UFC: 'I have to use my powers for good' - Ode' Osbourne on leaving teaching to fight in octagon

There is nothing out of the ordinary about how this interview with UFC flyweight Ode' Osbourne begins.

But when he is asked "Can you tell me about your career as a schoolteacher, and how you balanced that with being a fighter?" the 32-year-old stares into the camera with his eyes lighting up, a smile widening across his face.

He takes a deep breath.

"I just have to say, thank you so much for asking that question," Osbourne says.

"No-one has asked me about that in a long time and it was almost as if it was gone in the past and vanished."

The Jamaican has been chasing his dream of being a professional mixed martial artist since he was a teenager, but he is not your average fighter.

Alongside honing his skills for the cage, Osbourne completed a degree in teaching and became an assistant maths teacher at Woodlands school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2016.

He was fighting on the regional scene at that point.

Bigger things were to come though, after he beat Armando Villarreal on Dana White's Contender Series to earn a contract with the UFC in 2019.

Osbourne continued to teach during his first three trips to the octagon but had to make the tough decision to quit after he suffered a knockout defeat against Manel Kape in August 2021, packing his bags to move to Las Vegas.

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"[Teaching] is a big part of my life," Osbourne tells BBC Sport.

"I love the kids and that was very hard for me to leave teaching to be a full-time fighter. I loved my job and it was truly my passion.

"I realised at the time that I didn't have balance, I was doing way too much. I would just wake up, go to school, teach, get to the gym by five, get home at eight, eat and I wouldn't be in bed until 12. Repeat.

"It was a sacrifice I had to make or I don't think I'd be in the UFC today."

Sacrifice is a common theme in Osbourne's life, often putting others first, even to his own detriment.

As a child growing up in Jamaica, Osbourne would try to help his family make money rather than attend school, and he did not learn to read until he moved to the United States as a 12-year-old.

Despite not being able to commit to a full-time teaching role right now, Osbourne is still trying to shape the next generation.

He volunteers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police to speak with children in schools a couple of times a week, and is on the verge of launching his own educational programme.

"My programme is building them up mentally and giving them almost a safety net to continue or carry on into their college or future," Osbourne says.

"It's not education that you'd think like maths, science and English. More so education of the mind.

"These kids have so much more going on because there are so many distractions with social media, and broken homes are a bigger thing now.

"I feel like I've been blessed and I'm fortunate enough to fight for the UFC. I have to use my powers for good.

"I don't just want to be another fighter that fights and then is done. I want to be able to contribute to the world in some way."

Dewey Cooper (left) was a two-time world kickboxing champion before moving into coaching

Osbourne returns to the octagon on Saturday to face Jafel Filho after seven months of inactivity following a submission loss against Assu Almabayev.

But his preparations for this contest have been disrupted because of the absence of his coach Dewey Cooper.

Cooper oversaw the camp of former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou for his fight against two-time boxing heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua last weekend.

Ngannou suffered a second-round knockout defeat, and Cooper has since returned to Las Vegas and will be in Osbourne's corner at the Apex alongside Pedro Falcao and Chase Pami, who have guided him through the past eight weeks of fight camp.

"Dewey is awesome - his energy, work ethic and how he has you train is just different," Osbourne says.

"My whole life I've done this thing almost by myself. I feel like I've prepared myself to be able to do things without my coach.

"Anything that happens here on out is up to me, but I have such a tremendous team pushing me and driving me in all the right ways."

-bbc