From Coal Mines to Championship Gold: The Origin of Cody Garbrandt

Two days ago Cody Garbrandt won a fight at UFC 326 by getting kicked in the nuts three times, throwing up in a bucket inside the Octagon, and then surviving on two point deductions while the crowd chanted USA. He was fighting a dude who was 1-2 in the UFC. On the prelims. As a betting underdog. That's where Cody Garbrandt is in 2026.

And if that's all you know about him you're missing one of the craziest stories in this entire sport.

Because nine years ago this same guy outclassed Dominick Cruz for five rounds. Won the UFC bantamweight title at 25. Then walked over to a kid who just beat cancer and wrapped the belt around his waist in one of the most emotional moments in UFC history. And that promise started in a small town in Ohio where the only options were coal mines or prison.

This is the Cody "No Love" Garbrandt origin story.

Uhrichsville, Ohio

Cody was born July 7, 1991, in Uhrichsville, Ohio. Population about 5,000. Small Appalachian town, working class, coal mining families everywhere. The Garbrandts were known around there but not for anything good. His family had a reputation for bar brawls and street fights going back generations. His dad and his grandad were both known for throwing hands. That was just the culture. Fighting wasn't a hobby, it was like the family business.

His dad was a drug addict who spent most of Cody's life in prison. His parents split after a domestic violence incident when Cody was about a year old. He barely knew the man. His mom Jessica raised him and his older brother Zach basically on her own and she did everything she could to keep them off that same path.

It didn't totally work. Cody was fighting constantly as a kid. In school, in the streets, wherever. He remembers being in a fight in elementary school where the other kid's parole officer pulled up in a car and just watched instead of breaking it up. That's the kind of place this was.

His uncle Robert Meese was an Olympic alternate in boxing and started training Cody and Zach when they were four and five years old. Strapped 16-ounce gloves on them and let them beat the hell out of each other. Put them on treadmills and cranked the speed until they flew off the back. "I was always scared to death of Bob," Cody said. "He was crazy." That's also where the nickname came from. Cody was sparring grown men in his uncle's gym as a teenager and beating them up so bad that his uncle started calling him "No Love" because of how ruthless he was. The name stuck.

Their mom saw where the boxing was heading and switched them to wrestling thinking it would be safer. And Cody turned out to be a natural. State champion as a freshman at Claymont High School. All-State linebacker in football too. The kid was a legit athlete who probably could've done whatever sport he wanted if the rest of his life wasn't falling apart around him.

The Part Where It Almost All Fell Apart

This is the part of Cody's story that people forget. He wasn't on some clean path from wrestling star to UFC champion. After high school it almost went completely sideways.

He got recruited to Michigan State for wrestling but couldn't get in because of academic stuff. Ended up at Newberry College, a Division II school in South Carolina, and dropped out almost immediately. "I guess my heart wasn't into it anymore," he said. "I was doing boxing, and that's what I wanted to do."

So he went back to Ohio with no degree, no plan, and no money. He was selling weed. Working as a bouncer. Getting into fights constantly. He did coal miner training because that's what everyone in his family did. Got called up for an interview at Consol Energy. The coal mines were literally about to swallow him the same way they swallowed everyone else from that town.

And then he got stabbed in a bar fight. Not a metaphor. Actually stabbed. He said later that it was a wake up call. "Getting stabbed was an eye opener" is how he put it to GQ. Forced him to look at where his life was heading and decide if he wanted to end up like his dad, in and out of prison for the rest of his life, or actually do something with the talent he had.

He started fighting amateur MMA. Went 6-2. But he was still getting in trouble, still one bad decision away from losing everything. He was 20 years old with no direction and a lot of anger and nothing to focus it on.

Then his brother showed him something on Facebook that changed his life.

The Pact with Maddux Maple

Cody's brother Zach found the story of a kid named Maddux Maple online. Maddux was five years old, from their area in Ohio, and he was fighting leukemia. He was really sick. Nobody knew if he was going to make it.

