Tag: Cody Garbrandt

Dominick Cruz is now just four days away from making yet another 135-pound title defense, as he prepares to defend his throne against the heavy-handed Team Alpha Male product Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt in the co-main event of Friday’s (December 30, 2016) UFC 207 event.

Garbrandt is confident that he’ll leave Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena as the new ruler of the UFC’s bantamweight division, and during a recent interview with MMA Junkie, ‘No Love’ stated that he’ll give ‘The Dominator’ a rematch after what he predicts to be a knockout victory Friday:

“He’s getting ready to relinquish his belt to me,” Garbrandt said. “He’s already getting ready in his mind. He’s like, ‘Hey, I’m setting up a nice career. I’m setting up my next chapter in my life.’ That’s just smart.

“He knows what’s going to happen in this fight. I’ll knock him out, so yes, I’ll give him a rematch because I know he’ll cry and bitch about it. So I’ll give him an immediate rematch right away. And then do the same thing that I did the first fight. And then he’ll be ready for his next chapter in his life.”

Cruz has stated before that he doesn’t need the UFC strap to be happy, but Garbrandt isn’t buying it and believes that the longtime 31-year-old champ is ‘insecure’:

“He said before he didn’t need the belt to be happy, that he didn’t need the world championship to be happy,” Garbrandt said. “But really, he does. He does, and he’s such a mental midget about it and so insecure that he’d have to have the gold belt to show he’s the best.

“That’s his argument, ‘I have the championship. I’m the best. I’m the greatest ever. I’ve beat all these people.’ You’ve been winning by split decisions. It’s crazy to me.”

While Cruz has been dominating the 135-pound weight class in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) for eight years now, Garbrandt has been watching intently since his adolescence and has longtime dreamed of being to one to hand Cruz his first professional loss since 2007:

“I’ve pictured knocking Dominick Cruz out since I was a teenager,” Garbrandt said. “I faced this guy in my head over a million times since that first time I saw him becoming a champion in the WEC. I knew that I was going to fight him. I knew I was going to fight him for the world title when I was a teenager. So I’ve been preparing mentally for Dominick Cruz for over a decade.

“And as it draws near, I just see it more and more. And I get goosebumps, and I can see it and feel it more and more each day I get closer to the fight.”

Many combatants view their work inside the Octagon as a sport, however, Garbrandt shares no such distinction as he goes into the Octagon to do damage to the adversary standing across the cage from him.

When Garbrandt finally gets his shot against Cruz he’ll look to extend his knockout streak to four, as ‘No Love’ says the UFC champ crossed the line as soon as he signed the contract to throw-down:

“The line was crossed, for me, as soon as we signed the line,” Garbrandt said. “To me, all my adversaries have the same mindset as me when I signed the dotted line, and my mindset is that I’m going to go in there and hurt you. I’m going to go in there and knock you out.

“The fight game is not a sport to me. It’s not a sport. This fight, yes, it’s for the world title, but the other fights – you’re not fighting for trophies or ribbons, you know what I mean? You’re in there really to do damage. And I think some fighters are just fighting to win, like Dominick. He’s just trying to get that W. Me, I go in there to finish my opponents in devastating fashion.

“I’ve got to put them on the same mindset than me going into the fight.”

Cruz and Garbrandt will meet in the co-main event of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV) for the UFC bantamweight title, from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday (December 30, 2016). The card is headlined by the return on ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey, who is making her Octagon return after over a year since suffering her first ever loss in MMA.

The post Cody Garbrandt: I’ll Give Dominick Cruz Rematch After I Knock Him Out appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

No. 5-ranked UFC bantamweight Cody Garbrandt will be next in line to challenge for 135-pound champ Dominick Cruz’s title, and although 13 previous combatants couldn’t get the job done against ‘The Dominator’, ‘No Love’ is confident he has what it takes to hand Cruz his first professional mixed martial arts (MMA) loss in nearly a decade.

