Cody Garbrandt: Everyone Believed The Hype About Cruz In The Matrix

Bringing in the end of a wild year for the UFC, the last pay-per-view of 2016 was sheer entertainment. Featuring stacks of great fights, UFC 207 delivered with a duo of bantamweight title fights. Winning ‘fight of the night’ honors was the co-main event of the evening, and it was an intense brawl. Coming in

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Bringing in the end of a wild year for the UFC, the last pay-per-view of 2016 was sheer entertainment. Featuring stacks of great fights, UFC 207 delivered with a duo of bantamweight title fights. Winning ‘fight of the night’ honors was the co-main event of the evening, and it was an intense brawl. Coming in to UFC 207, many were picking Dominick Cruz to retain his title. Cody Garbrandt, although on a killer streak, appeared to be succumbing to his own emotions. Relentlessly trash talking in the lead up, ‘The Dominator’ had everyone, myself included, sold on his fifth title defense in the UFC.

Nothing is certain in this sport though, and ‘No Love’ delivered a beautifully technical performance at UFC 207. The Team Alpha Male vs. Cruz rivalry got a win on the TAM side for the first time in nine years. Garbrandt was doing the robot, posing for cameras as he landed crushing power punches. Dropping Cruz and making him miss like never before, the 25-year old put in a career performance hat won him a unanimous decision. During a 24-fight career with 22 wins, this is the first time Cruz ever lost a decision. Ironically, Garbrandt made Cruz look like so many of his own opponents, whiffing strikes and hitting nothing but air.

Cody Garbrandt

New Year, New Champ

Although the long-standing feud will likely continue, Cody Garbrandt was respectful when talking about Dominick Cruz. Speaking at the post fight press conference, ‘No Love’ pointed out Cruz’s accomplishments, but also says he was surprised in the octagon. As per MMAMania.com:

“I was really just curious to see his speed, his angles,” said Garbrandt during the UFC 207 post-fight press conference. “Everyone believed the hype of him being … he’s The Matrix, he’s a ghost in there. He’s great. I’m not taking nothing away from him, but I was almost in shock he was as slow as he was in his movements and his angles weren’t there.”

“That’s when it changed right there,” added Garbrandt. “He didn’t like that blood running down his face. That’s when I said, ‘Dominick, are you having fun yet?’ And he didn’t answer me. In the first and second round, he would answer me back each time. That’s right then, I knew that he wasn’t having fun in the fight.”

Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Having Fun

Garbrandt addresses his numerous taunts when scoring knockdowns and avoiding Cruz’s strikes:

“I was just living in the moment,” said Garbrandt. “I was just having fun out there and enjoying it. It was a great fight. I had so much fun in there. He’s a great sh*t talker. He knows a lot of good words. He speaks well. Sh*t, I couldn’t read until I was in the third grade. I barely graduated high school. I knew what I was getting into with him. I knew I couldn’t let his words and his trash talk get me emotional in there.”

Happy New Year folks, let’s hope 2017 brings us as much joy and entertainment as last year did!

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Cody Garbrandt: Puncher’s Chance Or The Next Generation?

Having shared a very intense feud with Dominick Cruz in the lead up to UFC 207, all that’s left is the fight for Cody Garbrandt. When simplified in those terms, ‘No Love’s’ shot at UFC glory sounds somewhat straight forward. In reality, the champion Cruz is a puzzle of striking wrapped in an enigma of footwork.

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Having shared a very intense feud with Dominick Cruz in the lead up to UFC 207, all that’s left is the fight for Cody Garbrandt. When simplified in those terms, ‘No Love’s’ shot at UFC glory sounds somewhat straight forward. In reality, the champion Cruz is a puzzle of striking wrapped in an enigma of footwork. Adding to that highly technical game that Joe Rogan describes as ‘revolutionary’ is the pre-fight tension. Storming out of an interview, and also scuffling backstage with Jeremy Stephens, Garbrandt has displayed numerous signs of frustration.

Similar to Jose Aldo with Conor McGregor, Garbrandt has proved reactionary to Cruz’s taunts and insults. Is ‘No Love’ trying to lull Cruz in to believing he has an edge in the mental domain? That remains to be seen, but what’s certain is a lot of people are writing Garbrandt off. Having that one-punch KO power is certainly useful tool, but the question is whether ‘No Love’ can hit the moving target. The Team Alpha Male prospect recently described himself as ‘the next generation.’ Leading us quite nicely in to the subject of today’s article, is Garbrandt a one-punch wonder, or the future of the UFC bantamweight division?

Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports

History Of Violence

Looking at Cody Garbrandt’s pro fighting record is like analysing the rap sheet of a serial killer. Sporting a 10-0 tally, ‘No Love’ has taken out nine opponents within the distance by T/KO, with seven in the first round. Garbrandt also holds a 32-1 amateur boxing record and a 6-2 amateur MMA tally. Although Garbrandt is not quite up there with pro experience in comparison to Cruz, he is long in the tooth as a fighter overall. Heading in to this bout with three straight vicious knockouts, the power of ‘No Love’s’ hands is not in question.

What is being debated is his accuracy, and ability to hit a target as evasive as ‘The Dominator.’ Interestingly, we have some good benchmarks in terms of Cruz’s last two opponents, both of whom were Team Alpha Male standouts. Former 135-pound boss TJ Dillashaw and Urijah Faber both lost decisions to Cruz recently. Breaking down Garbrandt’s striking, he’s far more similar to Chad Mendes or Urijah Faber than he is Dillasaw, but also is arguably much faster than either ‘Money’ or ‘The California Kid.’ Check out this video of ‘No Love’ working the pads with those hard hands:

Movement

Predicting Dominick Cruz’s movements is difficult at the best of times, damn near impossible when he’s on form. Failing the champion having a terrible fight and not utilizing his gameplan, Garbrandt will need to have put in serious rounds with someone who can mimic his opponent perfectly. Putting Garbrandt in to a category of striker; I’d call him an upright power puncher with the ability to switch-hit.

