Ben Woolliss' inspiring fight through chronic disease to elite kickboxing: 'I'd do 15 seconds on the pads and collapse'

Ben Woolliss has come through an extraordinary struggle with Crohn’s disease to not only pursue his passion for kickboxing but to compete at the highest level.

Woolliss had a storming introduction to ONE Championship in March. With scarcely a week's notice he came in to make his promotional debut and destroyed Brazilian star John Lineker in less than two minutes with pulverising leg kicks.

Grimsby kickboxer Woolliss had only nine days between being sounded out by ONE Championship and being drafted in as a late replacement to fight Lineker.

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"A huge name, a legend of the sport, great accolades, great puncher, never been finished, that just excited me," Woolliss told Sky Sports.

"On the outside it can seem very daunting, but the positions that I've been through in life I feel like they've prepared me for these moments because it's just competition. At no point am I in those positions I was in years ago when I'm fighting these battles with a chronic disease.

"To me it's just an amazing opportunity and it comes with excitement. Just pure excitement."

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Woolliss comeback from being laid low by Crohn's disease is astonishing.

"I had it for the best part of 11 years, obviously it's chronic you have it forever," Woolliss said. "I had it undiagnosed for five or six years and was competing at a very high level, in severe flares with it. At the time I didn't know what it was and again I was young, I was bull-headed, so I wouldn't check into a hospital.

"I remember I was competing against a particular opponent who was the No 1 in the UK," he added. "My stomach was so enflamed that I couldn't rest my hands on it and my coach was saying to me: 'Should we be doing this?'

"I was like: 'It's good, I just won't let him kick me in the stomach.' My focus in these fights, at this super high level, was to not let them hit me in the stomach. Which is not an optimum position to be in."

The impact of it was crippling even after he had the condition diagnosed. "There were times where the whole objective of the day was to stand up, walk around the room and come back to the sofa," Woolliss said.

"We'd do 15 seconds on the pads, 20 seconds on the pads. I'd collapse. Because Crohn's disease creates ulcers within your stomach and you lose tremendous amounts of blood.

"You become severely anaemic, you lose a lot of weight, you have no energy. There's no iron in your body so you really do have severe fatigue.

"The amount of training you're having to do [in kickboxing], you're red-lining your body a lot. With it being an auto-immune disease you're putting more stress on the body, it gets worse."

But he never contemplated giving up on kickboxing.

"Even when I was in my worst state, what I can only imagine was a coma state where I couldn't respond, there was always a little bit of light where I was [thinking]: 'I stood up once today, I can stand up twice tomorrow,'" he said.

His next bout comes in the early hours of Saturday morning, live on Sky Sports Action from 2am. Woolliss will fight former world champion Petchtanong Petchfergus in a bantamweight kickboxing bout.

It's another opportunity Woolliss is relishing. "17-time world champion over 400 fights, he's fought, not some of the biggest names, the biggest names in the sport," he said.

"I've come into one championship and asked for the biggest fights straight off the bat and they have definitely delivered with these kind of opponents.

"Excited to go and show the levels, but what an opponent to be able to come in and showcase with."

Watch Woollis vs Petchfergus live on Sky Sports Action from 2am