Bantamweight Felipe Arantes would still like a chance to fight champion Cody Garbrandt since a scuffle in a hotel back in 2015.
Brazilian bantamweight, Felipe Arantes, still feels like he has unfinished business with current champion Cody Garbrandt after a scuffle in a hotel lobby back in 2015 when his teammate, Thomas Almeida, was preparing to take on Garbrandt at UFC 198. As Arantes shared with Combate, the dispute felt personal to him and he hopes he can settle it in the Octagon.
“I know he’s the current champion, but I want a chance to fight him, for sure. Now it’s really personal. I just can’t let go of what happened at the hotel. He was acting extremely arrogantly, teasing us on social networks, but when we met at the lobby, he started staring at us. He started talking shit in English and when I approached him, some people tried to separate us. He did all of that so he could get some attention from the media. He was the one to post it all on social media.”
Although the Garbrandt fight is not within his grasp at the moment, Arantes says he can’t think of anyone else he wishes to fight.
“Other than Cody Garbrandt, there’s nobody else I want to fight. I leave that in the hands of the UFC. If they send me to the other side of the world to fight, I’ll come back home with a win. I’ve been training regularly since my last fight, because I train with top guys who are always competing, so we are constantly in training camp.”
Felipe Arantes was 2-0 in the UFC bantamweight division, with two submission wins, until he dropped a split decision loss to Erik Perez, back in November 2016.