Cody Garbrandt had early success, but lost his championship to T.J. Dillashaw. The time for talking was over as the co-main event of UFC 217 had arrived. Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt put his title on the line against former teammate T.J. Dillashaw. The championship clash was held inside Madison Square Garden in New York City. […]
Cody Garbrandt had early success, but lost his championship to T.J. Dillashaw.
The time for talking was over as the co-main event of UFC 217 had arrived. Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt put his title on the line against former teammate T.J. Dillashaw. The championship clash was held inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Early on, Dillashaw blocked a high kick. A leg kick was there for Dillashaw. Garbrandt tried capitalizing on a missed head kick. A leg kick was there for Dillashaw, but Garbrandt blitzed with strikes. A quick left hook connected for Garbrandt.
Dillashaw got in a right hand with 15 seconds left in the round. Dillashaw was dropped with a right hand near the end of the round. Dillashaw went back to his corner on wobbly legs.
Garbrandt ducked a head kick and put on some dance moves. Dillashaw went for a takedown, but got shoved off. Garbrandt got dropped with a head kick. Dillashaw rocked his opponent with a shot and finished Garbrandt.
Final Result: T.J. Dillashaw def. Cody Garbrandt via TKO (strikes) – R2, 2:41
The UFC’s best fight card of the year is here, and it’s actually intact.
In a year full of fights falling apart at the last second, it’s about time that fight fans get to see some of the best in the world finally enter the Octagon and put their titles …
The UFC’s best fight card of the year is here, and it’s actually intact.
In a year full of fights falling apart at the last second, it’s about time that fight fans get to see some of the best in the world finally enter the Octagon and put their titles on the line. Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, UFC 217 will host three title fights, including the return of UFC legend Georges St-Pierre.
GSP will face off against current Middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, in what will be the former welterweight champion’s first fight in four years.
But even though that fight is considered the main event of the evening, it might not even be the best fight on the main card. That’s how stacked it is.
Here’s a full look at the night’s fight-card schedule, including updated odds for each fight.
History is on the line for Joanna, as she can tie Ronda Rousey’s record of six title defenses with a victory at UFC 217, while recording her ninth straight victory.
But in this instance, history takes a back step. All we care about is finally seeing Jedrzejczyk back inside the Octagon against Thug Rose.
On paper, this is the champ’s fight to lose. Rose is too young, inexperienced and has never fought someone like Joanna. Having said that, Rose does offer one thing that the champ can’t prepare for: the unpredictable.
Namajunas has submitted her opponents in various ways from all sorts of angles. Getting Joanna on the mat will be a challenge, but never say never. For Jedrzejczyk, she’s easily the most skilled female striker in the game and pound-for-pound, regardless of gender, in the world.
During Thursday’s press conference, Joanna told her audience what to expect on fight night, and who are we to disagree with her?
The boogey woman is, indeed, coming, and she’s going to take out Rose with a third-round TKO finish.
Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw
For all the cringeworthy trash talk that’s been surrounding this fight over the past six months, this is still one hell of a fight that could easily take Fight of the Night honors.
The bad blood, the Team Alpha Male drama—this fight has it all, and the UFC has struck gold having it as the night’s co-main event. Garbrandt, as we’ve seen during his brief-yet-meteoric rise in the UFC, has the kiss of death in his hands and boxing skills that would give Conor McGregor a run for his money.
For being such a hot head outside of the Octagon, his patience with his strikes and his fluid footwork once the fight starts is surprising, and it showed how much Dominick Cruz underestimated his skills when Garbrandt won the bantamweight title with a masterclass performance last year.
We know what Garbrandt is capable of inside the Octagon, but the real question surrounding this fight is how much Dillashaw has improved since the last time we’ve seen him fight for a title.
After losing his title to Cruz, Dillashaw went on a mission to become one of the most complete fighters at 135 pounds in the world, even if it meant leaving Team Alpha Male to do so.
In his last performance against John Lineker, Dillashaw looked—for lack of a better word—incredible. If that version of Dillashaw has improved even more since then, it could be a long night for Garbrandt. But as we all know when it comes to those four-ounce gloves, it only takes one punch.
