The bogus paperwork that kicked off UFC debutant Cody Haddon’s fighting career – and kept him from a life of crime

Growing up, Cody Haddon saw things ‘that a kid shouldn’t be exposed to’. A path to prison could easily have been the one he walked down, but the rising Australian UFC star had other ideas.

When he was in Year 9, Cody Haddon’s dad asked him the question that would change his life forever: “How’s it going at school, are you doing the work, or are you f***in’ around?”

Haddon, who says he had an “unconventional” childhood in Perth, couldn’t lie.

“I’m kind’ve messing around, I’m not really doing much’,” he told his old man.

It sealed the deal.

Young Cody would drop out of school and take up an apprenticeship.

At least that’s what they told his high school.

Haddon celebrates his win over Billy Brand on Dana White’s Contender Series in August. Picture: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

In reality, there was no apprenticeship. Instead, Haddon – barely a teenager – threw himself into training full time.

“It was at the end of Year 9 and I had to fill out all these exemption forms to leave school, and they tried to convince me to stay, but I said I was doing an apprenticeship,” Haddon tells this masthead, just days out from his long-awaited UFC debut this weekend.

“I don’t think I even handed the papers back. I just didn’t show up for school the next year.

“It wasn’t exactly legal, but I did go to work with my dad for a bit.”

His old man worked as a steel fabricator – welding and boilermaking – and would start early and finish early.

“He’d never let me use the tools though,” Haddon laughs about his bogus apprenticeship.

“I was never allowed on the angle grinder because if I cut my finger off, I wouldn’t be able to fight.

“Fighting’s always been the goal.”

“Fighting has always been the goal” says Haddon (L). Picture: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Indeed, with no school and no trade, training kept Cody on the straight and narrow, having grown up around plenty of people who were no strangers to local law enforcement.

“My upbringing was more unconventional compared to most people,” he says. “I was exposed to a lot of things at a young age that a kid shouldn’t be exposed to.

“That was the environment, that was the lifestyle.

“If I’d gone down that route, I probably would’ve ended up somewhere like (prison).

“Martial arts gave me discipline, value and something to work towards. It gave me a purpose to live for.”

After starting taekwondo at age six, Haddon picked up grappling, Muay Thai and boxing before having his first amateur fight at 18 and turning pro just after Covid.

“I wasn’t clever at school, and I wasn’t the fastest runner, but I had a talent for fighting,” he says. “And I had two older brothers who beat me up a little bit.

“I was always shortest, littlest kid and got bullied a bit too, so that probably put a bit of a chip on my shoulder.”

Haddon locks in a rear naked choke on Billy Brand. Picture: Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

This weekend when the rising bantamweight star makes his UFC debut against Dan Argueta, it will be the culmination of a plan that started way back when his dad fooled the WA schooling system more than a decade ago.

And he promises fireworks.

“Argueta’s big for a bantamweight, he’s super-strong and has a wrestling background,” Haddon says. “He comes out fast and pushes the pace, grapples and tries to wear you down.

“I always want to win decisively, so I’m always looking for a finish.

“I’m never in a boring fight, and I’m not going to be in one now.”

Originally published as The bogus paperwork that kicked off UFC debutant Cody Haddon’s fighting career – and kept him from a life of crime