February 27, 2025 11: 20 am ET
LAS VEGAS – Starting with his fall 2020 fight on DWCS, Cody Brundage got basically permanently busy.
Brundage fought a dozen times in less than four years, and 10 of those, starting in September 2021, have been in the UFC. Like Indiana Jones said, “It’s not the years, honey – it’s the mileage.” And though he’s just into his 30s, Brundage has put plenty of mileage on in the past few years.
It warranted a longer break than he’d been accustomed to – coming up on eight months after a 37-second no contest when Abdul Razak Alhassan hit him with elbows to the back of the head. And to think, an eight-month layoff is standard for many fighters. For Brundage, it was a way to hit the reset button ahead of his next fight.
Brundage (10-6 MMA, 4-5 UFC) takes on Julian Marquez (9-5 MMA, 3-4 UFC) in a middleweight bout Saturday in the UFC Fight Night 253 (ESPN+) co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
“I fought six times in 14 months from the time I made my (UFC) debut to my last fight. I think me and Kevin Holland were the most active guys in the UFC,” Brundage said Wednesday at a media day for the event. “I think sometimes the way to get out from a loss is to just push it and go find a win. And then other times, maybe you need to pull the re