Cody Garbrandt wants former champ vs. former champ Deiveson Figueiredo clash

Cody Garbrandt has left his poor run of form behind and looks like a new fighter each time he steps into the octagon.

After going 11-0 in the sport, picking up some huge knockouts and an all-time championship performance against Dominick Cruz along the way, ‘No Love’ saw his career take a U-turn. The fan-favorite would suffer knockout defeats in his next three outings, and later go on to lose a further two fights, taking him to a disastrous 1-5 out of 6.

Now back and rejuvenated, Cody Garbrandt has returned to winning ways and finds himself riding an impressive two-fight win streak. With his swagger and confidence back, the former 135 lbs champion has his eyes firmly set on a showdown with Deiveson Figueiredo.

“I think it’s a great fight, you know. Stylistically, I love that fight. I think it’s a fan favorite, for me. I enjoy the matchup,” Gabrandt said during an interview with ESPN MMA. “Two former world champions, now in the same division, [it was] previously supposed to be made in 2020. Obviously, I had COVID, I was going to go down to 125.”

“There’s a lot of rights that make it an exciting fight. And you know, I thought of it, it just came to me the week of the fight, you know.”

“I was not overlooking Brian [Kelleher] or anything like that but I wrote down, I think Tuesday or Wednesday fight week that I was going to knock Brian out in the first round and call out Figgy.”

Garbrandt scored a huge knockout of the aforementioned Brian Kelleher at UFC 296 in December. His interests now lie in fighting big-name opponents but rematching a former world champion isn’t in his plans.

“Honestly, that fight doesn’t interest me,” Garbrandt said in response to a potential Dominick Cruz rematch. “I mean, what am I supposed to do to the guy, you know? I mean, going out and knocking him out this time? That’s the only thing that would kind of put a statement, or not even a statement, would top that.”

“It’s so hard to top that performance… I’ll fight anybody, it doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day, I think Deiveson Figueiredo coming to the bantamweight division, just having a win over Rob Font. You know, I go and knock Deiveson out, it puts me right back into title contention and that’s what I’m here to do.”

Related: Cody Garbrandt: Sean O’Malley ‘has a lot of holes and weaknesses’

Cody Garbrandt then spoke of his title hopes and his feud with the current champion Sean O’Malley. 

“If Sean’s still the champion when it’s my time to punch that ticket again, I would absolutely love that… I think a clash course with Sean is definitely in the near future. A money fight, you know. That’s what it’s all about.”

“I think Deiveson’s far more dangerous than Sean O’Malley. I truly believe that. Sean’s, you know, he’s got good skills, he’s got good things.”

Check out everything Cody Garbrandt had to say in the video below.