Cody Garbrandt is still interested in dropping to flyweight to challenge ‘Mighty Mouse’

During Cody Garbrandt’s reign as UFC bantamweight champion, there was much discussion surrounding his potential move down to the 125-pound flyweight division to challenge dominant divisional kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.

Today, as Garbrandt readies to attempt to reclaim the UFC bantamweight title from TJ Dillashaw, the man who ended his reign, he’s still interested in a future flyweight title fight with Johnson. The UFC will just have to make it worth his while.

“If they go out and compensate us, I’ll be more than willing to fight Mighty Mouse at 125 pounds,” Garbrandt said during a Monday media luncheon to promote his rematch with Dillashaw, which goes down on August 4 in Los Angeles, CA.

“If they don’t want to pay us, I’ll stay at 135 pounds and clean out my division, and [Johnson] will keep doing what he’s doing,” Garbrandt said. “No ill words toward Mighty Mouse. I think he’s a great, great fighter. But they’ve got to compensate us for that. I think it’s going to be a great fight.”

Dillashaw has also recently been linked to a super fight with Johnson. This fight, of course, did not pan out. Garbrandt feels part of the reason it didn’t happen is because the UFC wanted him to be the one to drop down and fight Johnson — not Dillashaw.

“They didn’t make the TJ [vs] ‘DJ’ match because they wanted me to go down there and do it,” Garbrandt said. “That was my plan originally. TJ took that from me. He’s not original, but we’ll take care of him this Saturday.”

If the UFC does pay up, Garbrandt is very confident he could make the 125-pound limit imposed on flyweight title fights.

“I’ve got to go down a weight class, have a longer camp, invest money on the nutritional side and all that,” he said.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/31/2018.