Cody Garbrandt: 'TJ Dillashaw Was Never Really a World Champion' | MMAWeekly.com

Unbeaten Cody Garbrandt defeated Dominick Cruz at UFC 207 on Dec. 30 to capture the UFC bantamweight title. During the event’s post-fight press conference, Garbrandt stated that he would like to give Cruz an immediate rematch, but a fight against former teammate TJ Dillashaw also peaks the champion’s interest.

“TJ would be a good fight, a good storyline,” Garbrandt said while appearing on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. “I have to weigh in with the UFC and my team and make the best for everyone, make money for everyone. We’ll see what’s best.”

Cruz was the WEC bantamweight champion when the UFC purchased the fight promotion. He won the UFC 135-pound title in the WEC’s final event in December 2010, defeating Scott Jorgensen by unanimous decision. He defended the belt twice before suffering a series of knee injuries that kept him sidelined for nearly three years. During that time, he was stripped of the title and Dillashaw became the champion. Cruz won back the belt by defeating Dillashaw in January 2016.

After winning the title, Dillashaw left Team Alpha Male, where he and Garbrandt were training partners, along with coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig. Garbrandt and Dillashaw have history and Garbrandt wouldn’t mind facing his former teammate next.

“I don’t mind whopping TJ’s ass. He was a cancer to our team. I’ll make the (expletive) personal too,” he said.

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“I’ll spare everybody $60 on buying the pay-per-view and put out the video of me knocking his ass out. I’m 1-0. He was saying that he made me cry in practice. That (expletive) never made me cry. I wasn’t the one looking at the ceiling knocked out,” added Garbrandt.

“I was the uncrowned champ when he was (at Team Alpha Male). He never even won the title because truly Cruz never lost it. TJ was never really a world champion,” continued the champion. “Cruz was the world champion. He never lost it. I’m the one that went out there and ripped it from him.”

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