Cody Garbrandt is eyeing a spot on the UFC 217 card. Garbrandt was set to defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight title last month, but a back injury put a stop to those plans. His opponent was going to be T.J. Dillashaw. “No Love” has said he plans on returning in November or December. […]
Cody Garbrandt is eyeing a spot on the UFC 217 card. Garbrandt was set to defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight title last month, but a back injury put a stop to those plans. His opponent was going to be T.J. Dillashaw. “No Love” has said he plans on returning in November or December. […]
T.J. Dillashaw has his doubts over the severity of Cody Garbrandt’s back injury. Dillashaw was set to challenge “No Love” on July 8 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bantamweight title bout was set to headline UFC 213. Garbrandt wasn’t going to heal in time, so the bout was halted. After seeing […]
T.J. Dillashaw has his doubts over the severity of Cody Garbrandt’s back injury. Dillashaw was set to challenge “No Love” on July 8 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bantamweight title bout was set to headline UFC 213. Garbrandt wasn’t going to heal in time, so the bout was halted. After seeing […]
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…
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.
Although the first five months of 2017 have been some of the slowest in the history of the UFC, one story that currently sticks out right now is the ongoing feud between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC President Dana White. Johnson released a lengthy statement detailing how he had allegedly been treated during […]
Although the first five months of 2017 have been some of the slowest in the history of the UFC, one story that currently sticks out right now is the ongoing feud between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC President Dana White.
Johnson released a lengthy statement detailing how he had allegedly been treated during a recent run of negotiations with the company, describing a scene where he was first demanded to face rising flyweight contender Ray Borg, and then former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw when “The Viper’s” rival, current 135-pound champion Cody Garbrandt, pulled out of their match-up at July’s UFC 213 with a back injury.
“Mighty Mouse,” who tied Anderson Silva’s record of 10 consecutive title defenses with a dominant submission of Wilson Reis at UFC on FOX 24 in April, detailed how UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard leveled threats at him that supposedly included the outright canning of flyweight and telling him he would never earn pay-per-view revenue for his fights.
The whole scene, regardless of who was right or not, was an incredibly bad look for the UFC in an era where fighters are growing increasingly discontented with their pay and treatment from new owners WME-IMG as they continue to speak out against the promotion in droves. The company is under rapidly growing fire for how they bully fighters, a strategy that may have worked during the Fertitta era but has been increasingly less effective once it became known the company was sold for $4.2 billion last summer.
But not surprisingly, White refuted Johnson’s claims in an interview with TMZ (via MMA Fighting), stating (predictably) that “Mighty Mouse’s” words were untrue and that the champion doesn’t receive PPV points because he did not want to:
“My guy Mick, who is one of our guys who has been handling that, he said most of what [Johnson] said was not true, number one. Number two, the bottom line is Demetrious Johnson is in line right now — first of all, when he did his deal, he didn’t want pay-per-view (points). He didn’t want pay-per-view. He wanted up front money, no pay-per-view. He wasn’t very confident in his abilities to sell pay-per-views. He has the lowest selling pay-per-view in the history of the UFC in the modern era, so, number one. Number two, I think that a fight between him and T.J. Dillashaw would be something that people would actually be interested in, and could sell pay-per-views and could make money, but he absolutely refuses to fight the guy. It’s ridiculous.”
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY
Johnson also cited a lack of promotion of him and flyweight overall as a reason why he hadn’t become a star for the UFC, something White again shot down by citing the recent season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) that was solely focused on the division:
“We’re not marketing him right? We built a TV show around him. The Ultimate Fighter (24) was about what an incredible fighter he is. We’ve put him on FOX many times and tried to build him, and it is what it is. It’s not me. I’m bullying you? How do you bully the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world?”
So White claims to not be bullying “Mighty Mouse,” yet he blasted the dominant champion’s accomplishments by saying he was not the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, a notion he believes the media created, despite his 10 consecutive title defenses. That honor, he insisted, goes to UFC golden boy Conor McGregor, who has won two belts but has zero title defenses:
“Listen, the media claims he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” White said. “I think Conor McGregor is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. If you look at what that really means, what pound-for-pound means, and Conor doesn’t give a sh*t, he’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. And if Demetrious is the pound-for-pound best guy in the world, then fight T.J. Dillashaw. Fight somebody that people will actually care about and be interested in, and there you go.”
White also insisted that the UFC was not planning to can the flyweight division as a threat to Johnson not accepting the fight with Dillashaw because they had been considering doing just that for a long time:
“That’s not true. We’ve been talking about shutting down the flyweight division for about three years,” White said, laughing. “I think that’s what he was saying, because he knows that. He knows that we’ve talked about, you know, doing away with that division. It has nothing to do with Demetrious.
“And never once did I threaten him to shut down the division. Did he say that? Yeah, that’s not true. That’s not what happened. I told him that we had been talking about shutting down the division for years. He knows that.”
