Cruz verbally decapitates Garbrandt

There’s checkers trash talk and there’s chess trash talk, and there’s jumping up and decapitating the other guy mid game with a samurai sword. UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is the samurai and the headless guy bleeding out is Cody Garbrandt.

It would almost be cruel, as Garbrandt is by all accounts a decent, ferociously hardworking, working-class guy. But ‘No Love’ didn’t just ask for this fight, he demanded it. And with a title shot at Cruz come merciless trash talk.

In their latest encounter, Garbrandt ended up storming off, after offering empty threats.

Cruz followed up his Peewee Herman in a tie and girlfriend wears the pants comments from their last full and frank discussion by calling Garbrandt a “meathead.” Garbrandt objected and accused Cruz of insulting his girlfriend on social media.

“Keep your fling on a string,” explained Cruz, who added he was doing the challenger a favor as she clearly wears the pants in the relationship. Garbrandt then promised to start fighting on the spot, in the recording studio.

Cruz invited him to come on down, and when he didn’t, Cruz kept talking to the chair, finishing his decapitation as Garbrandt threw things and cursed in the next room.

Dominick Cruz fights Cody Garbrandt in the co-main event of UFC 207 on Friday night.