Cody Brundage walked into the press conference before UFC Fight Night 235 in a casual outfit with a grey oversized T-shirt and a glistening bracelet on his hand. But the star of the show was the diamond-encrusted cursive ‘K’ necklace around his neck, and no, it was not just for show. It was not a gimmick like Colby Covington had pulled off when he wore a chain with Donald Trump’s faux head as the pendant. This is a tribute to the fighter who keeps him going— his 4-year-old daughter Kingsley.

Cody and former UFC fighter Amanda Brundage welcomed their eldest daughter Kingsley Rae on February 21, 2021. He announced the happy news on Instagram saying,  “Baby girl is here!!! 7lbs 9 ounces, her mom is tough as hell and did a great job”. However, the middleweight star’s challenges as a parent are greater than his fights inside the Octagon.

He has previously spoken about the same and said that little Kingsley was diagnosed with ALG 13 which is an extremely rare genetic condition causing the muscles to become weak and causes atrophy. It also triggers seizures and epilepsy. The neurological condition harms nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which leads to the patient losing substantial muscle control and developmental delays.

Even though fate dealt the couple a cruel hand, they did not give up. Brundage finds the biggest source of inspiration from his little fighter daughter and expressed the same recently during his presser before UFC Fight Night 235. With tears in his eyes, he said, “I have never talked about my daughter. My oldest daughter, uh, Kingsley. Sorry… So she has a super rare genetic condition and I’ve talked about it before, but it was crazy, like we got this fight and she is in intensive therapy. She is 4 years old, she is in intensive therapy. Like all the time, 4 hours a day, like if any of you guys have kids, getting a toddler to do anything for 4 hours a day is hard. Getting a toddler to do work for 4 hours a day is damn near impossible and you know I wasn’t able to be there for a lot of it. Cause I was in camp and I am just fortunate that my wife, she is a rockstar, and she crushed that for us.”

He revealed how he sometimes got exhausted with fight camp but then looked at his daughter who was struggling and still fighting at the tender age of 4. This gave him all the strength he needed to go on. If she is in fight camp every day and can do it, then he had to make it happen. He said, “It makes it easy to not bail on training when you’re daughter has to go to work. You know she is in fight camp too and I see her going and. I am like ‘Man I don’t really wanna go to the gym today’ and I just look at her and I’m like she can’t say no so fu—it’. I gotta make it happen.”

His wife too is as dedicated as ever and even quit her UFC career to get a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training to take care of their daughter. Brundage has shown his love for his daughter before with an armband with ‘Kingsley’ written in purple for epilepsy awareness. He always tries to be as vocal about this as possible and also readily helps other families who have children with this rare condition.

Cody Brundage’s dedication to advocating for children with ALS 13

Brundage opened up about it in a previous interview and said that he wants to help other parents dealing with similar conditions, and help them cope with the reality of it. “I don’t mind talking about it, because I feel like I’ve seen successful people who have dealt with similar things, and seeing their success and hearing them talk about it gives me hope, and makes me feel better. Knowing that they’re okay, they’re giving their kid a good life, it makes me feel like I can do the same thing. So if I can be that for anybody else, I want to do that,” he said.

He had previously sat down with Greg Grunberg in the Talk About It podcast to speak about his daughter’s condition and advise other caregivers about the same. He has shared extensively about this rare condition on Instagram as well as speaking about the fight his daughter has to go through due to this condition.

He wrote a heartfelt note for his daughter on November 1st, 2024 ending the letter with the words, “So today, I honor both—the life imagined and the life we have. It’s not always easy, and the weight of what could have been lingers. But through it all, I am grateful for the child who is here, teaching me to let go of expectation and embrace the gift of their presence. It’s a love deeper and more complex than I ever thought possible.”

So with the strength of his daughter and family behind him, do you think he will win against Julian Marquez this time? Tell us in the comments below.