Cody Garbrandt: I’ll Give Dominick Cruz Rematch After I Knock Him Out
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.