To put this simply, let’s hope Danny Castillo isn’t the man who’s been brought in to emulate Cruz in sparring. If this moment from the UFC 207 fight week is anything to go by, Castillo is not the man for that job:

Conclusion

Wrapping up this last-minute preview, a few points stand out. Answering the original question, Garbrandt certainly may have much more than a puncher’s chance in this fight. Studying Cruz’s style will help massively, but simulation will be key. The problem there is that Cruz has drilled his footwork relentlessly for years, something I don’t think TAM will have made time for. Barring someone who has committed to drilling and emulating Cruz, Garbrandt may have worked on a clinch and dirty boxing game. One way to shut down an elusive striker is to smother and crush them against the cage.

Outside these factors, ‘No Love’ could uncork a monster KO blow on the reigning champion. If he’s able to overcome the unquestionably brilliant style of the champ, we can arguably say Garbrandt is the next generation of the UFC’s 135-pound division. At this level, anyone has more than a puncher’s chance, to what degree depends on how smart Garbrandt fights, and how much homework he’s done on Cruz.

Stay tuned!

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Cody Garbrandt Hits TJ Dillashaw With USADA Bomb

The top end of the UFC bantamweight division has really come of age in the last few years. The fairy tale story of TJ Dillashaw’s victory against Renan Barao at UFC 173 really engaged fans, who had already been paying close attention to Dominick Cruz. Barao was gunning for legendary status when he claimed Cruz’s

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The top end of the UFC bantamweight division has really come of age in the last few years. The fairy tale story of TJ Dillashaw’s victory against Renan Barao at UFC 173 really engaged fans, who had already been paying close attention to Dominick Cruz. Barao was gunning for legendary status when he claimed Cruz’s vacated belt, and Dillashaw was a huge underdog when they fought. Then it was ‘The Dominator’s’ turn to overcome huge odds. After a run of harrowing injuries meant Cruz had to give up the belt, he returned to reclaim the title from Dillashaw in January of this year.

Completing one of the greatest career comebacks ever, Cruz then defended the belt against old rival Urijah Faber at UFC 199. All the while Dillashaw’s former Alpha Male team mate Cody Garbrandt was gaining steam. ‘No Love’ is now 10-0, five wins deep in to his UFC career including a brutal knockout over Thomas Almeida. After Dillashaw split from TAM to join Duane Ludwig in Colorado, a triangle of beef was formed. Following his quick finish against Takeya Mizugaki, Garbrandt continued his tirades towards ‘The Dominator,’ but he isn’t quite done with TJ either.

GarbrandtDebutsOnRankings2

No Love

Cody Garbrandt has certainly been living up to his nickname lately. As well as starching his opponents with ruthless precision inside the octagon, ‘No Love’ has been taking aiming at the champions current and former. A growing feud between himself and Dominick Cruz will probably lead to an entertaining title fight, but Garbrandt is still involved in banter with TJ Dillashaw too.

This Instagram post by ‘The Viper’ emerged yesterday, as he offers Dominick Cruz a $100K bet on their next fight. Never one to sleep on an opportunity, Garbrandt dropped the USADA bomb on his old teammate in the comments section. Check it out:

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Dominick Cruz & Cody Garbrandt Share Heated Twitter Exchange

UFC bantamweight prospect Cody Garbrandt improved his record to 9-0 at UFC Fight Night 88 with a stunning KO of Thomas Almeida. The Brazilian was on a red hot streak before meeting Garbrandt, with an undefeated record of 21-0, but ‘No Love’ was in no mood for anything more than one round in Vegas. In

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UFC bantamweight prospect Cody Garbrandt improved his record to 9-0 at UFC Fight Night 88 with a stunning KO of Thomas Almeida. The Brazilian was on a red hot streak before meeting Garbrandt, with an undefeated record of 21-0, but ‘No Love’ was in no mood for anything more than one round in Vegas. In a fantastic display of offensive striking and footwork, Garbrandt exposed the holes in Almeida’s defense and scored a game changing first round finish.

With the bantamweight division once again being ruled by Dominick Cruz, there’s a lot of potential fights going on among the contenders, especially now the Team Alpha Male striker has shaken things up.

May 29, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Cody Garbrandt (blue gloves) punches Thomas Almeida (red gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Mandalay Bay Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
May 29, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Cody Garbrandt (blue gloves) punches Thomas Almeida (red gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Mandalay Bay Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports

Since defeating ‘Terminator’ in such dominant fashion, Garbrandt has called out Bryan Caraway, who defeated Aljamain Sterling by decision at the same event. It looks as though they could potentially duke it out for the rights to the next title shot, but it’s not stopped ‘No Love’ and the current 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz from exchanging a few words.

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 17: New UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz poses for a portrait backstage after his victory over TJ Dillashaw during the UFC Fight Night event inside TD Garden on January 17, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

After a number of harrowing injuries meant Cruz had to vacate the bantamweight title, he returned with a win over Takeya Mizugaki, before coming back in a big way in 2016. Beating the former Team Alpha Male standout TJ Dillashaw to recapture the title, ‘The Dominator’ aligned himself for the trilogy bout with Urijah Faber at UFC 199 this coming Saturday (June 4, 2016).

Check out the Twitter beef on page 2

continue…

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