I anticipate Dillashaw showing Garbrandt different looks, even looking to shoot for a couple takedowns to take away Garbrandt’s advantage on the feet.
Dillashaw will win the first round handedly, but Garbrandt will soon figure out his timing and solve the puzzle, allowing him to unload a right-hand bomb that sends Dillashaw to the canvas in the second round. A little ground-and-pound should be enough for the referee to stop the fight and give the champ his first title defense of his career.
Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre
Yeah, this card just gets better and better as the night goes on.
GSP might not have been the most entertaining fighter when the history books are written, but no one can deny his wrestling skill set and fight IQ. As for Bisping, when have you ever been bored watching The Count inside of the Octagon? Even if he does get viciously knocked out a la Dan Henderson.
In many ways, this is a bizarre matchup. Not only is GSP fighting at 185 pounds for the first time in his career, he’s fighting one of the best strikers the UFC has ever had in Bisping, who owns the record for most significant strikes landed, most wins inside of the Octagon and most fights.
He’s coming off a war against Henderson and a knockout victory over Luke Rockhold, and now Bisping has his eyes set on putting himself in the GOAT conversation with a win over GSP. The game plan is rather simple for Bisping, who wants to keep this fight on the feet as much as he can.
After all, he did say his greatest fear is getting cuddled to death by GSP yesterday, and he’s not exaggerating.
GSP’s wrestling and jiu-jitsu is world-class and he would be foolish to try and exchange with Bisping on the feet, even if he does have legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach in his corner.
GSP may have made the 185-pound weight limit easily, but how comfortable is he fighting a five-round fight at that weight against a guy like Bisping, who never seems to slow down?
The former 170-pound champ bit off more than he can chew with this fight, and it will show after a strong opening couple of minutes where GSP looks like his old self until the adrenaline wears off. The extra muscle and weight he’s carrying around will work against him as his movement slows down and his breathing becomes heavy.
Bisping will use his cardio to his advantage and load on the pressure with well-executed combinations, backing GSP up against the cage. From there, Bisping will have his way with the former champ, ultimately getting the finish with a second-round TKO after GSP goes down to the mat and covers up, waiting for the referee to stop the fight.
With the loss, it’s safe to say that this will be the final time (for real this time) that fight fans will see GSP fight in the UFC.
With only one short day remaining until tomorrow night’s (Sat., Nov. 4, 2017) UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, all of the fighters on 2017’s biggest UFC event will step onto the scales for the ceremonial weigh-ins this evening. The fighters made weight with surprising efficiency at today’s official early […]
With only one short day remaining until tomorrow night’s (Sat., Nov. 4, 2017) UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, all of the fighters on 2017’s biggest UFC event will step onto the scales for the ceremonial weigh-ins this evening.
The fighters made weight with surprising efficiency at today’s official early weigh-ins, a rare occurrence for the promotion as of late and a positive sign that UFC 217 should deliver some of the anticipated MMA action the lineup promises. With three title fights including Michael Bisping facing Georges St-Pierre in his UFC return, Cody Garbrandt taking on hated rival TJ Dillashaw, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s attempt to tie Ronda Rousey’s record for most female title defenses versus Rose Namajunas, the stage is set for a big night in The Big Apple.
Watch the competitors step on the scale and square off one last time in the ceremonial weigh-ins starting live at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT right here:
UFC 217 is one day away and the fifth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel. In the episode, welterweight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson enjoys Halloween night in Times Square. Former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw trains to recapture his title, while strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk trains to keep hers. Middleweight challenger Georges St-Pierre meets […]
UFC 217 is one day away and the fifth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel.
In the episode, welterweight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson enjoys Halloween night in Times Square. Former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw trains to recapture his title, while strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk trains to keep hers. Middleweight challenger Georges St-Pierre meets with legendary coaches Firas Zahabi, Freddie Roach and Renzo Gracie. Middleweight champion Michael Bisping is good-naturedly trash-talked by his son, then has a less humorous interaction with welterweight Jorge Masvidal. Champions and title challengers mingle before the pre-fight press conference, then have heated exchanges and menacing staredowns on stage.
