019, he won the Cage Warriors world title, memorable going to a no-contest with Nicholas Dalby in his first defence.
Dalby was then re-signed by the top MMA company in the world – the Ultimate Fighting Championship – while Houston penned a contract with the western world’s second biggest promotion, Bellator.
For a variety of reasons, Houston is yet to make his debut, but he insists he is not done just yet.
“Obviously when I moved up to Inverness, there wasn’t much going on here in MMA,” Houston recalled.
“I obviously bagged the Cage Warriors world title a few years back, but at the same time I built the gym. That’s going to be my bread and butter, because I can’t fight forever and I’ll still need an income. I have to think long term.
“It’s like an addiction, because fighting is a selfish sport. For me to fight, I have to travel away to different places and go overseas – and that’s obviously time away from the family and the gym as well. It’s not golf, it’s hard on your body, so I have a lot of things to think about.
“I’m still contracted to Bellator, and I have four fights left on my deal. I would still like to finish up with UFC gloves, and I know I can.
“It’s a bit more business leaning, a bit of politics behind it. There’s nothing imminent coming up for me, but we’ll see what happens.”
