The 16-year-old martial arts fighter began his first day of official work at Chaffey’s Black Belt Academy in Taminda on Monday.

He’s been learning and fighting martial arts for a number of years after wandering in as a young kid with spikey hair.

“That’s why I nicknamed him Spike,” said Clint Chaffey.

“And it’s stuck.”

Brayden laughs, a large grin.

“It’ awesome,” he said.

Getting paid for doing something he enjoys!

“That was my first fight,” he said of a weekend trip to Brisbane with Scott Chaffey to fight in the Preacher Fight Night Australia v Ireland tournament.

“I ended up with a draw, three two-minute rounds.”

He was fighting in the 66kg kilo division of the muay thai kickboxing.

While he fought a tough opponent he enjoyed it and is looking forward to more.

Scott Chaffey, 31, was fighting just his fifth muay thai fight in a career that has spanned more than 200 fights in the various arts of karate, boxing, kick boxing and now muay thai.

“I was lucky enough to finish it in the first round in the first 20 seconds,” Chaffey said.

“It was a bit slower than my best (3.5secs).

“We fought at the Irish Club.

“‘They had some Australia-Ireland bouts. I fought a Croatian.” Chaffey, who laughed about that irony of KO-ing a Croatian on an Irish-Australian fight night, has been fighting for some 18 years.

He trains hard and is looking forward to another muay thai bout.

“Hopefully in May,” he added.

Clint Chaffey oversees all the fighting and training and said a couple of karate tournaments in Coffs Harbour now loom large for some of his talented young martial artists.

His Black Belt Academy continues to thrive.

 “We should have done this years ago,” Chaffey  said of a unique training and fighting business that took , “30 years to be an overnight success”.