The Stitches and Scars of Cody Garbrandt

SACRAMENTO, California — Cody Garbrandt operates under the belief that yesterday’s stitches become today’s worthwhile scars. The Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight is covered in tattoos. Ink may be more common today than ever, but the trend obscures the fact that tattooing is at its core a ritual scarification process — a process the 24-year-old takes to heart. He is willing to endure the many pains life offers because he knows scars demonstrate character, no matter what judgments are lobbed his way due to physical marks. After a Tuesday morning mid-camp practice at Ultimate Fitness, home to Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male, Garbrandt sat on a blue bench in front of the gym’s lockers near the front desk, reflecting on a decade of fighting in the ring and a lifetime of fighting outside it. The heavy-hitting 135-pounder explained his numerous negative experiences have shaped him into a person willing to give a stranger in need the shirt off his back. However, people observe he is covered in tattoos — they especially react to his neck — and assume the worst. “Mother [expletives] drop a fork when you walk in somewhere,” Garbrandt told Sherdog.com. His neck reads “self made” under a diamond with wings. In Garbrandt’s world, he is “stitched with good intentions.” The diamond is solid and luminous, originating from intense pressure. It serves as a visual representation of Garbrandt’s story. The wings remind him to never accept anything less than soaring. He dreams of flying high and seems hell bent on achieving once unthinkable heights. Garbrandt believes everyone can start something but only those who bite down, finish and see it through truly take flight. After all, as he later asked, “Why be afraid to dream? Dreaming’s free.” Garbrandt’s earned a reputation at the gym. He embodies the team’s future. Faber took a moment after training to put over the young fighter, asserting Garbrandt’s most recent performance — a first-round knockout against Augusto Mendes in February — was his strongest in eight career appearances. Such confidence furthers Faber’s estimation that the Ohio native will be UFC champion someday. Garbrandt embraces his role in representing the team’s defacto slogan: “Team Alpha Male vs. Everybody.” “Whatever the sport brings me and gives to me, whether it’s the highest highs or lowest lows, I’m ready for,” Garbrandt said. “I believe that’s why I’m having success. I know if I get knocked off the top, I’ve been at the bottom before. I came back. I can come back from that. I’m not afraid to lose my fight.” Fearlessness ranks among the most useful qualities in fighting. Garbrandt mentioned hitting the lowest of lows, even though he has never been defeated in his pro mixed martial arts career. His hardscrabble, Midwest rust-belt upbringing fuels his California dreaming. “I fight with relentlessness to go out there and be a savage,” Garbrandt said. “I have my pen and paper to write my future, but this guy across from me who is doing the same s— is trying to steal it from me. That gives me motivation to hurt him. That’s why I don’t glove touch. I don’t like to talk to you. I like it when you s— talk me. That’s fine. It’s a fight.” His words may sound like attitude, but they are born of self-preservation. In Uhrichsville, Ohio, Garbrandt fought fiercely to survive. He battled to defend his name and family as one of the have nots. He started boxing with his uncle at 4 years old. He was the kid teachers went out of their way to declare had no future. The second oldest among four brothers and three sisters, he grew up fighting. It was literally a competition: Who gets to eat? In that way, he is a born fighter. “You can go back to any of my teachers, from first grade all the way up to my senior year: ‘Cody was always fighting.’ Doesn’t matter who it was — coaches, people in the stands, whatever,” Garbrandt said. “They looked at me like a troublemaker, but I just wasn’t going to take anyone’s s—.” Garbrandt’s biological father was never in his life, a drug addict who was willing to chase any high. To this day, the habit has him locked up. Garbrandt’s mother’s ex-husband adopted him when he was 10. At 14, he was on wrestling treks in the heartlands, although organized competition would not keep him from outside fights. Fighting kept Garbrandt on the outskirts, where he figured out he could move away from that life if he became a pro. Still, Garbrandt attempted to abide by other’s expectations of him …

continue reading in source www.sherdog.com