From Lagos, Nigeria
to the UFC Octagon.
Now home.

He did not grow up with every advantage. He grew up with the opposite.

Sodiq Yusuff was born in Lagos, Nigeria. At nine years old he came to America — to Prince George's County, Maryland — with his mother, landing in a country whose language, culture, and social rules were nothing like anything he had known.

He did not speak fluently. He did not know anyone. He was the kid who looked different, sounded different, and stood out in every way that makes childhood harder than it already is. He got picked on. He learned quickly that in this new world, confidence was not given. It had to be built.

He found wrestling. And then something in him never turned off.

At Bladensburg High School, Sodiq discovered wrestling. Not as a casual hobby. As an obsession. He was good. And the more he trained, the more he wanted to see just how far that could go.

His mother did not know. He competed in eleven amateur fights before she ever watched a single one. He was working at Pizza Hut. Attending Bowie State University. Trying to honor his mother's dream of seeing her son graduate while quietly chasing a dream of his own that most people around him would have called impossible.

Master Lloyd Irvin called. Sodiq picked up. Everything changed.

Master Lloyd Irvin — one of the most accomplished Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coaches and MMA trainers in the world, and a UFC Hall of Fame coach — reached out and wanted to talk to Sodiq.

The conversation was simple. Lloyd asked what Sodiq was doing with his life. Sodiq told him the truth — school to make his mother happy, Pizza Hut to pay his way, and a dream he had not yet figured out how to reach.

Lloyd told him it was time to make a decision. Sodiq left school. He moved his entire focus to training at Team Lloyd Irvin in Camp Springs, Maryland. And in 2018, he earned his UFC contract on Dana White's Contender Series.

He won his first UFC fight one week after the worst news of his life.

The week before Sodiq was scheduled to fly to Adelaide, Australia for his UFC debut, his older brother Tope died of typhoid fever in Nigeria at age 34. His mother found out first. And she made a decision that only a mother could make — she did not tell him. She carried that loss alone for an entire week so her son would not be distracted.

When Sodiq finally learned the truth, it hit him like the floor disappearing beneath him. He cried. His mother told him to stop. She said he had to focus.

He got on the plane. He walked into the Octagon in Australia. He destroyed his opponent by first-round knockout in 2 minutes and 14 seconds and earned a Performance of the Night bonus. And in his post-fight interview, standing in the Octagon, he dedicated the performance to his brother Tope.

What followed was a UFC career built on heart, skill, and unforgettable performances.

A UFC fighter who became a Disney voice actor. A martial artist who became a cultural ambassador.

In 2024, Sodiq landed a role that had nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with who he is. Disney selected him to voice the character Sunday Adelekan in Iwaju — the first Disney+ animated series ever built around Nigerian culture and the city of Lagos. He voiced all six episodes.

He has also built one of the most engaged martial arts audiences on social media — 1.6 million TikTok followers, 123,000 on Instagram — through his Unprofessional Breakdown series, where his dry wit and genuine fight knowledge created a following that most fighters never come close to building.

He did not have to open a school in Southern Maryland. He chose to.

Sodiq Yusuff is opening this academy because he believes Southern Maryland deserves access to the real thing — not a franchise, not a name on a building, not a watered-down version of what elite martial arts training actually looks like.

He is here every day. On the mat. Teaching. Pushing. Building something that will outlast his fighting career and change lives in this community for a long time.