Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt is willing to stick at 135lbs and fight Jose Aldo rather than wait for a shot at the flyweight title which Deiveson Figueiredo will look to defend for a third time against Brandon Moreno later this year.
Garbrandt snapped a three-fight losing streak last time out. ‘No Love’ scored a knockout of the year contender against Raphael Assuncao before announcing his move to 125lbs where he was granted an immediate title shot. Unfortunately, that title shot fell through when Garbrandt contracted COVID-19 and suffered long-term health issues linked to the virus.
Since then, Figueiredo has been busy. The Brazilian quickly beat Alex Perez at UFC 255 before going to war with Moreno over five rounds at UFC 256 a few weeks later. The fight was scored a draw and of course the promotion will now book a rematch between Figueiredo and Moreno.
A fully fit Garbradnt told TSN that rather than wait for the winner of Figueiredo vs. Moreno II, he will take another fight at bantamweight preferably against former featherweight king Aldo.
“I’m fully confident, I don’t cut weight to 35. I’ll have to diet to 25 but it still won’t be a drastic cut, it will be a healthy cut,” Garbradnt said. “Right now 143 pounds so I’m either gonna keep my weight low to go to the 25’s and wait and see or I’m gonna bulk up a little bit and fight Aldo so I feel good right here. I feel strong, feel fast.”
‘No Love’ is more confident than ever of beating Figueiredo when his flyweight title shot finally comes, especially after seeing Moreno cause the champ all kinds of trouble at UFC 256.
“Like you said, Figueiredo is a great match-up for me. He’s flat-footed, he throws single shots, he doesn’t like the wrestling,” Garbrandt said. “A lot of people don’t know my ground game in wrestling, I can put it on anybody in the world. There’s a lot of things which are variables in the fight that lean towards me. I have a supreme confidence, especially watching him get tagged up by Moreno’s jab.”
“I know my jab can snap people’s heads back and then obviously the other power shots put his lights out,” Garbrandt added. “He showed a lot of holes in his game, tough guy, went in there and had a good fight, back and forth but a lot of the guys have a lot of holes in the game and I felt like I’m just leveling up.” (Transcribed by Essentially Sports)
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