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There appears to be no love lost between TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt. The UFC Bantamweight Champion spoke to MMAJunkie this week and had plenty to say about the opponent he has now defeated convincingly, twice.
“I’m cool with how it unfolded,” Dillashaw told MMAJunkie. “It’s exactly as I said it was going to go down. I told you I was going to knock him out in the first round, I did. I said I’d ruin his career, I’m doing it. The guy is screwed at 135. He should have went back to the drawing board and gotten better, but he talked his way into an ass-whooping.”
It sounds like Dillashaw is taking pride in not just defeating a tough rival, but causing some career discomfort as well. Garbrandt is in a difficult position right now as a bantamweight. With two consecutive losses to the current champ, Garbrandt’s path to a championship match is rather long and unlikely. This is very similar to the situation Rich Franklin found himself in over a decade ago after two decisive losses to Anderson Silva. Franklin ended up moving up to light heavyweight for much of the rest of his career and never returned to title contention. Joseph Benavidez continued competing in the flyweight division after losing twice to longtime champ Demetrious Johnson, but never did get a third crack at the belt despite putting on a string of impressive wins.
Making the jump to 125
Dillashaw has plenty of options moving forward, including moving down to flyweight to take on new champ Henry Cejudo. He also doesn’t think the size difference should play a role in a potential fight. “I guarantee you Cejudo is just as big as me right now,” Dillashaw said.
Cejudo has been known to have a difficult weight cut to 125, so it is conceivable that they would walk around a similar weights. With that in mind, fighting at 135 would make more sense, but Dillashaw seems to be looking for a chance at double-gold.
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