Last night (Thurs., November 2, 2017) bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt took his rivalry with former champion and teammate TJ Dillashaw to an all-new level when he posted footage of him allegedly knocking Dillashaw out in training. The two obviously had a heated rivalry pre-installed dating back to their days as Team Alpha Male teammates, where […]
The two obviously had a heated rivalry pre-installed dating back to their days as Team Alpha Male teammates, where Dillashaw supposedly ended Chris Holdsworth’s career with a dirty knee to the head. That was only heightened when the two signed to coach The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 25 opposite one another earlier this year where the rivals’ disdain for one another became apparent.
Although their scheduled bout was delayed until the co-main event of UFC 217 from New York this weekend (November 4, 2017) when Garbrandt injured his back, the hype and trash talk picked up right where it left off this week when Garbrandt claimed Dillashaw couldn’t “condition his f*cking chin” and that he had “showed Team Alpha Male how to use steroids.” But posting the training footage of his alleged knockout over Dillashaw, which is a sort of an unspoken no-no in many MMA gyms, was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back – yet it undoubtedly resulted in some major last-minute push for the bout.
Dillashaw predictably responded with what many online viewers were thinking, that Garbrandt indeed dropped him with a big punch in the video but was far from knocking him out like he claimed, because Dillashaw appeared to get back up to his feet immediately. When presented with that notion on Twitter, Garbrandt quickly responded that Dillashaw “couldn’t even walk” and would have had his skull “pounded in” were it a real fight in the cage:
Lmao he couldn't even walk after that strike hit him ???????? I would of pounded his skull in.
Regardless of the details, however, hype and attention for the already anticipated bout were fostered at just the right time, and that fact may just have pushed the fight into the territory of being the ‘real’ UFC 217 main event.
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports
Yes, longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will return to the Octagon after nearly four years off to face middleweight champion Michael Bisping in the official UFC 217 main event, but for a bout of that magnitude on paper, it’s getting comparatively little buzz or attention.
Part of that may be to the oft-discussed theory that current MMA fans don’t remember St-Pierre as they’ve only recently started watching during the Conor McGregor/Ronda Rousey era, which is a bit ridiculous but could be true nonetheless, part of it could be St-Pierre’s admitted lack of skill at talking trash, something that obviously hurts him in today’s smack talk-centered UFC landscape, and part of it may be the dislike for Bisping’s perceived holding hostage of the middleweight title, as he’s only defended his belt once against an aging Dan Henderson as the wholly deserving top contenders in his division fought each other and eliminated themselves from the running, save for injured interim champ Robert Whittaker.
No matter what, Bisping vs. St-Pierre, although a massive bout featured two of the legitimately best fighters in UFC history, just isn’t getting the heat a fight of that scope should. There is no backstory present like there is with Garbrandt vs. Dillashaw, and there is certainly no knockout video, even though Bisping and St-Pierre did train together in the past, with “GSP” reportedly getting the better of “The Count.”
So with many in the MMA world prognosticating a lack of hype and therefore a lack of quantifiable numbers for UFC 217, Garbrandt may have pushed attention for his bout to the point where people want to tune in for the co-main event more than the main event. It may not prove true, but Dillashaw recently cited an online poll where supposedly 70 percent of responders wanted to see Garbrandt vs. Dillashaw more than any other bout at UFC 217.
If that does become the case this weekend, then Garbrandt’s training footage could have been the perfect stunt to pull at the last minute, and it could result in a decent boost on the final box office receipts.
Based on pure meritocracy and accomplishment, Bisping and St-Pierre obviously hold all the cards over the younger bantamweights, but in today’s UFC landscape, generating the most hype and buzz, usually on social media, is what it takes to push a bout into must-watch territory.
That’s why Garbrandt vs. Dillashaw may have just become UFC 217’s ‘real main event.’
UFC 217 is set to go down in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, with returning legend Georges St-Pierre set to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight championship The promotion makes just its second visit to the iconic Madison Square Gard…
UFC 217 is set to go down in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, with returning legend Georges St-Pierre set to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight championship The promotion makes just its second visit to the iconic Madison Square Garden in what is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the year. MMANews […]
The UFC’s best fight card of the year is here, and it’s actually intact.