Perhaps the biggest MMA headline of the week – and justifiably so – is the UFC’s ongoing troubles with dominant flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who sits on the precipice of one of the sport’s greatest record when he will attempt to secure an unprecedented eleventh straight title defense in his next bout. Johnson […]
Perhaps the biggest MMA headline of the week – and justifiably so – is the UFC’s ongoing troubles with dominant flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who sits on the precipice of one of the sport’s greatest record when he will attempt to secure an unprecedented eleventh straight title defense in his next bout.
Johnson is set on defending the belt against a deserving contender at 125 pounds, a fight he proclaimed his employers at the UFC forced on him when they told him he would be facing rising young prospect Ray Borg after he had requested a super fight with bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt. But when “No Love” was forced out of his scheduled fight with archrival TJ Dillashaw at July 8’s UFC 213, the UFC made an extreme about-face and demanded he fight Dillashaw, according to “Mighty Mouse.”
That lead to the usually-compliant champion issuing a shocking statement against the UFC and how he has been treated which included threats of taking away any chance he had at pay-per-view (PPV) revenue and the outright trashing of the flyweight division. Johnson further elaborated on these threats to Ariel Helwani earlier this week, noting that he called the UFC’s bluff and told them to go ahead and scrap the division.
“Mighty Mouse” seemed to have some incredibly valid gripes with the UFC, yet that didn’t stop Dillashaw from blasting his potential opponent online. Branded a “snake” by much of the MMA universe, Dillashaw is clearly looking for a title shot any way he can get it, and he won’t stop dragging Johnson’s name through the mud to get it. “The Viper” recently described his mindset to MMA Junkie, adding that he wants to fight for a belt soon because it requires cutting weight:
“I feel like it’s disappointing that Demetrious is going to go out this way and not take the fight. I don’t care if it’s Cody or if it’s Demetrious, I just want to fight. I want to fight soon. I want that big title fight.
“But I need to know sooner than later, because I’m in the process of changing my entire body around right now. This isn’t an eight-week process; this is a 12-week process. Not only do I want to make the weight, I want to perform at the weight, as well.”
Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy for USA TODAY Sports
With that established, Dillashaw said he believes Johnson is actually tarnishing his legacy by not fighting him:
“I think the smartest thing for me to do is stay on the path I’m on now until Demetrious mans up and realizes he’s going to ruin his legacy by not taking this fight,” Dillashaw said.
With the flyweight division obviously possessing the least hype and promotional weight from the UFC, Dillashaw said there was an easy fix to Johnson’s desire to be paid like a true great of the sport, and that’s a fight with him:
“(Johnson) wants pay-per-view, which he would get if he fights me. He wants to be promoted, which he would get if he fights me. We both want the same thing – we both want to be the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, as well as make a lot of money and be promoted. To fix all those problems, the only thing he has to do is fight me.”
As for Johnson’s insistence that Dillashaw should prove he can make the flyweight title limit of 125 pounds and get a win there before fighting for the belt, Dillashaw thinks Garbrandt getting a shot at former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz over him was worse than him going down to flyweight for an immediate shot:
“Demetrious wants to say I’m jumping the line to fight him when there is no line to jump. Cody jumping in front of me to fight for the title is a bigger jump than me jumping the line at 125 to fight him.”
Finally, Dillashaw laid it on the line about Johnson’s potential fight with Ray Borg, noting that he’s missed weight a lot more than Dillashaw ever has, and even if he made the championship limit, few would watch the card even though “Mighty Mouse” would be attempting to break the record for consecutive title defenses. The only reason Johnson is turning the fight down, in his mind, is because he’s scared Dillashaw would take his title and therefore the record, but he wants the illustrious champ to know he’s never received more publicity than he has for the current media rivalry with him:
“He should be worried abiout Ray Borg missing weight; he’s missed weight half of his career. ’ve never missed weight since I was 8 years old wrestling. Tell him he can have my show money if I miss the weight. I ain’t going to miss it. It’s just another excuse not to take the fight.”
“I don’t know why it’s pulling teeth with him,” he added. “The only thing I can think of is that he’s scared to lose his belt.
“There’s been a lot of attention, more attention than Demetrious has gotten in a long time because I said I’d fight him,” he said. “It’s been proven there’s attention behind this fight. He’s going to be fighting to break the record, and nobody’s going to watch it (vs. Borg).”
Cody Garbrandt isn’t giving T.J. Dillashaw much of a shot in a potential bout against Demetrious Johnson. A lot has been made over Johnson’s next move. While Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White has expressed interest in booking Johnson vs. Dillashaw for August, “Mighty Mouse” sounds more interested in defending his flyweight title against […]
Cody Garbrandt isn’t giving T.J. Dillashaw much of a shot in a potential bout against Demetrious Johnson. A lot has been made over Johnson’s next move. While Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White has expressed interest in booking Johnson vs. Dillashaw for August, “Mighty Mouse” sounds more interested in defending his flyweight title against […]