Cody went to meet him. And something happened between these two that's hard to explain. A 20 year old street fighter and a five year old kid with cancer. They had nothing in common on paper. But they connected immediately and they made each other a promise. Maddux would beat cancer. Cody would make it to the UFC and become world champion. They'd do it together.

And most people would say something like that and forget about it. But Cody didn't forget about it. He dedicated himself to training in a way he never had before. He stopped getting in trouble. He focused. This kid fighting for his life made all of Cody's problems feel small and that perspective changed everything about how he approached his career.

Six months later Maddux called Cody and told him he finished his last chemotherapy treatment. Cancer was in remission. And he reminded Cody that he still had his half of the deal to keep.

Cody moved to Sacramento to train at Team Alpha Male with Urijah Faber. Turned pro in 2012 and went 5-0 with all finishes. Signed with the UFC in late 2014. And every step of the way Maddux was right there. Walking him to the cage. Sitting in the front row. Two people from small town Ohio keeping a promise they made when neither one of them had any real reason to believe it would come true.

11-0 and the Cruz Fight

Cody's UFC run was special from the jump. He debuted at UFC 182 with a third-round TKO of Marcus Brimage and just kept winning. Knocked out Thomas Almeida, who was 21-0 at the time, in the first round. Flatlined Takeya Mizugaki in under a minute at UFC 202. Every fight he looked faster, sharper, more dangerous. The hands were ridiculous. Quick and powerful and accurate. When he touched somebody clean it was usually over.

By the time he fought Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title at UFC 207 in December 2016 Cody was 11-0. Cruz was the greatest bantamweight ever, hadn't lost in the UFC, and nobody thought the kid from Ohio had a shot.

Cody made Cruz look slow. Dropped him multiple times. Outboxed the best technical striker at 135 for five rounds. Won a clear unanimous decision and became the UFC Bantamweight Champion at 25 years old.

And the first thing he did was walk over to Maddux Maple, who was right there in the arena, and wrap the championship belt around the kid's waist. Both of them kept their promise. Maddux beat cancer. Cody became champion. If you watched that and didn't feel something you might not have a pulse, bro. That's one of those moments in this sport where you forget about records and rankings and you just see two people who kept their word when everything was against them.

"He doesn't know how much he changed my life," Cody said about Maddux. "We helped each other to get to where we're at now."

That was the peak. Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 is one of the great moments in this sport's history. A kid from the coal mining town with a drug addict father who got stabbed in a bar fight and made a pact with a five year old cancer patient and then actually did it.

And Then It All Fell Apart

TJ Dillashaw knocked him out at UFC 217. Took the belt. Dillashaw knocked him out again in the rematch at UFC 227. Pedro Munhoz knocked him out at UFC 235. Three straight KO losses. The chin that once ate clean shots from Dominick Cruz was suddenly cracking against everybody.

Cody came back with a beautiful one-punch KO of Raphael Assuncao at UFC 250 that made people think he was back. But then he dropped to flyweight and got knocked out by Kai Kara-France in the first round. He bounced between wins and losses after that. Beat Trevin Jones. Knocked out Brian Kelleher. Got submitted by Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 300. Lost a decision to Raoni Barcelos. His record since winning the title is 4-7.

COVID hit him hard in 2020 and he's said it permanently messed up his body. His chin hasn't been the same. The speed that made him special at 11-0 doesn't show up like it used to. He's 34 now and fighting guys outside the rankings just to stay on the roster.

That's how you end up on the prelims at UFC 326 fighting a dude who's 1-2, getting kicked in the nuts three times, puking in a bucket, and winning a decision that half the internet thinks should've been stopped.

UFC 326: The Weirdest Win of His Career

I gotta talk about this fight because it was genuinely one of the strangest things I've seen in the UFC.

Cody fought Xiao Long on the prelims. First two rounds were okay, nothing crazy. Cody had a nice knockdown early and looked decent but not like the guy who embarrassed Cruz. Long landed a head kick that Cody ate and there was a head clash that almost caused problems.

