Garbrandt: I’ll be fighter of the year when I beat Cruz

Cody Garbrandt won states as a freshman wrestler and runner-up as a sophomore. Then his focus turned to amateur boxing, where he went 32-1. Then he turned to MMA and went 5-0 as a pro before he was signed by the UFC in 2015. He went 2-0 last year, but started 2016 outside the top 15.

However, it has been quite a year.

Garbrandt won his last three fights, all by T/KO, all in the first round, moved up to a #5 ranking, and got into extended trash talk with champion Dominick Cruz that ended in a title shot at the UFC’s New Year’s show.

Cruz recently posted video of an amateur Garbrandt loss, and in response Garbrandt’s girlfriend posted an image of Cruz tapping to Urijah Faber. Faber then posted, Don’t get involved in big boy stuff little girl … Just have the tissue ready for your boy toy when he loses, that’s your job!

Garbrandt went ballistic, vowing to “cave your f***ing skull in.” Then Cruz blocked both of them on his Instagram. Heh.

Garbrandt appeared recently on The Luke Thomas Show, still steaming.

“It’s crazy he blocks me from Instagram,” said Garbrandt, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “He talks s*** to me then blocks me, then talks sh*t to my girl then blocks my girl. It’s like someone standing outside of your house talking s*** and saying, ‘let’s go fight’ and you open up the door and cuss them out and then you shut the door and lock it. That’s b**** mode…

“I’m not new to this. This is fine, I use this as fuel to the fire. Dominick was first trying to get under my skin with the daddy issues comment – and that’s his insecurities coming out. He comes from a similar background – single mother – so I feel bad for the guy. He’s full of insecurities and so he’s prying and prying and picking and picking trying to get under my skin.”

“I think I should be Fighter of the Year. I go from unranked to world champion in one year. Before I got in the UFC, I wrote down on a piece of paper a goal that I was going to make it to the UFC in 2015 and then I’ll be the world champion before 2017 so I’m right on track. I pull out that piece of paper all the time and look at it. It’s motivation…

“So that’ll be nice, fighter of the year. I think I deserve it. Dominick is one of the top bantamweights, top fighters in the world and obviously with my progression throughout my fights I’m finishing fighters faster and faster and faster each fight…So if they want to give my fighter of the year after I dismantle Dominick Cruz I’ll be happy to accept the award.”

“I’m focused on just breaking one thing and that’s Dominick’s jaw.”

https://soundcloud.com/siriusxmrush/cody-garbrandt-not-phased-by-dominick-cruzs-social-media-tactics