New champ Cody Garbrandt fires back at TJ Dillashaw

Last Friday, in the co-main event of UFC 207, undefeated 25-year-old Cody Garbrandt delivered a shocking upset, capturing a unanimous decision over Dominick Cruz to win the UFC bantamweight crown. As the new champion, Garbrandt must now set his sights on the many dangerous contenders in the bantamweight division – none of whom are more deserving of the next shot than his former training partner TJ Dillashaw.

Dillashaw, who lost the belt to Cruz in January, has since rebounded with dominant wins over two top-flight foes. The first of these wins saw him take out a former foil in Raphael Assuncao in July. The second occurred just moments before Garbrandt’s defeat of Cruz, when he scored a unanimous decision win over the absurdly powerful John Lineker.

In advance of their UFC 207 bouts, Garbrandt and Dillashaw exchanged words on several occasions, criticizing each other in the media and on Twitter and Instagram.

One of their most notable exchanges occurred when Dillashaw suggested he used to dominate Garbrandt in training sessions at Team Alpha Male, even going so far as to make the new champ cry.

Unsurprisingly, these claims did not go over well with Garbrandt, who assured they’re untrue. According to the new champ, he was able to dominate Dillashaw when they trained together, and even managed to knock him out in a sparring session. He also claims that Team Alpha Male coach Justin Buchholz has footage of this incident.

https://twitter.com/cody_nolove/status/814969976897478656

This alleged footage, of course, would be very interesting to see. Given that Dillashaw claims he’s still close with Buchholz, however, it seems unlikely that it ever sees the light of day – if it’s real at all.

If this footage never materializes, we can at least take consolation in the fact that we’re likely to see Garbrandt and Dillashaw mix it up in the Octagon in the very near future. When the two former training partners do collide in the public eye, who do you think comes out on top? Sound off, PENN Nation!