Cody Garbrandt is eyeing a showdown with a fellow ex-UFC champion.
Garbrandt recently earned his second win in a row after knocking out Brian Kelleher in the first round of their UFC 296 meeting earlier this month. With the victory, "No Love" is hoping to get back in the bantamweight title picture, and he has one big name in mind in an effort to reach his goal.
During an interview with ESPN, Cody Garbrandt said he'd like to share the Octagon with former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo.
"Two former world champions now in the same division, was previously supposed to be made in 2020, obviously I had COVID," Garbrandt said. "I was gonna go down to 125. So, there's a lot of rights that make it an exciting fight. It just came to me the week of the fight. I was not overlooking Brian or anything like that, but I wrote down Tuesday or Wednesday of fight week that I was gonna knock Brian out in the first round and call out Figgy."
Figueiredo also competed in December, but he wasn't featured on the same card as Garbrandt's last fight. "Figgy" had a successful debut at 135 pounds, defeating Rob Font via unanimous decision. During his backstage post-fight interview, Figueiredo said that he felt he was much quicker than his opposition at bantamweight.
It'll be interesting to see if the UFC will book Garbrandt vs. Figueiredo in a battle of former champions, but "No Love" has appeared to indicate that the promotion is on board with the idea.
Do you like this potential bantamweight matchup?
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