Mixed martial arts searching for next generation of fighters Chaqueal Waters is 167 centimetres tall, weighs 72 kilograms, his animal profile is the honey badger and, at just 16, he has made the decision to devote his energies to becoming a future Ultimate Fighting Championship world champion. Sydney's Allphones Arena will host the UFC's latest promotion on Saturday, where bad blood is expected to flow when American Luke Rockhold and England's Michael Bisping lock horns in front of 18,000 fans in a battle that will be telecast to millions of people. While many people are still trying to understand the UFC, let alone support it, because it is brutality uncaged, there are young boys and girls in backyard gymnasiums around the world lifting weights, fine-tuning their wrestling moves and belting boxing bags in the hope of emulating the sport's champions such as Georges St-Pierre, Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva. They are not all from the "other side of the tracks," either. Many, such as Waters, who is a member of the famous boxing family, have simply rejected traditional sports for the challenge and hype of the octagon, the cage in which UFC fights are staged. Tom Wright, charged with spearheading the UFC's push into Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said the youthful aspect of the organisation was why he left his role as commissioner of the respected Canadian Football League. "I said to my friends, 'If you don't understand what I'm doing, ask your kids'," he said. One of the things I thought about was it's the sport of the next generation. It's high-energy, fast-paced, you can watch it on your phone, you can connect with it through social media and it's because of those things [UFC] resonates with the next generation. One of the challenges the CFL has, and it's no different to the NFL, is their average fan is a lot older than our average fan. You don't have to be a mathematician to realise their fans will die before ours do. The athletes will suffer to earn Generation Y's adulation, though. The American Journal of Sports Medicine documented statistics earlier this year that suggested anyone who entered the octagon should expect to suffer traumatic brain injury at a rate twice as high as footballers, three times higher than boxers and eight times more than kickboxers and ice hockey players. The UFC disputed the findings, pointing out the statistics were compiled by researchers who did not examine scans or medical diagnosis but formed them instead via publicly available scorecards highlighting KOs or TKOs and by watching vision of fights and then making conclusions. "We discounted that report because it wasn't based on actual data, it was based on individuals watching video and making conclusions," Wright said. I can send you a report that shows statistically there's fewer traumatic head injuries in mixed martial arts than in hockey, football, basketball and competitive cheerleading. Regardless, Wright could not deny the brutal toll his sport takes on the competitors. One of the organisation's greatest struggles in feeding an insatiable global appetite for big bouts and buckets of blood is having enough quality gladiators fighting-fit and ready-to-rumble at any7 given time. "You have to be competent in six, eight, 10 different disciplines, so you bring in a striking coach, a ju-jitsu coach, someone to help you with your wrestling, a Muay Thai coach," said Wright of pre-fight training camps. These guys aren't tomato cans, some are world champions, and it's in training that a lot of injuries occur. It's a tough gig. Waters, whose father Dean was an Australian heavyweight boxing champion and whose uncles, Troy and Guy, fought for world titles, is prepared to suffer for his art. Fortunately, he has the genetics and, it seems, the strength and courage needed to fight for his dream. At 15, and weighing just 52 kilograms, he deadlifted a 110-kilogram weight. As for courage, his father recalled an incident on the coast last summer when the teenager dived off rocks where he had sought refuge and back into a rip that had almost drowned him to rescue a little girl. "Chaqy's animal profile is the honey badger; they're renowned for their ferocity and toughness," Dean Waters said. They'll steal food from a hungry lion and are tireless in battle. My son has that streak and he's determined to make it in the UFC. The teenager made no apology for choosing UFC over boxing and said should his life go to plan he will follow his hero, Canadian Georges St-Pierre and rule the roost. "I'll train and train until I reach my goal," he said. The pain, the sacrifice doesn't scare me. According to UFC middleweight world champion Chris Weidman, a wrestler in California before he found fame in the cage, Waters' "no fear" approach towards mastering a merciless beast is crucial. "There's no secret, there's no magic bullets," Weidman told Fairfax Media. It doesn't matter if you're in Australia, New York or California, you have to be the hardest worker in the room. Do that and there is no reason why you can't succeed. Don't accept failure, refuse to lose.