Karmen Linder
Brody Joseph brings American style to a Thai martial art.
If the martial art of Muay Thai were an Olympic sport, there’s a good chance Brody Joseph would have been in Rio this year representing the United States.
But it’s not, so the 17-year-old Waunakee native will instead be representing the U.S. at the International Federation of Muay Thai Amateur Youth World Championship Aug. 24-Sept. 1 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Muay Thai (or “the art of eight limbs,” pronounced moy tie) is a Thai style of fighting similar to kickboxing that uses punches, kicks, knees and elbows.
The tournament brings Joseph one step closer to fulfilling his dream of becoming a professional mixed martial arts fighter.
“This all started as a childhood dream. Some kids want to be president or an astronaut and I wanted to be a professional MMA fighter and the Ultimate Fighting Championship champion,” says Joseph, who stands 6 feet tall, weighs 156 pounds and has a reach of 73.5 inches.
Joseph, who began training and fighting at age 12, was invited to the international championship by Team USA after a string of national amateur championship wins in the States. In all, he’s won four out of the five national Muay Thai amateur championships for the youth age brackets he’s competed in.
But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. In 2014, he lost a close match in the final round of the national amateur championship.
During the fight, he says, “my mind wanted to keep going but my body just couldn’t — I was completely drained. I lost and took second,” he recalls. “It was heartbreaking.”
A couple of months later, the Waunakee high school student learned the sudden onset of fatigue wasn’t due to a lack of training.
When he suffered a cracked rib at the start of football season, doctors discovered he had a hole in his heart. “That hole was recirculating unoxygenated blood, so it was taking my cardio down,” Joseph says.
If it was left unrepaired, he was told, he could suffer heart failure within 10 years.
Doctors repaired the hole by going in through an artery in his leg, a relatively new procedure that avoids the trauma of open-heart surgery. Even so, the recovery took some time. “It was really difficult to go from being an athlete who trains all the time to someone who can barely get out of bed,” Joseph says. But he went on to win two national amateur championships in the last two years.
His training regime doesn’t include days off, which can be difficult. “It’s hard to diet every day and wake yourself up and run, then go to the gym,” he says.
But Joseph knows his strengths and the importance of strategy. “My power is my punches — it’s a very American style. I kind of fight like a boxer,” he says. “As soon as the bell rings, all of the emotions are gone. I’m completely empty, and the only thing I’m doing is looking at my opponent for his weak spots. I watch his reaction to everything. If I throw a kick and if he blocks it, I’ll notice how and that will set me up to do something different next.”
Joseph sees the international championship in Thailand as another step toward his goal of becoming a professional fighter.
“This is the Olympic equivalent of the sport — there will be 140 countries there,” he says. “I want to represent myself and my family and Wisconsin and now the United States.”
