Cody Garbrandt reflects on losses to T.J. Dillashaw, and looks ahead

Brilliant boxing coach and commentator Teddy Atlas teaches that staying calm in a place of chaos is a, or perhaps the skill every fighter should work towards. In the main event of UFC 258 on Saturday night, Gilbert Burns lost to Kamaru Usman, and in a post-fight analysis, the Brazilian lamented having gone “Cody Garbrandt crazy.” During an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience shortly before UFC 258, Garbrandt talked about seeing his 11-0 record broken by back-to-back losses to T.J. Dillashaw, and lamented having gone Cody Garbrandt crazy in those fights.

“In a lot of my losses, I would load up and put my head first,” said Gabrandt. The discussion then turned to how Garbrandt was emotionally invested to an unprecedented degree vs. Dillashaw.

Definitely and that’s not me, said Garbrandt. So for me to go in there and have that, just an example of ***makes angry face***, I don’t need to do that. It was great, I was a world champion, I feel like I needed to defend it, a lot of other stuff, the backstory of it, the injury coming off a year. I was just so not mentally ready to go in there and fight that I physically overcompensated for it.

I feel like T.J. caught me at a time where mentally I was not in the best state of mind to go in there and be a champion and that’s why it was taken from me. He capitalized and I look back on it, I kept going back to those fights, and it’s a little bit of insanity. You have to be insane to repeat the same thing expecting a different outcome and that’s what I was doing… Looking back, hindsight is 2020 always in a fight, but I’m thankful for that. I feel like if I would have went off and defended the title, I probably wouldn’t have been as hungry and motivated as I am today and that’s going to help me out for the next five years of my career or however long I’m going to fight for.

Having lost to Dillashaw for a second time, Garbrandt then fought Pedro Munhoz in similar fashion, and lost in similar fashion. However, Garbrandt bounced back vs. Raphael Assuncao, with a KO of the Year contender. Garbrandt is now ranked #4 at bantamweight, and credits the turnaround to a change in his state of mind.

Staying enthusiastic, I think that’s the main thing, said Garbrandt. I wasn’t enthusiastic. I felt like I was just going through the motions. There’s a lot of other things, a lot things can transpire but I’m solely putting blame on myself because that’s all I can control. What I do, how I react to things, and I wasn’t the person that I am during those kinds of tribulations in my life. I’ve grown from that. I was 24-25 years old. I’m 29 years old now. I look at the game differently.

Dillashaw has returned from a two-year suspension for injecting EP Into his butt cheek, and Garbrandt is confident there will be a trilogy.

I don’t agree with a lot of the things that happened but that’s so far in the past, I’m past that, said Garbrandt. But definitely, taking that in there, my mental state was not what it should have been to go against a guy like T.J. We can fast forward to when he got popped and this and that, T.J. can be on that stuff. He can be on that stuff and he still can’t beat me when I’m focused and I’m mentally there and I’m in there and I’m excited. I’m glad that he’s coming back. He’s got to prove to himself and that’s a big fight for me to come back to in the future. That’s gonna happen.