By Caoilte de Barra
We often see many families with more than one person involved in MMA. However, the Mayocchi family is a rare case where MMA runs through every member of the family, with all of them heavily involved in the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation of Australia (IMMAFA).
Brodie Mayocchi became the latest member of the family to feature on the IMMAF stage at the Youth World Championships. Following on from his brother Kyle, who competed as a lightweight at the Junior World Championships in January.
Brodie entered the competition undefeated in MMA and boasted accolades across MMA, BJJ, Muay Thai and Boxing at regional and international levels. His performances in Abu Dhabi saw him not only maintain an undefeated record but create history by becoming Australia’s first-ever IMMAF Gold Medalist.
“I’m very proud to be the first-ever Australian to win a Gold medal. That’s what our goal was heading over.” He said.
On his run to gold, the game plan for Brodie was clear. “In the lead-up, the game plan was definitely to try to win every fight by submission,” he explained. “Even if I couldn’t get the submission, at least I could try to keep them off balance or make it hard for them to advance.”
Going back to where it all started, Brodie’s father, Daryl, who was coaching the Australia team, explained how the family first got involved with the sport.
“My two sons and I trained at Fusion Cairns, which was about an 80-minute drive from our town. After about five years, we decided to open a gym in our own town, and my wife started training with us shortly after.
“It’s very exciting to be involved at a national level. We always want our guys competing against the best in the world and can’t wait for next week. The experience gained from these large events for both fighters and coaches is invaluable.”
Brodie added how beneficial it is having his family involved in the sport, especially since his brother is actively competing too.
“It’s great having a brother that competes as well. Kyle had an Australian Featherweight Title fight just two weeks before this event, so training together in the lead-up for IMMAF Worlds while he was training for an Australian title definitely pushed each other.
“Even when we don’t have a fight coming up it’s hard training because neither of us wants the other one to win,” he said while laughing. “Kyle flew back the very next day after his win and trained with me to help keep preparing for Worlds.”
Brodie is not the only youth athlete coming through the gym. Daryl has a group of youths hopeful of representing Australia someday and replicating Brodie’s success. He explained how useful the Youth Development Program has been.
“Youth Development has been a great asset to our gym and our students already. The grading structure gives the kids goals to achieve, and the app they can use in their own time to revise or learn new moves is a great initiative. We’re seeing much more consistency and great progress in our youths trying to reach the next level and some hoping to represent Australia one day, which is fantastic.”
