SYDNEY — Kody Steele once battled for the Axe as a member of the Port Angeles Roughriders wrestling team.
Saturday night, Steele, a 29-year-old Port Angeles native, will make his official Ultimate Fighting Championship debut down under in the octagon, putting his undefeated mixed martial arts record (7-0) on the line against China’s Rongzhu in a lightweight bout.
He will compete in the event’s early prelims, which begin at 3 p.m. Saturday and are available to stream on UFC Fight Pass.
Preliminary bouts follow at 5 p.m. on ESPN2 and the main event pay-per-view card starts at 7 p.m.
A black belt in the martial art of jiu-jitsu, Steele previously competed on the last season of UFC CEO Dana White’s Contender Series television show, earning a second-round stoppage and eventually a contract to fight with the UFC.
Steele also has gained popularity for his ground game, striking and penchant for knocking out his opponent.
Scheduled to fight on week five of the show, Steele’s opponent withdrew on fight night, which bumped his fight back to week nine, where he faced Chasen Blair.
In a feature to promote UFC 312 (https://tinyurl.com/PDN-UFCSteele), Steele, now living in Las Vegas, recounted his time on the show and the wait for his final fight.
“It was brutal,” Steele said of the late change in opponent. 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. 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.”
Heading into the biggest bout of his life, Steele isn’t concerned with his unbeaten record, a rarity for even the best of UFC fighters.
“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.’”
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at sports@ peninsuladailynews.com.
