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Kody Steele Is Here To Entertain
Dana White's Contender Series Grad Aims For 'Sick Fights' And 'Highlight Reels' As He Makes UFC Debut At UFC 312
Kody Steele is no stranger to seeing fights get canceled. According to Tapology, the Las Vegas-based Texan has had seven professional bouts, and just as many canceled. So you could say he got used to being avoided, but nothing prepared him for September 10, 2024.
“It's funny, when I first started doing MMA, people always told me that opponents always pull out,” said Steele. “And I was like, okay, for sure. So when that stuff happened, I expected it, but never did I really expect that it would happen 20 minutes before I was supposed to go out there and fight. I never put that one into my brain.”
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Yes, as Steele was in the UFC APEX, preparing to make the walk for the biggest fight of his career against Quemuel Ottoni on Dana White’s Contender Series, he got the news that Ottoni had withdrawn from the fight.
“It was brutal,” he recalled. All of a sudden, the dream of leaving the venue with his hand raised and a UFC contract in that hand turned into a nightmare. The training, the weight cut, everything – all for naught. And though it was through no fault of his own and he was going to get another crack at a contract a few weeks later, that didn’t make things any easier.
“Everybody was like, ‘Damn, man, that sucks,’ and yeah, I had to make the weight again. But also, I felt like I was peaking mentally at the right time. Mentally, I was like, oh my God, finally this camp's over and now I'm going to go home and see my friends and family back in Texas. I'm going to relax. And when the situation happened, I was supposed to fight on Tuesday and then be chilling on Wednesday, but instead I was supposed to fight Tuesday and then I found myself back in the gym on Wednesday with everybody, grinding and running around the mat and training and pushing, and I was just mentally exhausted.”
On October 8, Steele was back in the APEX, and this time, Chasen Blair showed up. A second-round knockout resulted, and the 29-year-old got his contract, one he breaks in this Saturday in Australia when he faces China’s Rongzhu on the UFC 312 card. So now that things have settled down, how come no one wants to fight Kody Steele?
That’s a loaded question, but Steele takes it.
“I think they just look into it too much,” he said. “I think they look at the ground game and they're like, ‘Well, I can't win here.’ And then they look at the striking and I'm knocking people out. So there's a danger factor on both ends of the sword. So I feel like it's a little scary, but I think what's going to happen is the only people who are going to want to fight me are the toughest guys, the dogs.”
Wish granted. And in the lightweight division, Steele is surrounded by those tough guys, but that’s what he wants. He wants to fight the best, he wants to be tested, and considering that he’s never lost as an amateur or pro, he’s passed all those tests thus far.
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“Before I was doing MMA, I was doing a lot of jiu-jitsu and doing SuperFights and super matches,” Steele said. “And where I got in my career in jiu-jitsu, I was fighting the best guys in the world and I was winning some and I was losing some, but it was good. It taught me how to lose and taught me how to win. I'm grateful for the wins, but I never get too high on them. And then when I eat the loss, I try to learn from it, and I keep moving forward. I haven't had a loss in MMA yet. I hear it's pretty not fun. (Laughs) But I'm sure I'll be able to handle it and move on from it if it ever happens. But that's not the plan.”
It never is. But MMA has a way of getting in the way of a fighter’s plans. And when it comes to that perfect record, some people in that position fight more to save the “0” than to win. That’s not the case with Steele, who fights like he’s got an 0-7 record and has nothing to lose. In other words, he’s not thinking about his record; he’s only thinking about winning by any means necessary, whether it’s using his jiu-jitsu black belt or the hands that have ended four of his seven pro victories.
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“I never really thought about my ‘0’ until I started getting deeper into the game,” Steele said. “It was never a goal for me to be an undefeated fighter. My goal was always to go out there and perform and put on sick fights and catch highlight reels. And I think when I'm doing that and being myself, it steers me towards the win. I feel like when I'm all said and done with my career and fighting, I want people to look at me, not from my wins or my losses, but just be like, ‘Dude, this guy was sick. He was knocking people out, he was subbing people, he was scrapping with people, he was dominating people, he was putting on a show.’ That's how I would want people to look at me when I'm done fighting. But being undefeated is nice. It gives me a little bit more hype, and it's definitely a blessing being in the position I'm in.”
UFC 312: Du Plessis vs Strickland 2 took place live from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia on February 8, 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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