The promise ring: Cody Garbrandt and Maddux Maple's journey comes full circle
The day Cody Garbrandt made it to the UFC he fulfilled his half of a promise to a little boy from northern Ohio named Maddux Maple, who was diagnosed with leukemia when he was just 5 years old.
Garbrandt met Maddux through his brother Zach, who encouraged his troubled sibling to reach out to the little boy after news spread about his diagnosis throughout their small-town community. At the time, Garbrandt was a 19-year-old kid who already was becoming a cautionary tale of wasted talent as he got kicked out of school and was just one wrong move away from spending years in jail instead of the gym.
But after meeting little Maddux, who didn't have any choice but to fight for his own life, Garbrandt realized just how much he was wasting his own. So he started to turn things around, began seeking a new occupation as a mixed martial artist and before you know it he was turning pro and looking like a top-notch prospect.
Somewhere along the way, Maddux's treatments for the cancer got too hard for him to take, so Garbrandt decided to talk to him again, but this time with an agenda. Garbrandt and Maddux made each other a promise: the little boy would keep fighting until the cancer was eradicated from his body, and the once troubled teen turned MMA fighter would make it to the UFC and bring Maddux with him.
That promise came to fruition in January as Garbrandt knocked out Marcus Brimage in his UFC debut, and there was Maddux Maple sitting in the crowd cheering him on. But as it turns out, that wasn't the end of the story.
One of Maddux's favorite moments during his friendship with Garbrandt is accompanying him to the Octagon before one of his fights in Ohio. Maddux dreamed of a day when he could do the same thing in the UFC and now he'll get his chance.
"He gets to walk me to the Octagon and it's great," Garbrandt shared with FOX Sports ahead of his fight Saturday at UFC 189. "It's something that he held on to while he was fighting for his life battling leukemia. He was always saying when he was in a wheelchair and couldn't walk that he wanted to walk me to the UFC Octagon one day. We both made our promises that he was going to beat cancer and I was going to make it to the UFC. For him to hold on to that and look forward to that and the optimism of where he was at that stage with leukemia, and to have a dream like that and to be able to fulfill it and make a dream come true, is amazing.
"I'm very thankful for the promotion and everyone there who allowed it because this is something that kid is always going to remember. I'm always going to remember this as well. Fighting only lasts so long but the memories that we make while we're here is what we get to hold on to. So I'm very excited."
Maddux fulfilled his promise to Garbrandt last August when his cancer went into full remission. While Garbrandt may have inspired Maddux to keep fighting during his worst days, the culmination of that promise has worked both ways throughout this special friendship. Garbrandt says Maddux came to him at a time in his life when he really needed something or someone to keep him from opening the wrong door that could have left him dead or in jail.
Thankfully, Maddux was the perfect influence for Garbrandt to push forward and get to where he's at today.
"This started four years ago. I was an amateur and kind of at a crossroads with my life and he came at the right time where he made me appreciate the little things in life and put them into perspective. He's so young that he doesn't even know the impact he had on my life," Garbrandt said. "The things I needed to do to live a better life and be a better person. This is the least I can do. I'm glad he's there. I'm glad he gets to walk me to the Octagon. I've seen that kid; he didn't have a regular childhood. The things kids get to go do everyday, go out and play with their friends or whatever, he didn't get to do that.
"So to live a dream and to be able to walk out with me at the UFC is something a lot of fighters would even take for granted, but it's something as he was fighting for his life everyday kept him optimistic. It's crazy that he was 5 years old, 6 years old saying those things and now everything is coming full circle. Now he gets to walk down to the cage."
As thrilling as the experience will be, Garbrandt never loses sight of an opponent named Henry Briones, who won't hit him any less just because Maddux Maple is standing next to him on fight night.
The difference is Garbrandt absolutely will hit Briones that much harder to ensure Maddux is left the best memory possible of the night he walked to the Octagon with his favorite fighter.
"It's going to be an emotional day, but it's still about business. Henry Briones is not going to spoil that day. It's a bad day to fight me," Garbrandt said. "It's a bad day any day, but it's really going to be a bad day with Maddux walking me to the cage."
Make sure to watch Garbrandt's fight with Briones in the UFC 189 prelims live on FOX Sports 1 this Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.
