Athletes
Colby Thicknesse | Chasing Down Childhood Dreams
Australian Bantamweight Looks To Capitalize On Second Chance To Make A First Impression This Weekend In Perth
If you take a quick tour through Colby Thicknesse’s Instagram page, you’ll not only discover that he’s someone whose appearance shifts dramatically depending on his hairstyle and whether he’s sporting the killer moustache he wore into his short-notice debut in Sydney earlier this year, but also that the 26-year-old Australia bantamweight has been chasing this specific dream for quite some time.
One series of pictures carrying the simple caption “Been at this a minute” leads with an image of a Thicknesse, probably somewhere around age 13 and sporting a shaved head, standing alongside two other young hopefuls, as proud coach Joe Perez puts his arms around all three while standing in the midst of them. At the time, Thicknesse was just a kid chasing a dream, and Perez was the head coach at the gym he walked into hoping to figure out a way to make his dreams come true.
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“It's just super-reassuring; that’s probably the best way to put it,” Thicknesse said of having Perez and two-time featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski in his corner throughout his career, including this weekend when he returns to action in Perth against Josias Musasa. “It’s paramount to have them in my corner for this part of my journey.
“You could say it’s luck or I’m blessed or whatever, but I was fortunate enough to walk into that gym when I was 13. I remember I was speaking to Volk and he was telling me — it was before he lost his first professional fight, and we were having a bit of a yarn. He was like, ‘I’ve got a fight in two weeks; guy pulled out and I’m facing the best pound-for-pound guy in Oz.’ He went on to lose that fight, but to get there when he first loss and see, ‘Alright, I’ve gotta work on my grappling’ and then to see him make his run over regionals, into national UFC and onto the world stage, and see what he’s been able to accomplish now, it’s just…”
He paused, searching for the best way to sum things up for the widest swath of people.
“For people who like other sports, it’s like you pick up a basketball, go into this academy and Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant are just playing on the same team, and you get to be a part of it, plus you have the same career goals as them,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here without him and Joe, and it’s just awesome to see that it can be done where I’m from.”
While he’s quick to shower appreciation on his head coach and long-time training partner for helping him reach this point, there is a great deal of personal pride that comes with having successfully navigated his way to this point for Thicknesse as well.
“I think it’s that sense of pride that you didn’t let six-year-old you down on your dreams,” he said when asked about the collection of youthful photos and having put himself in a position to make those childhood dreams come true. “Everybody says, ‘I wanna do this when I’m (an adult),’ and then obviously life gets in the way, things change, but I’m actually fortunate enough to go out, stick to my word, stick to the promises I gave myself, and pursue this as my career path.
“So, I’m just gonna enjoy every moment of it, be present,” he added. “The fight is gonna happen on Sunday regardless of whether I’m gonna think about it 24/7 or if I just want to think about it when I’m there and focus on my training. It’s more staying present and enjoying this because at the end of my career, I don’t want to be one of them guys that is like, ‘I wish I had more fun in my fight weeks; I might have taken things too serious."
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That same “enjoy it while I’m here” mindset has permeated the way that Thicknesse reflects on his promotional debut, which came in February under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Roughly 10 days out from UFC 312, the bantamweight prospect, who had claimed the HEX Fight Series title back in November and was starting to prepare for his next fight, was tabbed to step in on short notice opposite Alexandre Topuria. Thicknesse jumped at the opportunity and gave a good account of himself, but landed on the wrong side of the scorecards, while watching his undefeated record fall by the wayside as well.
“The only thing is that it was short notice,” he said when asked to reflect on his whirlwind first trip into the Octagon. “I was preparing for Sydney in case something happened, because Cody Haddon had pulled out of previous fights before due to injuries, back on the regional scene, and we never knew if Topuria was gonna be able to make the weight as well, so we stayed somewhat prepared for it, but I think it was everything else.
“I was moving houses at the time, my partner was moving states, so the night I got the call, I was in my car working a 10-hour security shift just to get that extra money before I moved out. The following weekend I was meant to go down to Melbourne and then drive back up and move into my place, and everything got thrown into a whirlwind. How it happened, I wouldn’t change anything because looking back, it was one of the best 12 days of life, just how everything happened; it was so cool.
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“Nothing was surprising, I enjoyed all of it,” he added. “Would I have preferred circumstances to be different? Yes, of course, but they weren’t, and the fight went how it went.”
This weekend, Thicknesse makes the walk to take on Musasa in what is both men’s sophomore appearance inside the Octagon.
A member of the Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’25, the 26-year-old native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo blew through the competition on the regional scene to earn his shot in Las Vegas last fall, where a split decision win over Otari Tanzilovi landed Musasa a place on the roster. In his promotional debut in March, “The K.O. Wizard” missed the bantamweight limit by half-a-pound and then was submitted just passed the midway point of the opening round by TUF alum Carlos Vera.
“It’s not my actual debut, but I can treat it more as a properly setup debut,” began Thicknesse, looking ahead to the weekend. “He’s an aggressive, southpaw striker who likes to throw bombs and be in your face. I think it’s just gonna be using his gameplan against him. I know where he wants to be the whole fight, I know where he’s gonna wanna put me the whole fight, so it’s firstly not letting him put me there, and if he does, it’s having the correct answers. For me, it’s a very good stylistic match.
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“Just because somebody is called ‘The K.O. Wizard’ — it was all on the regional scene. He’s fought two good guys: he lost his last one and Contender Series was a close, split decision that could have gone either way, in my opinion. It’s all well and good to have that nickname and put people out on the regional scene, but once you get to the top level, it’s very different.
“It’s almost a similar fight to the Topuria fight in a sense to where he just wants to get you backed into the fence and unleash bombs, but I don’t think he has the Fight IQ of Topuria or the same firepower necessarily, and he doesn’t have the same grappling pedigree.”
Brimming with confidence after a full fight camp and buoyed by the positives that did come from his short-notice initial foray into the Octagon, Thicknesse promises that things will look very different when he steps in with Musasa this weekend.
“Now I’ve had plenty of notice and opportunity for this fight, so now I feel like I can really go out and showcase,” he said. “It’s just gonna show in my performance on Sunday.
“I wasn’t ‘off the couch’ when I fought in Sydney — I was training pretty hard, doing a mock camp type of thing because I had a fight scheduled anyway, but I went 15 minutes with Topuria, set a high pace, heaps of volume and everything like that. I think if you judge that fight versus what I’m gonna look like come Sunday, it’s a completely different animal.”
Should everything go according to plan, how does the Australian sophomore think he’ll react to standing in the center of the Octagon, hearing his name announced as the winner and having his hand raised aloft?
“I’m probably gonna cry, to be honest; I’ve already envisioned it,” Thicknesse said with a chuckle and a smile. “It’ll be a dream come true, especially to have Joe and Volk there, and then one of my main teammates, Kasib Murdoch, who is 6-0 and probably gonna be on Contender Series by this time next year (will be there too). Then if you zoom out a bit more: RAC Arena, in Perth, in my home country with thousands of fans, family, friends, everything like that.”
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He paused.
“I feel like that will be the happiest moment until I win a belt, and I’m almost certain of that.”
UFC Fight Night: Ulberg vs Reyes took place live from RAC Arena in Perth, Australia on September 27, 2025. 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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