UFC: Cody Garbrandt opens up about near-suicide attempt as a teen

Growing up in a small town in Ohio, former UFC bantamweight champion Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt definitely didn’t get the sorted and focused environment which he has now inside the walls of Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California.

Garbrandt’s upbringing started with wrestling which eventually turned into drugs. Things got so worse one day that he actually thought of ending his life, before his brother Zach stopped him. Garbrandt reflects back at the traumatic moment in an interview with ‘I am second’.

“There’s a part of the story where Zach came and intervened in my life, where I wanted to give up,” Garbrandt said. “I was a teenager, I think I was a senior in high school, I wanted to become a state champion again. I won state as a freshman [but] I got beat as a sophomore [and] I was injured as a junior. Wrestling was something I did my whole entire life and I think losing the passion for that, I didn’t have any drive. I just felt unaccomplished and I got in with the wrong crowd and started doing some drugs and partying and kind of living super carelessly and it almost consumed my life. I felt like my road was running to an end.

“For a while, I wasn’t who I was. I was in a very dark place, a very very dark place and almost hung myself. My brother came in the door and he saved my life. It’s the first time talking about it but I’ve never been more grateful for him. He came in and busted down the door and gave me the biggest hug and sat there with me and cried with me and said everything was gonna be all right. That was the day that really was a changing point for me and my life as well.”