Oba Femi made a stop in Tuscaloosa this week, and the Alabama football team got a look at one of the biggest names in WWE before the Crimson Tide opens the 2026 season against East Carolina on Saturday.
The former Alabama track star returned to campus on Wednesday, touring the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility and Coleman Coliseum, talking with the football team at practice and handing head coach Kalen DeBoer a custom-made championship belt.
Femi came away impressed with what he saw from Alabama’s preseason work.
“The team that I saw today was very hard-working,” Femi told AL.com. “Their intensity was off the charts.
They trained with a purpose. Nobody looked like they were lagging behind.
The team I saw today looked ready, and I know they’re ready to go.”
He also said the changes around UA athletics stood out to him since his time in Tuscaloosa, pointing to the new men’s and women’s basketball facilities as well as improvements in the football program’s physical health and sports operations.
“It’s all getting better constantly, and I’m happy to see it,” he said. “A lot of nostalgia walking through those doors, into the building of the Coleman Coliseum there. And I’m happy to be back.”
Femi also spoke about what it meant to represent Alabama during his college days.
“You’re representing the school - Alabama, where legends are made - and you have to back that up every single time you wear your crimson,” Femi said. “And that’s what it meant to me, and it meant a great deal.
So I carried that same mindset into what I do today. I have to represent myself at the very best level every single time.”
Now 28, Femi is set for another major WWE moment this weekend when he faces Bron Breakker at “Sunday Night Main Event” in Atlanta, the night before “Monday Night Raw” heads to Legacy Arena in Birmingham.
Though he’s billed at 6-feet-6-inches and 310 pounds, Femi was not a football player in Tuscaloosa. The man born Isaac Odugbesan in Lagos, Nigeria, grew up as a wrestling fan and got his start in shot put in college. He began at Middle Tennessee State before transferring to Alabama, where he won the 2021 SEC indoor and outdoor shot put titles and then defended his indoor crown the next year.
After working through WWE’s NXT system, Femi has broken through in 2026 as one of the company’s newest monster stars. His run has included a trilogy of matches with Brock Lesnar, who retired after their third meeting at SummerSlam.
After that final match, Lesnar returned to the ring, gave Femi a bear-hug, raised his arms in the air, and grabbed a mic to make his message clear. “Come here Oba!”
Lesnar told his final opponent. “Here’s the future of WWE.
Congratulations. This is the future, ladies and gentlemen.”
Femi also reached the Royal Rumble earlier this year, and later got his biggest annual-stage moment at WrestleMania in Las Vegas, where he beat Brock Lesnar in the first of their three 2026 meetings.
His WWE main roster debut came on Dec. 13, 2025, during an episode of “Saturday Night’s Main Event,” when he faced Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. That match ended in a no-contest after Drew McIntyre interfered.
Before his rise to the main roster, Femi was the longest-reigning NXT North American Champion, holding the title for 273 days before vacating it. Other wrestlers to have held that belt before him include Adam Cole, Ricochet, Keith Lee, Solo Sikoa and Dominik Mysterio.
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