Meet Lion Fight’s Cody Moberly
The life of a muay Thai fighter -- especially one who lives and
fights in America -- is a difficult one. For starters, the pay is
minuscule compared to what the more popular boxers and mixed
martial arts fighters earn and one’s body takes a ruthless beating.
More than any of the fightsports (live odds), muay Thai fighters generally do it for the
love of the Art of Eight Limbs than fame and fortune.
In the case of Cody Moberly, he’s the personification of such a warrior. He grew up with very little in Wichita and though he loved training and fighting, he knew staying where he was raised was a one-way ticket to failure and disappointment. Moberly (23-14) packed up his things and moved across the globe to Thailand and so far, things have paid dividends.
“Kansas was really a dead end for me; there was nothing there,”
Moberly told Sherdog.com in a recent interview. “When I went to
Thailand, it was so vibrant and there was so much going on. It was
black-and-white compared to where I’m from and I fell in love with
it immediately. I was there for six weeks initially and then I
eventually moved there for four years.”
Moberly, who currently resides in Phoenix to bolster his career, said transitioning from Kansas to the mecca of Thailand was fairly easy because he loved the food and culture, and the language was not too difficult to pick up.
Moberly was involved in an event called Prison Fight and the basis of it was that a foreigner would fight one of the Thai prisoners. The rules were simple: fight like you would a normal muay Thai fight and if the local prisoner won, his sentence would be reduced. If the foreigner (Moberly) won, then that prisoner would have to stay in prison with his regular sentence until he got another chance to fight.
“That was crazy,” he reflected with a chuckle. “I think that guy was close to getting out of prison when we fought. His whole family was there at the fight, too. This guy stabbed someone in the neck over some drug deal or something so he was a pretty bad dude to begin with. What was funny is that the camp I was training in was actually in the same town from where he’s from.
“The fight was supposed to be in the prison itself but at the last minute they moved it out to a stadium just outside Bangkok,” he added. That was the craziest thing I’ve done in terms of muay Thai but I was there to fight. It didn’t matter if he killed someone or not; I just wanted to go in there and win and I actually thought I won that fight, though, but I wasn’t about to protest anything. He was pretty tough but everybody thought I won. Film crews from Showtime and HBO were there and they all thought I won.”
Moberly made the swift transition from fighting a Thai prisoner to the biggest muay Thai promotion in North America. He is slated to fight Anthony Castrejon in what will be the first televised bout on Lion Fight 32 Friday night on AXS TV. Moberly said he knows enough about his opponent to conquer him and he’s ready to do so.
“I’ve seen some tape of him but I don’t really do a lot of studying of my opponents,” he said. “I tend to look to see if they’re a technician or a brawler and then I just go from there with own gameplan and how I’ll attack. But Anthony’s good. He’s real good but he’s nothing that I haven’t been in the ring with before. I’m not worried.”
In the case of Cody Moberly, he’s the personification of such a warrior. He grew up with very little in Wichita and though he loved training and fighting, he knew staying where he was raised was a one-way ticket to failure and disappointment. Moberly (23-14) packed up his things and moved across the globe to Thailand and so far, things have paid dividends.
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Moberly, who currently resides in Phoenix to bolster his career, said transitioning from Kansas to the mecca of Thailand was fairly easy because he loved the food and culture, and the language was not too difficult to pick up.
Moberly was involved in an event called Prison Fight and the basis of it was that a foreigner would fight one of the Thai prisoners. The rules were simple: fight like you would a normal muay Thai fight and if the local prisoner won, his sentence would be reduced. If the foreigner (Moberly) won, then that prisoner would have to stay in prison with his regular sentence until he got another chance to fight.
“That was crazy,” he reflected with a chuckle. “I think that guy was close to getting out of prison when we fought. His whole family was there at the fight, too. This guy stabbed someone in the neck over some drug deal or something so he was a pretty bad dude to begin with. What was funny is that the camp I was training in was actually in the same town from where he’s from.
“The fight was supposed to be in the prison itself but at the last minute they moved it out to a stadium just outside Bangkok,” he added. That was the craziest thing I’ve done in terms of muay Thai but I was there to fight. It didn’t matter if he killed someone or not; I just wanted to go in there and win and I actually thought I won that fight, though, but I wasn’t about to protest anything. He was pretty tough but everybody thought I won. Film crews from Showtime and HBO were there and they all thought I won.”
Moberly made the swift transition from fighting a Thai prisoner to the biggest muay Thai promotion in North America. He is slated to fight Anthony Castrejon in what will be the first televised bout on Lion Fight 32 Friday night on AXS TV. Moberly said he knows enough about his opponent to conquer him and he’s ready to do so.
“I’ve seen some tape of him but I don’t really do a lot of studying of my opponents,” he said. “I tend to look to see if they’re a technician or a brawler and then I just go from there with own gameplan and how I’ll attack. But Anthony’s good. He’s real good but he’s nothing that I haven’t been in the ring with before. I’m not worried.”