Garbrandt currently sports an undefeated MMA record with 10 wins, finishing all but one of those contests via knockout. During a recent interview with FOX Sports, Garbrandt stated that his power mixed with his extensive boxing background, along with his ability to cut off the cage will be enough for him to secure the bantamweight title:

“He doesn’t impress me,” Garbrandt said. “He doesn’t impress me because he’s not fighting fighters who know how to cut off the cage. He never fought a fighter who has a high resume boxing pedigree such as myself.

“Nothing at all really surprises me or I’m in awe about that he does. He’s actually a very unorthodox fighter but if you look at his patterns and his movements when he strikes and when he moves and when he evades and darts out, it’s all the same. It’s always been the same. Dominick’s not a fighter that evolves over time. He’s stayed the same and no one has been able to figure him out because he’s never fought a fighter that’s been able to match him. Kind of target him and chase him down.”

The 31-year-old Cruz has competed in 23 MMA bouts throughout his illustrious career, losing only once to Garbrandt’s mentor and Cruz’s longtime rival Urijah Faber via first round submission in the WEC in 2007, with 14 of those wins coming by way of decision.

Garbrandt credits the majority of Cruz’s success to ‘point fighting’ and plans to utilize what he believes to be superior speed and hunt his adversary down and force him into a slug-fest:

“I’m faster than him. I hit way harder than him. I’m (expletive) way meaner than him. He’s not a mean fighter. He doesn’t try to get in there and get into a fight. He wants to point, punch and that’s fine,” Garbrandt said. “This whole camp getting ready for that.

“I’ve had people trying to get me frustrated and annoyed with running, chasing them down and I’m still getting them.”

Cruz has been competing in the sport of MMA since 2005, while ‘No Love’ got his first professional fight in 2012 just four years ago. While Cruz holds the experience edge heading into their bout, Garbrandt claims he has yet to see any evolution in Cruz’s game over the years, and instead has observed the longtime 135-pound champ wear himself down:

“I see the same Dominick Cruz. I don’t see any improvements,” Garbrandt said. “All I really see is an older, beat up, crippled, decrepit fighter that’s going to step in there on Dec. 30. He’s probably got two good rounds of movement. Halfway through the second and he’ll slow down and be looking for a way out.”

As previously mentioned, the majority of Garbrandt’s success inside the cage has come due to his tremendous punching power which have resulted in nine knockouts out of his 10 career wins. However, Garbrandt feels as though Cruz is underestimating his abilities on the mat as well, and ‘No Love’ is prepared to take the bout anywhere it needs to go for him to get the win:

“I’m going to beat him anywhere. I’m a better wrestler, my jiu-jitsu’s better, but go ahead and think that Dominick, that I don’t have any of that. I don’t work on any of that. I’m just a knockout artist and that’s what I’m going to go out there and do,” Garbrandt said. “That’s what I go out there and do and I get it done, but if the fight needs to go wherever it needs to go, I’m by far the more supreme, more dominant fighter in every area that it goes to.

“I’m the meanest mother (expletive) he’s ever going to meet in there. I guarantee you that. I’m not going to give him an inch in there. We’re in there, I’m taking his head off. I’m not leaving without the ‘W’.”

Along with tormenting the 135-pound division, Cruz has taken a job working on the FOX Sports analysts’ desk where he has thrived. Garbrandt sees this as a ‘one foot out the door’ scenario for Cruz, and claims to be hungrier than ‘The Dominator’ who is already planning for the next chapter of his life:

“He got that job at FOX broadcasting, I’m glad they brought him on, he’s very good at color commentary but he’s getting ready for the next chapter of his life. It’s evident. You can see,” Garbrandt said. “He knows. He knows that he is getting ready for that next chapter of his life without the belt.

“When you’re thinking about the next chapter of your life and you’ve got a (expletive) savage in front of you like myself that’s been grinding to take this from you, grinding so hungry. A wolf at the bottom of the mountain is hungrier than a wolf at the top. He’s done well. I can’t knock him for that, he’s skated by on decisions but I leave no doubt, no question that I’m going to be the world champion.”

Cruz and Garbrandt will meet in the co-main event of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV) for the UFC bantamweight title, from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30, 2016.

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