What’s the story?
Heavy-handed UFC bantamweight champion Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt did the unthinkable this past Friday (December 30, 2016) when he out classed longtime 135 pound king Dominick ‘The Dominator’ Cruz in the co main event of UFC 207 from Las Vegas. While Garbrandt respects Cruz as a fighter, he doesn’t respect him as a person after all the things that were said leading up to the contest; and now that he’s defeated arguably the greatest bantamweight in UFC history, he has his eyes set on defeating the greatest featherweight in UFC history, Jose Aldo.
In case you didn’t know
Aldo was once in a similar position as Cruz, viewed as a nearly un-beatable champion who was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone in the division. That was until knockout artist Conor McGregor crossed his path and planted Aldo unconscious in 13 seconds in their main event meeting at UFC 194. Aldo has since regained the featherweight strap after McGregor was forced to vacate the strap after moving up to lightweight, opening up the door for Garbrandt to possibly step in and challenge for the belt.
The heart of the matter
Here’s what Garbrandt had to say about possibly challenging ‘Scarface’ for the 145-pound title:
“I need to sit down with Dana [White] and Sean [Shelby], and find out the biggest money fight for me,” Garbrandt said during an appearance on The MMA Hour on Monday (courtesy of MMA Fighting). “I know I could go up and fight with Jose Aldo. He has wins over my teammates, he’s a legend, and I’d like to test his chin. I know I hit hard, and I’m just getting started. And I could also have the biggest fight with Conor [McGregor]. I could easily go up. My homie Nate Diaz choked him out, and I can’t believe he’s pound-for-pound No. 2 on the list, with, you know he got choked out.”
“There’s a lot of fights for me in the division, in the UFC division,” he said. “I am young enough to go up, and I’ll fight anybody. But to be honest, I truly believe that I’m ready to fight and I believe that I go out there and put on a performance. And I’m a draw. I want the biggest money fight for me right now. I think that I saw Jose Aldo say that he’d like to fight me, I’d like to test his chin. Like I said, he’s got wins over my teammates and I want to get every one of those back.
“But there’s so many fights for me. I’ve got to sit down with my management team, with Sean and Dana, and see what fights the best for me, and the biggest money fight. We’re all in this to get us all rich, to get us all paid. And that’s what I want to do.”
What next?
The chances of Garbrandt receiving the next shot at Aldo’s featherweight title are slim to none, as interim featherweight champion Max Holloway is riding a 10 fight win streak and has the claim to the next shot at the Brazilian 145-pound king. Garbrandt now finds himself in an interesting position as the new champion of the division, as he has two lucrative options regarding who to defend his title against first. The first choice, and most obvious, is an immediate rematch with Dominick Cruz who arguably deserves a title shot right off the bat after dominating so profusely over the years. The other is a bout with Garbrandt’s former teammate and former bantamweiaght champion TJ Dillashaw.
Sportskeeda’s take:
The most likely scenario to take place next is the match-up between Dillashaw and Garbrandt, as Cruz will most likely need some time off after suffering a nasty unanimous decision loss to ‘No Love’. Dillashaw has been on a dominant win streak since having lost the title, and is deserving of his long awaited shot at the title once again.
