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Cody Garbrandt Talks T.J. Dillashaw: 'I'll Happily Knock His Ass Out'

Cody Garbrandt Talks T.J. Dillashaw: 'I'll Happily Knock His Ass Out'

UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt says he'll have no problem smashing former teammate T.J. Dillashaw.

Jan 6, 2017 by Jim Edwards
Cody Garbrandt Talks T.J. Dillashaw: 'I'll Happily Knock His Ass Out'
This time last week, Cody Garbrandt was shocking the world and putting on a performance over five rounds that few knew he had in his locker.

With the UFC strap now deservedly around his waist, the Team Alpha Male representative is fully focused on what lies ahead. One of the options could very well be a showdown with his former teammate, T.J. Dillashaw.

Speaking about the possibility of a fight with Dillashaw this week, Garbrandt said he'd happily take the fight but that he could offer UFC fans a much cheaper way of watching the two go at it.

"I believe that T.J. would be a good fight and a good storyline," Garbrandt told UFC Unfiltered. "Jose Aldo expressed that he wanted to fight me, and Dom was talking about going up and fighting him. There's a lot of possibilities, but I've just got to talk to the UFC management team and do what's best for us both and do what makes [the] most money for everyone.

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"We will see what's next. I don't mind whooping TJ's ass. He was a cancer to our team with what he tried to do--destroy it. He made that sh*t personal too. As I said, I [can] spare everyone $60 for buying the pay-per-view and put out the video of me knocking his ass out--I'm 1-0."

Dillashaw has responded to these claims with retorts of his own that it was actually him who got the better of Garbrandt in the gym. The new UFC bantamweight champion, of course, disputes that claim.

"He wants to say he made me cry in practice," Garbrandt said. "That motherf*cker never made me cry. I wasn't the one looking at the ceiling, on my back, looking at the ceiling knocked out.

"The guy is just trying to do anything he knows. He's a horrible trash talker. I'd be happy just to whoop his ass. I'm happy to knock his ass out. It's because of what he did to the team, man. He's a sell out; that's what he is. He sold out his friends and everyone that got him there, that got him to where he was at, for a little bit of money."

Garbrandt then went on to say that he didn't feel that Dillashaw ever won the belt because Dominick Cruz hadn't been defeated in the UFC before last week.

"There was me always there--the uncrowned champ," Garbrandt said. "He never even won the title because Cruz never lost it. T.J. was never really a world champion. Cruz was the champion and he never actually lost his belt. I'm the one that went in there and ripped it from him."

Speaking about his performance in the fight with Cruz, the Ohio native said it all came down to his teammates getting him in the best shape and getting him ready to go the full five, five-minute rounds that helped him get over the line in the style that he did.

"Urijah [Faber] [helped], but there were a lot of other guys on the team, like [Joseph] Benavidez, Justin [Buchholz] cornering, Danny [Castillo] was around--we all said I should incorporate some of his moves in our training and we put on our twist on it," Garbrandt said. "But yeah, everybody helped out, gym managers, just whoever has been around since this whole feud has been going on since we've been facing Dominick Cruz.

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"One thing I said was that he would slow down in the third round, and he did, he slowed down. That's why I quickened my pace up. One big thing was Urijah believing in me. Every day in the past he's been telling me that I'm going to be a superstar and that I'm going to be a champion."