Cody Haddon has wanted to be a UFC fighter since he was six years old.
As a 13-year-old schoolboy boxing champion, he told his local paper about his ambitions, and he was so committed to his dream that he cried in the car with his grandmother on his 18th birthday because he was disappointed that he hadn’t already made it to the biggest promotion in the sport.
Of course, reaching the UFC at that point would have been extremely difficult, as Haddon was still a couple years away from making his amateur debut.
“(My grandma was) like, ‘What’s wrong? You’re not happy? It’s your birthday; you’re 18! You’ve got your whole life ahead of you,’” Haddon explains with a laugh, recounting the childhood interaction that highlighted the lofty goals and impossibly high standards he had set for himself. “I was like, ‘I’m not in the UFC yet. I wanted to be the youngest champion. I wanted to be there already.’
“I was devastated. I felt like a fraud because that’s all I ever talked about with people. I felt like a complete fraud. When that wasn’t the reality, I was like, ‘What am I doing wrong?’”
The reality is that Haddon wasn’t doing anything wrong; he was a talented kid with big dreams that hadn’t yet found a way to make everything happen for himself, but he was on the right path.
He eventually made his amateur debut in May 2018, rattling off five straight stoppage wins under the Eternal MMA banner before going pro in October 2020 with a first-round ground-and-pound stoppage win over Shantaram Maharaj, a veteran of the Australian regional scene that had previously shared the cage with fighters like Ben Nguyen, Reece McLaren, and Kai Kara-France.
In addition to earning his first professional win that evening, Haddon also shared the card with Perth standout Jack Della Maddalena, who followed the debuting professional into the cage, successfully defending his Eternal MMA welterweight title with a 72-second knockout win over Aldin Bates in what ended up being his final appearance on the regional circuit.
The following September, Della turned up on Dana White’s Contender Series, beating Ange Loosa to earn a UFC contract, and since then, he’s gone 7-0 inside the Octagon to climb to No. 4 in the welterweight rankings.
“I go out there and win, he goes out there and wins, and he goes off to Contender Series,” says Haddon, tracking the events that helped solidify for him that he wasn’t chasing an impossible dream. “He’s the first guy from Perth to get the big call-up, so it’s like ‘this is the moment of truth; let’s see if we can do it like these other countries that have been doing it longer than us?’
“Della goes out and kills it, man; dominates. That made me go, ‘Holy s***! This is possible for me, too!’”
Two fights after sharing the card with Della Maddalena, Haddon suffered the first and only loss of his career to date in a standout clash with Steve Erceg, then watched as his former opponent hit the ground running in the UFC two years later, advancing to a flyweight title fight in his first year in the promotion and giving champ Alexandre Pantoja all he could handle in the UFC 301 main event.
Seeing a pair of local boys — one he’d shared a card with, another he’d shared the cage with — not only make it to the UFC, but immediately thrive, strengthened Haddon’s belief that when his time came, he would be the next Perth resident to punch his ticket to the UFC.
Seven weeks ago in Las Vegas, the 26-year-old Luistro Combat Academy representative got his opportunity and made the absolute most of it, collecting a first-round submission win over Billy Brand on Dana White’s Contender Series that officially made his childhood dream a reality. But there has been very little time for the streaking bantamweight to let the life-changing events sink in, as no sooner did he return home from his first trip to Las Vegas — and a celebratory trip to Disney World — did he get the call to make his promotional debut, making him the first member of this year’s DWCS graduating class to make the walk to the Octagon.
“To be honest, it still hasn’t really sunk in,” admits Haddon, who faces off with TUF 29 alum Dan Argueta on the preliminary portion of Saturday’s fight card at the UFC APEX. “I guess my self-esteem is a little better — I feel more worthy now — but in terms of being a UFC fighter, that hasn’t really sunk in yet because it all happened so quickly for me.
“I got the call up, had to keep it on the down low; two days later I’m in Vegas, and I’m not allowed to tell anyone I’m there. I’m back, straight into training, pulled out of the fight I was training for, but kept training and wasn’t allowed to tell anyone this or that.
“Had the fight — and that was surreal itself — and then right after the fight, a couple days later, I get offered another fight, so straight back home, straight into training. I haven’t had time to slow down and smell the roses at all.”
And after chasing this dream for the last 20 years, that’s something Haddon definitely wants to do, but only after he makes steps into the Octagon with Argueta on Saturday.
“If you don’t slow down and smell the roses, what the f*** are we doing any of this for anyways?” he says with a smile, giving Ferris Bueller, “life comes at you pretty fast” vibes with his desire to dial things back and take it all in. “We do these things to get results we want, feel good about ourselves, but if you’re constantly in it, you don’t get to reap the benefits.
“I’ve been working towards this for 20 years, and I wanna be able to sit back and…”
He leans back in his chair, letting out a big deep breath.
“I am excited to have a quick turnaround, and it’s awesome that I’m making my UFC debut before the end of the year, but after this fight, I’ll definitely need to take some time out,” he adds. “My body is in good condition, but from past experience, (I know that) if I keep hammering it for a long period of time, I tend to get injured or unwell; there’s a threshold that I can go to before something goes bang.
“I’m excited to get the debut done. I’ll have had three fights this year, and three big fights: I became Hex bantamweight champion, Contender Series to get into the UFC, and then UFC debut, all in one year.
“I need a minute to take it all in.”
Haddon’s 2024 has the potential to be a quality template for hopefuls looking to make their way to the highest levels of the sport, as he claimed the vacant HEX Fight Series bantamweight belt with a second-round submission win in March, ventured Stateside in August to submit Brand and earn his place on the UFC roster, and can wrap up a monumental year by collecting a win in his debut on Saturday.
It’s been a lot already, and the Australian newcomer knows Argueta is someone that is going to come at him straight away this weekend, but Haddon welcomes the pressure and the opportunity to introduce himself to the UFC audience in an all-action tussle this weekend.
“I know he’s a big bantamweight, he’s a good fighter that pushes the pace; he’s tough, he’s strong,” Haddon says, offering his thoughts on his opponent. “I know he’s gonna be in my face from the get-go and I don’t mind. “I know he’s super-fit and gonna push the pace the whole time, but I can’t wait to show everyone how fit I am and that I can push the pace too.
“It’s gonna be a dogfight just because of his style and my style,” he adds, smiling, energized by the exciting potential this fight carries. “I said in the post-fight press conference (after Contender Series), If I’m in a boring fight, you can cut me right then; I don’t think I’m capable of it.
“It’s gonna be a car crash, and that’s what I’m prepared for.”
He’s prepared for a car crash this weekend in large part because he’s been preparing for this moment from the moment he first started thinking about what he wanted to do when he grew up.
There have been ups and downs — health issues, injuries, fits of tears in the car with Grandma — but he’s continued on, finding a coach in Romel Luistro that believed in his abilities and made good on his promise to do everything he could to help get Haddon to this point, and putting in the requisite focus, time and energy needed to work his way up the regional ranks to where he could turn his first opportunity to join the UFC roster into the night he joined the UFC roster.
Thirteen years ago, Haddon stood holding a heavy bag in an Adidas polo and his boxing glows in the picture that accompanied the newspaper story detailing his amateur boxing triumph in Tasmania, telling the reporter, “I’ve found something that I’m really good at and I’m going to stick with it.”
He did and now the 26-year-old is set to step into the Octagon for the first time.
“It’s kind of too good to be true,” he says, smiling. “I keep pinching myself, wondering if I’m dreaming.”
He’s not dreaming; he’s just living the dream.
UFC Fight Night: Royval vs Taira took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 12, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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