UFC Fight Night 83's Cody Garbrandt (mostly) doesn't care who his opponent is

PITTSBURGH – Cody Garbrandt thought his Sunday homecoming bout at UFC Fight Night 83 in Pittsburgh was going to be the type of win that could catapult him upward in the bantamweight rankings.

Instead, since John Lineker (26-7 MMA, 7-2 UFC) dropped out on Monday, just six days before the fight, Garbrandt (7-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) was left feeling lucky he got to stay on the card. He’ll fight Augusto Mendes (5-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who will be making his UFC debut.

But given Lineker is a ranked bantamweight (he’s an honorable mention selection in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings and No. 11 in the UFC’s poll), and Mendes is largely unknown, Garbrandt is just trying to look at the fight as one that won’t have him merely running in place with a win.

“I train with the best in the world every day, and I wanted to showcase my skills against a guy they were talking about making a title run,” Garbrandt told MMAjunkie on Friday in Pittsburgh. “I’d been looking to fight John for months and months on end. The switch-up in six days, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been fighting since I was 14, so it doesn’t matter to me. I believe I’m the best in the world. Whoever steps in that cage (with me) Sunday, I feel like I can easily do what I do to anybody.”

UFC Fight Night 83 takes place Sunday at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. After early prelims on UFC Fight Pass, the rest of the card airs on FOX Sports 1. Garbrandt fights Mendes on the main card.

Cody Garbrandt

Garbrandt said he got the news on Monday after wrapping up a training session at his home gym, Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif. He said he thought a teammate was playing a joke on him – and not one he found particularly funny.

Then he went on Twitter and saw Lineker’s apology to him that dengue fever, a mosquito-borne sickness, had knocked him from the card.

“I called my manager and said I wanted to stay (on the card),” Garbrandt said. “They wanted to push the fight backwards. I’m all for fighting John when he’s healthy, but I definitely wanted to stay on the card Sunday and fight for the fans. I’m going to have a lot of support coming from my hometown and the Pittsburgh area. But I wanted to stay on the card because I’m a fighter. It didn’t matter if it was so close to home, in Vegas, wherever. I’ve been itching to fight since I got out of the cage in July. It was no hesitation.”

Garbrandt grew up in Uhrichsville, Ohio, about 90 miles from Pittsburgh. Eventually in his early fighting days, he moved to the “Steel City” and lived, trained and fought here.

So there will be no shortage of love for the man ironically called “No Love” from the Pittsburgh faithful on Sunday.

And while he wishes he could have had a fight with a little bigger stakes against a bigger-name opponent, he knows Mendes will be coming in with something to prove, too, which could make him dangerous. He just plans on showing him he picked the wrong guy to say yes to a short-notice fight against.

“Not a lot of top-10 guys are going to take that fight on six days’ notice, and I don’t blame them,” he said. “But my focus is on Augusto Mendes. I respect him for taking the fight. He’s looking at it as an opportunity. He has nothing to lose. But I’m going to show him he that he took the wrong opportunity to fight me in his debut.”

Check out the video above for more from Garbrandt ahead of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 83.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 83, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.