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Liam Happe

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Wales is about to gain its first ever UFC fighter - and he’s a 10-year Army veteran with a former world champion boxer training him.

Jack Marshman, 26, has been competing in MMA since he was a teenager and came up through the ranks while at the same time serving as a paratrooper in the 3rd Battalion parachute regiment.

His arrival at the multi-billion-dollar juggernaut promotion has been confirmed and he brings a strong record of 20-5 into his maiden UFC fight in Belfast next month.

Marshman takes on Swedish fighter Magnus Cedenblad on November 19 and cannot wait to make history.

“Of course, I’m really excited for my UFC debut,” he told Yahoo Sport UK. “It’s been a solid camp so far and I’m ready.

“The call from UFC came out of the blue. I’ve been building towards reaching UFC my whole career but it all happened quite fast, it was a bit mental.

“It’s an honour to be the company’s first Welsh fighter. More importantly, I hope to be the first of many.

“I think Wales has some great MMA talent, some real grass roots and a very passionate fanbase and if we can get a couple more fighters on the UFC roster it’s only a matter of time before they’ll stage an event here.

“We’re the only home nation yet to host a UFC card and I want to help change that. We have some great intimate venues here but I really believe that one day, down the line, we could pull a big crowd to the Principality Stadium.”

An MMA megashow at the site also known as the Millennium Stadium, which has hosted FA Cup finals, huge rugby fixtures and will next year stage the Champions League final would be another huge stride for the fast-rising sport around these parts, and no less than three UFC world titles could be held by UK and Ireland fighters by the time Marshman debuts.

England’s Michael Bisping is the reigning middleweight champion, looking to secure a monster showdown with MMA legend Georges St-Pierre in Toronto in December after conquering another all-time great, Anderson Silva, in London in February.

Ireland’s Conor McGregor, meanwhile, has become the sport’s biggest star and hopes to make history at the company’s Madison Square Garden debut on November 12 by retaining his featherweight strap and claiming Eddie Alvarez’s lightweight title at the same time.

Can a little-known army boy really inspire the UFC’s soaring popularity to surge through the principality to the point that an 75,000 seat stadium would host a card?

In his words: why not?

“Cage Warriors just held a show in Newport, back on October 15, and it was a sellout,” he explained. “I was going to fight on the card before the UFC offer came in but I was in attendance and the atmosphere was off the charts.

“Our fans are so passionate for any sport - you see that with rugby and also the lads’ amazing Euro 2016 - and they really appreciate MMA.

“We’ve put Cage Warriors shows on quite regularly in Wales and they’ve never not sold out.

“You could put a UFC show on here next month and it’d sell out, no problem.

“The Welsh supporters, in any sport, are massively fanatical and passionate.”

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The UFC call-up will mark the end of his time with the paras, but “The Hammer” will still technically be serving when he meets Cedenblad in Belfast.

“Obviously now I’ve been signed to the UFC I’ve got to leave the Army,” Marshman said. “But I’m getting this fight out of the way first, then we’re gonna go through the process of leaving, which takes a few months.

He said: “I’ve been fighting for 10 years and I’ve been serving for 10 years. I’ve been on two tours to Afghanistan. The army have been really good about my other career and I’ve managed to balance the two fine.

“It’ll be bittersweet to leave. I’ll miss the blokes. But I absolutely love this sport and I love what I do.”

Helping Marshman almost every day is Gavin Rees, himself a Welsh treasure and a former world super-lightweight champion in boxing.

“Most days I train with Gavin and working with such an experienced former boxer has really added something to my fight game,” Jack explaijned.

“He spots the small mistakes in my stance, my approach and my guard and helps me clean them up.

“The progress I’ve made under Gavin has been brilliant and it’s an honour to be working day-to-day with one of Wales’ top sporting products.

“He’s won championships at every level in boxing and it’s something I hope to achieve myself, inside the Octagon.”

UFC head honcho Dana White is known to encourage fighters to give the fans their money’s worth every bit as much as they want to actually win their bout. He uses performance bonuses to this end, and rewards exciting fighters with contracts even if their form dips.

With a new boss like that, and the famously-all-heart Rees in his corner, there’ll be plenty of encouragement for Marshman to go all-out in each fight - but he’s confident that was never an issue to begin with.

He said: “If having great fights is the best way to keep my spot in UFC, then I reckon I’ll have a job for life!

“Look through my older fights. Just like Gavin, I’ve always left it all out there and fought with heart and determination.

“Win or lose, I predict my fights will be exciting to watch and that begins on November 19 in Belfast.”

Tickets to watch Jack Marshman in action at UFC Fight Night: Mousasi v Hall 2 are on sale now and available via the SSE Arena box office and Ticketmaster.