On fight week, you hear a lot of bold talk from fighters toward their opponents.
Leading up to his fight Saturday at UFC 202, Cody Garbrandt may be going above and beyond the call of duty with the boldness.
Garbrandt will take on well-traveled UFC veteran Takeya Mizugaki in the event's undercard headliner. And you know what? He'd like to make a little prediction.
"I'm going to knock him out in the first round," Garbrandt said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. "The first exchange. The first head shot."
It's Tuesday afternoon and Garbrandt is doing a phone interview in a Las Vegas hotel lobby, checking in to the place where he'll stay through his fight.
As it turns out, Garbrandt had company. Someone was listening to him give his pick for Saturday. You know, the one about the knockout after the first head shot.
"He's actually right here," Garbrandt said, meaning, of course, Mizugaki. "He's looking at me right now, like a few feet away from me right now."
Um...can he hear you?
"Oh, yeah, he understands," Garbrandt said, after a pause. "Yeah, he can hear me. Look, he's smiling now."
Garbrandt is dishing out a lot of disrespect this week. Doing it in a hotel lobby was just the latest chapter.
He first did it at a Monday media luncheon, where he waxed poetic on his ability and willingness to face and knock out bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz—"he loses everything" in that fight, Garbrandt proclaims—after he's done with Mizugaki. He then unveiled his own personal "hit list" of Cruz, former Team Alpha Male teammate T.J. Dillashaw and headhunter extraordinaire John Lineker. In that order.
???????? @ufc https://t.co/3JLpYBwyl6
— Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) August 15, 2016
As far as Cruz goes, yes, he's the champ, and assuming a win at UFC 202 (where Garbrandt is a heavy -550 favorite, according to sports betting site OddsShark.com), this title fight would be a big deal. Maybe the pay-per-view-main-event kind of big deal, which would come with a big paycheck.
But this is about more than a fancy way of keeping pants up. Cruz (22-1) has a habit of irritating, even angering his opponents, then beating, even embarrassing them a little later.
A few of those opponents came from Team Alpha Male, the famous Sacramento gym headed by Urijah Faber (who lost to Cruz twice) and previously frequented by former champ Dillashaw (who lost to Cruz once, relinquishing his title) and other elites like Joseph Benavidez (who lost to Cruz twice).
There's also the fact that Cruz did it first, naming Garbrandt in August during a conversation about who he might want to fight next.
Cruz told MMAjunkie Radio on August 8 (h/t Mike Bohn of MMAjunkie):
I like Garbrandt because one, he’s Team Alpha Fail, and two, he runs his mouth, he’s an emotional guy, he’s got a goofy part in his hair and a ton of tattoos so he thinks he’s tough. All of those things together make for an interesting fight. The fans get behind Cody. I’ve gotten a lot of tweets about him, he’s got a lot of fans because he’s been riding the coattails of Urijah Faber for a while now.
Attach revenge, then, to Garbrandt's list of possible Cruz incentives. That's a pretty good trio.
"It's something I've visualized since I was teenager, fighting Cruz, but he's never really faced a sound physical and emotional fighter like myself," Garbrandt said. "The other opponents have been weak. I'm emotional but I fight with passion. ...[Dillashaw] is an emotional dude. A lot of fighters, Cruz got under their skin. The guy's a dork and he tries to be a bully."
Garbrandt is pretty confident. As a fighter, he has earned that right. He's 25 years old and 9-0 as a pro. That includes 4-for-4 in UFC bouts and eight overall wins by knockout, including a flattening of even-hotter-at-the-time prospect Thomas Almeida in the main event of UFC Fight Night 88 back in May. (Garbrandt also grabbed his first career $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.)
That ability comes from more than power. An accomplished amateur boxer in his native Ohio, he has solid footwork, hand speed and takedown defense. He blends it all inside a barely controlled aggression, which sees him darting forward to slam his fist against his opponent's skull.
Back to Mizugaki for a second. Perhaps you forgot that Mizugaki (21-9-2) is the name of the man Garbrandt fights on Saturday. He's a man with an 8-4 UFC record and a reputation for toughness.
Is Garbrandt looking past him?
"Not at all," he responded. "I don't put things to the side. I'll address that problem as it comes. He's a man who's standing in the way. From the opening bell to the end bell, I'm gonna be swinging."
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