Then the third round happened. Long kicked him low. Cody took his time to recover, gave the thumbs up, and they restarted. Then Long immediately kicked him low again, harder. Cody went down and they brought a bucket out and the man was throwing up in the Octagon from the pain. Herb Dean took a point. When Cody got back up he was fired up. Pointed at the center of the cage like he wanted war. Charged in throwing. And then Long kneed him in the groin again from the clinch. Another point gone.

The crowd was going crazy chanting USA and Cody said after the fight that's what kept him going. "When you've got a crowd cheering USA, you can't bitch out," he said. "As painful as it was, I was spinning, throwing up, and didn't even know how much time was left."

He won 28-27 on all three cards because of the point deductions. Without them he probably loses. And there's a whole debate now about whether the fight should've been stopped because the unified rules say if a fighter "visibly loses control of bodily function" it's supposed to be a TKO. Big John McCarthy, the guy who literally wrote the rules, came out and said Herb Dean handled it correctly because the vomiting was caused by an illegal blow during a timeout, not a legal strike during live action. So technically it was the right call but it was still one of the wildest things I've ever watched happen in a cage.

So What Now

Cody's record is 15-7. He's 34. He's 4-7 since winning the title nine years ago. The chin problems are real. The speed isn't what it was. He's fighting on prelims against unranked guys and winning in the ugliest way possible.

But he's still here. He's still showing up. He's still fighting. And when you know where this dude came from, the coal mines, the absent father, the stabbing, selling weed, almost ending up exactly where everyone expected him to end up, the fact that he's still in the UFC at all kind of IS the point.

He said it himself before the Almeida fight years ago. "If I happen to get my ass whupped, then I'm ready for that ass whuppin'. I'm not gonna dwell on it. I'll get better. And if the worst thing that happens in my life is that I lose a fight in the UFC, then I live a pretty good life."

That's Cody Garbrandt. A guy who promised a five year old kid with cancer that he'd become a world champion and actually did it. Had his career fall apart in the most painful way possible. And still refuses to quit. Even when it means puking in a bucket on live television and winning a fight on point deductions.

Maddux Maple is a senior in high school now by the way. He's cancer free. Plays tennis. Does school plays. That pact they made when Maddux was five and Cody was twenty turned out to be the most important promise either of them ever kept.

Thanks for riding with CageLore. Stay locked in!

FAQ

Where is Cody Garbrandt from?

Cody Garbrandt was born on July 7, 1991, in Uhrichsville, Ohio, a small Appalachian coal mining town with a population of about 5,000. He was raised by his mother Jessica after his father, a drug addict, spent most of his life in prison.

What is Cody Garbrandt's MMA record?

As of March 2026, Garbrandt's professional MMA record is 15-7. He went 11-0 to start his career and won the UFC Bantamweight Championship but has gone 4-7 since losing the belt.

Who is Maddux Maple?

Maddux Maple is a childhood cancer survivor from Ohio who made a pact with Cody Garbrandt when Maddux was five years old. They promised each other that Maddux would beat cancer and Cody would become UFC champion. Both kept their promise. Garbrandt wrapped his championship belt around Maddux's waist after winning the title at UFC 207 in December 2016.

What happened at Cody Garbrandt's UFC 326 fight?

Garbrandt fought Xiao Long on the UFC 326 prelims and won by unanimous decision after Long was deducted two points for repeated low blows. Garbrandt vomited in a bucket in the Octagon from the pain but was allowed to continue after being cleared by the ringside physician.

Why is Cody Garbrandt called No Love?

The nickname was given to him by his uncle Robert Meese, who trained him in boxing as a kid. When a young Cody was sparring and beating up older pro fighters in his uncle's gym, Meese started calling him No Love because of how ruthlessly he fought.

Did Cody Garbrandt get stabbed?

Yes. Garbrandt has spoken publicly about being stabbed during a bar fight in Ohio before his MMA career took off. He described the incident as a turning point. "Getting stabbed was an eye opener," he told GQ.