After a quick stint at flyweight, Cody
Garbrandt is returning to the division where he captured
championship gold.
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Garbrandt and Rani Yahya
have agreed to square off in a bantamweight bout at the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s July 9 event.
MMAFighting.com was first to report the pairing, and Garbrandt
confirmed the fight booking on his
Instagram Stories on Thursday. The card doesn’t yet have an
announced venue, but the main event will see Rafael dos
Anjos and Rafael
Fiziev finally handle their business at 155 pounds.
Garbrandt dropped to 125 pounds for a matchup with Kai Kara
France at UFC 269, where he fell via technical knockout 3:21
into the opening round. Dating back to November 2017, when he
relinquished the bantamweight crown to T.J.
Dillashaw at UFC 217, “No Love” has lost five of his last six
promotional appearances. The 30-year-old Team Alpha Male
representative began his pro career with 11 consecutive
triumphs.
Yahya is coming off a 2-0 campaign in 2021 in which he submitted
Ray
Rodriguez in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 187
encounter before outpointing Kyung Ho
Kang at UFC Fight Night 198. The 37-year-old grappling ace is
11-4-1 with one no contest during his tenure with the Las
Vegas-based promotion.