Dominick Cruz will defend his UFC bantamweight championship against yet another member of Team Alpha Male, undefeated Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt, at UFC 207.
After months of campaigning and winning against fighters ranked above him in the UFC official rankings, #6 ranked Garbrandt is getting the next crack at dominant 135lb champion as the co-main event to the Amanda Nunes vs. Ronda Rousey championship headliner that takes place on December 30th in Las Vegas.
Following his victorious trilogy fight with Urijah Faber in June at UFC 199, leading 135lb contenders – including Bryan Caraway and former champion TJ Dillashaw – were jockeying for position to get the next shot at ‘The Dominator’. And having already beaten Faber (twice), Dillashaw and Joseph Benavidez it appears Cruz is forever entangled with the Team Alpha Male camp.
In front of him now stands an undefeated Garbrandt who, at 10-0, has secured an astonishing nine victories by way of knockout. Cruz has never been knocked out and has only tasted defeat once, at the hands of Urijah Faber via a guillotine choke almost a decade ago.
Following the fight announcement the two didn’t waste any time and took to social media to begin the war of words. Garbrandt kicked things off by posting the official fight poster on Instagram and promised to make Cruz’s analyst gig on FOX Sports a permanent one stating, “About to put Cruz behind that Fox Sports desk for good!!” which prompted Cruz to send out a tweet referring to Garbrandt as a “little man.”
Garbrandt then went for the jugular and didn’t hold back as he replied: “You can’t even tag me in this cause your a little b**ch, a b**ch just like you were back stage. Now I get to do it in front of thousands!”
The end of year UFC 207 card also includes a heavyweight eliminator and rematch between Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum, while former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks meets the ever-busy Neil Magny.
