Cody Garbrandt predicts KO of Dominick Cruz at UFC 207

In just over a week, UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will step into the Octagon against undefeated bantamweight prospect Cody Garbrandt in a highly anticipated showdown for the bantamweight title.

Prior to the fight ever being announced, the pair were already trading verbal jabs at one another, with things escalating to the point of the two men getting into a verbal confrontation backstage at UFC 202, where Garbrandt TKOd Takeya Mizugaki in the very first round. Fortunately, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was on-hand, and leapt into action, separating the two men before things hit a boiling point.

“Dominick and Cody passed each other and both came face to face. Cody is in a nice suit and Dominick is in a nice suit. And these two guys are in each other’s face now.. All of our bosses from the UFC and the TV bosses were there, but no one knew what to do. Everyone just kind of stood back. It got to the point that I thought I had to get in the middle and separate those two guys. If it wasn’t for me at UFC 202, I think Dominick and Cody would’ve fought in August because none of our bosses and TV crew was willing to actually get in the middle of two 135-pound men”

Now, with the pair set to fight in just over a week, Garbrandt is boldly predicting that he will pick up a KO/TKO win over the champ, who has never been KOd. The way ‘No Love’ sees it, the only reason Cruz is bringing up his amateur KO loss, is because he himself is worried about being finished.

He spoke to MMAJunkie:

“It stems back to me getting knocked out as an amateur,” Garbrandt said at a recent media luncheon (h/t MMAjunkie.com) “It happens. But it stems back to his insecurities. Have you ever seen his interview about him getting knocked out in practice? He talks about that. It’s something that he fears. It’s something he thinks about. He’s trying to pass that on to me. You’ve been knocked out, there’s video of it. He fears me knocking him out. He’s damn right, that’s what I’m going to do in there. I’m knocking him out.”