For over half a decade, Cody Stevens has been a poster boy for mixed martial arts in the Mansfield area. The "Wolverine" as he has been nicknamed, compiled an impressive 9-1 amateur record beginning in 2006 before turning pro in 2008.

Stevens began his pro MMA career perhaps even more successfully than his amateur, chalking up eight wins in his first nine fights and earning a title belt along the way. But the Wolverine has hit a bit of a rough patch of late, dropping four of his last five contests all by unanimous decisions, leading Stevens to reinvent his game with some new opportunities.

On Monday Stevens will board a plane for Phuket, Thailand where he will compete at world-renowned Tiger Muay Thai against other top fighters from around the globe for an opportunity to earn a one year scholarship to the academy. Five scholarships will be awarded after a two-day try out, which includes food and housing expenses for the calendar year 2013. The training camp also boasts fitness, boxing, wrestling, brazilian jiu jitsu and grappling instruction from some of the top names in MMA.

"They have guys from Royce Gracie to Alan Belcher train there." Stevens says. "Roger Huerta is one of the trainers there with Brian Ebersole who has over fifty pro fights so they have a lot of solid guys. I'm excited to see what changes they've made since the last time I was there."

Stevens trained at Tiger Muay Thai once before back in 2008 with Fight Farm trainer JP Pocock, receiving six weeks of training before travelling to the Philippines for the Pan Asian International Grappling Games. Stevens won his weight class at the event in Manila then returned to Mansfield where he continued training with Pocock, who helped put together the "Send the Wolverine to Thailand" fundraiser that will fund Cody's trip back to Phuket.

"Thankfully I have an awesome support team and I'm very grateful for each and every one of them." Stevens says. "Everybody in the community seemed to pull together and just chipped in ten, twenty, thirty, a hundred dollars and we were able to get around $2,500. Right now I'm just going over there with a one-way ticket and a dream I plan on accomplishing."

To improve his chances of earning a scholarship to Tiger Muay Thai, Stevens has been training under kick boxing legend Mickey Scodova for the last nine months to improve his striking.

"I want to be a hybrid fighter." Stevens says. "To be well-rounded at everything."

He will test his refined boxing skills at LC Pavillion in Columbus in his pro boxing debut against local fighter Greg Bankston, who dropped a split-decision to Galion's Johnny Martinez in his last bout.

"I know he's a southpaw, know he's taller than me, but I'm just focused on what I'm going to do to him." Stevens says. "I'm going to try to cut the ring off on him, stay busy, use my jab to get inside of him and bust up his body."

Tickets are available to the event for $25 and $30 and can be purchased at the Fight Farm or Fit 1 at the Appleseed Shopping Center.

@BrianSkowronski