Bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt discusses his UFC 207 win over Dominick Cruz

Last Friday, in the co-main event of UFC 207, undefeated 25-year-old Cody Garbrandt picked up one of the biggest upsets of 2016 by capturing a unanimous decision win from dominant bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. In the moments after this win, the new champ sat down for a post-fight press conference with the media.

According to Garbrandt, the most surprising thing about the fight was that Cruz wasn’t nearly as fast or elusive as he expected him to be.

“I was really just curious to see his speed, his angles,” Garbrandt said. “Everyone believed the hype of him being … he’s The Matrix, he’s a ghost in there. He’s great. I’m not taking nothing away from him, but I was almost in shock he was as slow as he was in his movements and his angles weren’t there.”

Garbrandt also commented on the cut he opened on Cruz’s face in the early portion of the fight, identifying this as a key moment to his victory.

“That’s when it changed right there,” he said. “He didn’t like that blood running down his face. That’s when I said, ‘Dominick, are you having fun yet?’ And he didn’t answer me. In the first and second round, he would answer me back each time. That’s right then, I knew that he wasn’t having fun in the fight.”

Finally, Garbrandt touched on his plentiful, mid-fight trash talk and taunting.

“I was just living in the moment,” he explained. “I was just having fun out there and enjoying it. It was a great fight. I had so much fun in there. He’s a great sh*t talker. He knows a lot of good words. He speaks well. Sh*t, I couldn’t read until I was in the third grade. I barely graduated high school. I knew what I was getting into with him. I knew I couldn’t let his words and his trash talk get me emotional in there.”

What did you think of Cody Garbrandt’s win over Dominick Cruz? Sound off, PENN Nation!