“Soon after I took up BJJ, I started doing MMA and the extra weight just fell off,” says the 28-year-old. “I wasn’t even dieting, I just loved doing the sport. After about a year of training hard, my coach asked if I wanted to have a fight. After that, I was even more hooked on MMA.”
Culibao began watching old UFC tapes of Royce Gracie and later became a fan of Georges St-Pierre, Matt Hughes and BJ Penn. The more he watched, the more he liked it. He also believed he might have a future in the sport himself.
“It’s weird to say, but I always felt like I could make it in MMA,” says Culibao. “I knew I had a gift to be better than average. It must have been pretty surreal for my family watching on, but I knew if I stayed committed, I would make it.”
MMA didn’t only teach Culibao about how to slip punches or defend takedowns, either. It provided other lessons he’s applied to his life more broadly; lessons that haven’t just made him a skilled fighter, but also a stronger person.
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“Martial arts give you a moral code of honor, respect and loyalty. They also give you a good mindset. When things get hard in the gym, you push through it – just like in life. Life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, but you’ve gotta keep trying. Losing is part of life, too. We don’t always see it, but other people are constantly fighting their own battles. Everybody loses sometimes, but martial arts teach you to persevere.”
Home for Culibao is Igor MMA in Sydney, though he occasionally travels to other gyms to sharpen his tools or help fellow fighters with their camps. One of those he will always make time for is UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski.