Garbrandt: 'Scared' Cruz is getting knocked out next
Cody Garbrandt would make a great WWE Superstar.
The buzzing UFC bantamweight cut a promo for the ages on Monday, continuing his berating of division champion Dominick Cruz in an interview on Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour.
Garbrandt has openly campaigned for a shot at Cruz's title, vowing to leave him "eating through a straw." The champ, though, has repeatedly dismissed Garbrandt in his notoriously smug manner.
Helwani told Garbrandt about a recent interview in which Cruz claimed "No Love" needed more practice before he could clash with him, adding neither he, nor any of his UFC opponents, were top-five caliber. Garbrandt had some equally choice words in rebuttal.
"My response to his critiquing is that he's a little bitch, first off, and he's scared."
Garbrandt then told Helwani of an encounter he had with Cruz before fighting Takeya Mizugaki at Saturday's UFC 202. According to Garbrandt, he approached Cruz upon spotting him in the T-Mobile Arena and promised to knock him out next after he was done with Mizugaki. Garbrandt claimed Cruz's voice fearfully cracked in retort while he looked around the venue, hoping security would intervene.
According to Garbrandt, Cruz puts his chances of hitting him in a fight at 30 percent. "No Love" deemed it typical of a "point fighter" of Cruz's ilk to rely on statistics, after which he offered some of his own.
"Dude, you give me a one percent chance of finding your chin, I'm knocking you the f--- out. That's just plain and simple. I got a 90 percent knockout rate."
Gabrandt's claims are not entirely unfounded. Of Cruz's 22 career wins, 14 have gone to the scorecards. "No Love," on the other hand, has won all 10 of his pro fights, nine by knockout. Given the pair's genuine, escalating dislike of each other, Garbrandt's 5-0 run in the UFC and the dream matchup between his granite hands and Cruz's unorthodox elusiveness, it's easy to fathom a grudge match being booked before year's end.
As for the Ohio native's promise, he's halfway there after cleaning Mizugaki's clock in 48 seconds Saturday.