In what truly was an entertaining brawl, Cody Garbrandt suffered the first loss of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career after getting knocked out by T.J. Dillashaw in the co-main event of UFC 217 last night (Sat., Nov. 4, 2017) in New York City.
In the process, Dillashaw reclaimed the title he lost to Dominick Cruz and earned a much-need victory in his long, drawn out battle with his former Team Alpha Male squad.
For “No Love,” however, the loss won’t deter him, as he says he is still the best fighter between the two men and will prove it once he gets his rematch, even if he has to wipe out all of the 135-pound weight class to get there.
“This isn’t going to deter me from anything. Me and T.J. training together had nothing to do with anything. He just capitalized on a technical error,” revealed Cody during the post-fight presser (see it again here). “You saw the first round, you saw him missing, you saw me fast, you saw me land. I truly am the better fighter and I will show that in the rematch,” he said.
“Whatever they want to do. If I have to wipe out the whole fucking division, I will. There’s a lot of people that were calling me out when I was the champion. Just because I had a little setback I am still here and still hungry. This is a learning experience. I’ve learned so much more in life with my losses than wins.”
Still, despite getting knocked out, Garbrandt couldn’t bring himself to say Dillashaw was the better fighter — even if for one night — despite giving T.J. props for the win and shaking his hand post-fight.
“He caught me tonight. He caught me with a punch. I truly am the better fighter. It was me versus me in there. I am battling with myself to throw more punches, to counter, to see all these openings and I just didn’t pull the trigger. It’s always me versus me. The only person that beats me is me. I didn’t throw my hands and do what I was supposed to do. No excuses on my end, hats of to T.J.”
Despite all of the back-and-forth verbal sparring sessions, Cody says he was always professional and always respected Dillashaw’s skills as a fighter, but still stands by his comments of Dillashaw not being a good teammate and person.
“I think I was being professional, given the facts. Still, I feel and think he’s a piece of shit teammate,’ said Cody. “I stand beside my facts. He injured, he lies. Still. It doesn’t matter. Yeah, he won. Good for him. I’ll be back, and I’ll come with vengeance, and that belt’s going to be mine,” concluded the former 135-pound champion.
With the first loss of his career out of the way, Garbrandt vows to return with a vengeance. Anyone care to offer up a potential comeback fight for “No Love?”
For complete UFC 217 results and coverage click here.