It’s no secret that current UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz and the #5 ranked Cody Garbrandt aren’t the best of friends, the two are set to collide in the co-main event of UFC 207.
Cruz, who has dealt with his own demons in the past, is saying that Garbrandt has some demons of his own that he must deal with.
“It’s only personal if you haven’t dealt with it in your own mind,” Cruz told MMA Junkie. “The only difference between me and Cody is I’ve dealt with my demons and he’s still facing them. When he’s in there in the octagon with me he’s got another person to face on top of the demons he’s still already facing in his own personal life. I’m making him battle himself, his own intuition of himself, his own feelings of himself, his feelings about his past, because he refuses to deal with that on his own. He runs from it, and the more he runs from it the more I’m going to make him pay. And the more strength he thinks he has in life, I’m going to take those strengths away and make him deal with his own weaknesses. One of the weaknesses of Cody is his emotions. So, when I say stuff like that it attacks his emotions because he can’t control his emotions. He’s an emotional wreck. I just let him know that.”
Since the fight was announced a few months back, Garbrandt has been predicting a knockout finish, Cruz says punching power is all Garbrandt brings to the octagon.
“Let’s be honest here: The things he’s saying are a cry for attention,” Cruz said. “There’s no logical explanation for what he says, and there’s no proof behind what he says. What there’s proof behind is he knocks people out in the first round and he hasn’t gone much further. There’s proof behind he’s undefeated. But there’s proof behind Shane Carwin doing the exact same thing and getting smashed in the second round because he couldn’t get out of the first round against a top-notch competitor. That’s not be bashing Shane Carwin; that’s me bashing a style and type of style that has been so dominant for so long, so quickly with so much power that it actually works against you in the end. That’s what’s going to happen to Cody Garbrandt. He just doesn’t know it yet. Experience is bliss, and I’m going to be able to show him how ignorant he really is.”
UFC 207 takes place on Friday, December 30 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey headlining.
