According to former
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight king Cody
Garbrandt, his
UFC 296 appearance this weekend will mark the first time he
enters a fight without any nagging injuries or recurring personal
issues since his title bout with Dominick
Cruz at UFC 207 back in December 2016.
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Garbrandt (13-5) is set to take on Brian
Kelleher (24-14) on the preliminary portion of Saturday’s UFC
296 card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Following his title win back in 2016, Garbrandt had to deal with
considerable adversity, both inside and outside the Octagon:
back-to-back losses, divorce and even a team change.
Nevertheless, coming off a unanimous decision victory against
Trevin
Jones at UFC 285, “No Love” is confident in his preparation for
his upcoming fight.
“This is the best I’ve felt in all of my camps,” Garbrandt told
ESPN’s Marc Raimondi. “I haven’t been able to train this
consistently and this much skill work since I was getting ready for
Dominick Cruz. I feel like my skill level is off this planet.”
Kelleher is coming off a year layoff and back-to-back losses
against Umar
Nurmagomedov and Maurio Bautista in 2022. Regardless, Garbrandt
is well aware of the threats the New Yorker could present during
the fight and is confident that he will emerge victorious in the
end.
“That guy’s got a ton of fights; over 30 professional fights. He’s
battle-tested. He’s been in there with Renan Barao.
He beat Renan Barao. He beat some nice guys, some bigger-name guys.
He’s battled back from injuries and setbacks. He’s battle-tested.
Everyone in the UFC is not an easy fight… He’s going to try and
build a name off of me and it’s my job not to let him,” Garbrandt
said.