Three weeks after a back injury forced Cody Garbrandt to withdraw from his UFC bantamweight title defense against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 213, Dillashaw is skeptical about how hurt the champion really is.
Dillashaw made his comments about Garbrandt’s injury during an appearance on the Fight Society podcast, via Fox Sports’ Damon Martin:
“Trust me, I want the Cody fight as well but he’s injured—I guess you can say. … It’s just the fact that I’ve seen him drunk and wrestling around with his buddies while his back is supposedly hurt doing rehab
“There’s some posts that I got tagged in or got sent to me when I woke up one morning, him getting all drunk with his buddies and him getting into a full blown wrestling match on the ground with Danny Castillo.
“If it was hurting you to walk and you couldn’t take the title fight then you should probably be doing some rehab.”
On May 12, Garbrandt said on Twitter in a since-deleted post he was flying to Germany for a “second back procedure in three months,” via Dan Hiergesell of MMA Mania.
UFC President Dana White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto on May 23 the Dillashaw-Garbrandt bout set for July 8 was called off, and UFC was seeking to book Dillashaw against UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in August.
Dillashaw and Garbrandt have had a rivalry brewing for the last two years when Dillashaw was banned from Team Alpha Male after he decided to train with Elevation Fight Team.
In his last seven fights, Dillashaw has racked up a 6-1 record with his lone loss coming via split decision against Dominick Cruz that cost him the UFC bantamweight title. Garbrandt has yet to lose in his mixed martial arts career, going 11-0 with nine wins by knockout.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com