Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
A bicep injury has cost Cody Garbrandt his UFC flyweight title shot.
Yesterday news broke that an injury had forced former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt to withdraw from his upcoming UFC flyweight title shot versus Deiveson Figueiredo. Garbrandt and Figueiredo had been scheduled to fight at UFC 255 in November.
The initial reporting on Garbrandt was that he had suffered a bicep injury. The Team Alpha Male product took to Instagram live to share more details regarding the injury and the circumstances around it.
“I wanted to let everybody know I have a distal bicep grade 3 tear,” said Garbrandt (h/t MMA Fighting). “I had COVID, I tested positive for COVID a few months ago and I wasn’t able to train MMA for about a month and a half. I kept my weight low, that’s why I’ve been cycling a lot just to keep the conditioning up.”
“I got back into MMA training a little over two weeks ago so I just thought my bicep was sore,” continued Garbrandt. “Just from training, hadn’t been doing MMA, been cycling a lot, doing strength and conditioning. Keeping my diet really clean and healthy. Been waking up at 141 [pounds] so my weight’s been good.”
Garbrandt said the soreness in his arm persisted and then, as he began more rigorous training, got much worse.
“My arm was sore for about two weeks just from getting back into MMA and hard training. Obviously, it was seven weeks out from the fight. So then Monday I went to strength and conditioning, training, finished with some bag work. My arm was a little tight. Thought nothing of it. Came back two or three hours later to work with my striking coach Michael Malott, had a great pad session then. Obviously it was still tight and sore. Later on throughout that night and evening, kind of throbbing pain, more sore than usual. So I put some CBD cream on it and took an edible and went to sleep. Passed out and woke up at 2 in the morning in excruciating pain.”
Garbrandt said that his bicep was also swollen. At first he thought he had an infection, so he called his coach to cancel that day’s training and went to see his physical therapist. His PT conducted an ultrasound on the arm and that’s when they discovered Garbrandt’s bicep was torn.
Since then Garbrandt has consulted with a surgeon.
He told his Instagram followers that he had spoken to the UFC about the situation and that he had been told there would be a title fight waiting for him when he is healthy.
“[I] let [the UFC] know I probably needed five weeks, I’d be back to training so I could fight at the end of December. They chose to replace me with Alex Perez. I can’t be upset or mad, the show must go on, I understand that.
“But they did promise me the title fight upon return of being healthy. Can’t fight destiny. It’s my destiny to be a world champion. It just wasn’t to be in November. So 2021, excited to get back in there.”
If Garbrandt returns from injury on schedule and faces either Figueiredo or Perez for the flyweight title, that will be the 29-year-old’s debut at 125 lbs. Garbrandt’s last fight was at UFC 250, where he KO’d Raphael Assuncao.
Prior to beating Assuncao Garbrandt was on a three-fight losing skid, which included him losing his bantamweight title to T.J. Dillashaw, failing to reclaim the title in a rematch and a defeat to Pedro Munhoz. All of those losses came via KO/TKO.
Before those three losses, Garbrandt was a perfect 11-0 on his career with wins over Dominick Cruz (for the title), Takeya Mizugaki and Thomas Almeida.