Cody Garbrandt Calls For Tourney on ‘Fight Island’ to Determine New BW Champ

The UFC is planning to have Petr Yan and Jose Aldo battle for the promotion’s now vacant, bantamweight title. But, following Cody Garbrandt’s electrifying knockout win at UFC 250, he has a different proposal.

Garbrandt calls for bantamweight tourney and fight with Yan

The former champ faced Raphael Assuncao on Saturday night, and Garbrandt dropped jaws throughout MMA, by scoring a walk-off, KO win in round two. Not only was it a massive victory for “No Love” because he bombed out a perennial contender, Garbrandt ended a three-fight losing skid with the win.

Well, after the pivotal victory, Garbrandt was asked about his future and where he thinks he sits in the title shot mix. Here’s some of what the heavy-handed fighter had to say (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“Let’s do a tournament. Let’s do a bantamweight tournament,” Garbrandt said. “Let’s go to ‘Fight Island’ for a few months, go get quarantined out there, bring my coaches, and let’s go to war.

Let’s get this battle, let’s get this tournament, and let’s see who the real champion is. Let’s go back to the old school days.

“I heard that they’re going to ‘Fight Island,’ and there’s only one name I want to fight, and that’s Petr Yan.

Dana, I’m healthy, I’m ready, so I want this strap, this world championship back. It’s vacant for a reason, and it’s my destiny to get it back.

So I’ll go through whoever they need me to go through, but it’s inevitable that is mine.”

Now of course, a tourney for the 135 title on ‘Fight Island’ sounds very, very cool. But, after UFC 250, Dana White repeated that the plan is to have Aldo – Yan for the vacant belt.

White also said that Aljamain Sterling, who scored an impressive, submission win over Cory Sandhagen, is next in line after that.

Garbrandt comments on performance

Although Garbrandt likely won’t be facing Yan next, that doesn’t change the fact he recorded a key victory at UFC 250. While discussing his performance afterward, the 28-year-old said this.

“I don’t need to stand in front of these guys and put on a show and brawl,” Garbrandt said. “I can pick them apart just like that.

I stayed calm, I waited for Assuncao to open up, and you know, do level changes and do what I needed to do in our game plan with my coaches to get that victory.

It feels so good to just be in sync with the coaches and finally get that victory over a tough adversary.”

Now it will be interesting to see who could be next for Garbrandt. On account of this win, “No Love” could return to the top five ranks of the bantamweight division.

What about a fight with Sandhagen?