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Cody Garbrandt isn’t interested in running things back with Dominick Cruz.

Earlier this month, Garbrandt returned to form with a first-round knockout of Brian Kelleher at UFC 296. The win was Garbrandt’s first knockout since 2020 and leads to questions about what comes next for the seemingly rejuvenated former bantamweight champion. But if Garbrandt has his druthers, it won’t be a rematch with the man he took the belt from all those years ago.

“Honestly, that fight doesn’t interest me,” Garbrandt told ESPN when asked about a rematch with Dominick Cruz. “What else am I supposed to do with the guy? Go in and knock him out this time? That’s the only thing that would kind of put a statement or top that. It’s so hard to top that performance.”

Garbrandt first fought Cruz at UFC 207 back in 2016, in what still stands as the high-water mark of his career. Not only did Garbrandt win the title by unanimous decision, he did it in style, literally dancing around Cruz at various points during the fight. Coming off that performance, many fans believed Garbrandt would hold the title for a long time; however, “No Love” lost the belt to T.J. Dillashaw in his first title defense, getting knocked out in the second round.

From there, Garbrandt dropped four of his next five bouts, getting knocked out in three of them, and even made a brief attempt to cut to 125 pounds that ended in disaster. But in 2023, Garbrandt returned to 135 pounds and strung together two wins, his first win streak since 2016, and now he hopes to move that to three in a row with a fight against former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo.

“I’ll fight anybody. It doesn’t matter,” Garbrandt said. “But at the end of the day, Deiveson Figueiredo coming to the bantamweight division and having a win over Rob Font, I go knock Deiveson out, and it puts me right back in title contention. That’s what I’m here to do. I don’t want to be a runner-up in this sport. I always want to be at the top. I think that fight stylistically and everything, it mounts to puts me back in the top.”

Garbrandt was actually booked to challenge Figueiredo for the flyweight title at UFC 255 back in 2020, however, “No Love” tested positive for COVID and was forced out of the bout. Now, both men find themselves at 135 pounds as Figueiredo recently made the move up, beating Rob Font in his divisional debut earlier this month.

Figueiredo is currently No. 8 in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings, and a win would position Garbrandt on the cusp of a title shot. Given the history between Garbrandt and current bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, “No Love” would like nothing more than to finally settle their beef with the biggest stakes possible.

“If Sean’s still the champion when it’s my time to punch that ticket again, I would absolutely love that,” Garbrandt said. “And if he’s not, then I’ve got to work my way to Sean if he loses… I think a crash course with Sean is definitely in the near future. A money fight, that’s what this is all about. What is going to bring the most eyes to these fights. Sean and I have history, I would love to just go smack him around.”

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Broken foot
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I don’t know that anyone in the combat sports world was truly shocked that Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis came to blows while in attendance at UFC 296.

Just prior to the event, Du Plessis and Strickland traded fairly vicious words at the presser. Du Plessis referred back to Strickland’s abusive father and violent childhood, while Strickland busted out the slurs and attack the South African’s relationship with his coach. It was an ugly scene, and Strickland in particular looked quite perturbed after the trash talk exchange.

The next day, the two were trading punches in the stands. UFC CEO Dana White took the blame, explaining that it was his (bad) decision to allow Strickland and Du Plessis to be seated close together. Seeing as UFC quickly put together and shared video of the brawl — and there were no consequences for either man — the promotion doesn’t seem too upset that it happened either.

This has raised the question: was it staged? UFC Welterweight contender Gilbert Burns and his family were front row to the mini scrap, and according to “Durinho,” it was a genuine brawl … that Strickland explained ahead of time would probably happen.

“That was my wife and kid,” Burns explained, referring to the people Strickland waved aside before lunging at Du Plessis. “And then when Sean came, he came and then he kind of looked at the guy. I think he’s already like ‘Man s—t.’ You brought your wife and your kids, and I say yes. And he said, ‘yeah this fricking guy is right there. I might do stuff with this guy.’

“That was before the fight! When he walked in, he already had the thing in his head. [Strickland said] If I do something, I’ll give you the heads up. Whenever the things start going down, this guy [Strickland] kind of look at me and said, ‘Now!’”

Strickland and Du Plessis are scheduled to officially fight at UFC 297 on January 20, so any injury in the melee could’ve derailed their actual contest! Fortunately, Burns revealed that even from his close angle, no serious shots connected.

“They hit each other a little bit. People didn’t see that side of the camera. We saw because it was right there. There was kind of a little bit back-and-forth, but it was nothing clean. And then Dana came after the fight, like what happened, did anyone get hurt, anyone need anything? No, nothing happened to anyone. Even those guys, they fought each other.”

They’ll have a second chance to settle the bad blood in just a few more weeks.

For complete UFC 296 results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

For several years, a potential showdown between then UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and welterweight king Georges St-Pierre was the biggest super fight imaginable.

Both fighters had run roughshod over their respective divisions and it seemed like the kind of epic matchup that would only happen once in a lifetime. While that fight never came together, the champ vs. champ fight has taken on new life in recent years, especially after Conor McGregor moved up to lightweight — without a single title defense at featherweight — and crowned himself “champ-champ” after demolishing Eddie Alvarez inside two rounds.

Prior to McGregor’s accomplishment, only one champion in UFC history had gone up in weight in an attempt to claim a second title — B.J. Penn as lightweight champion came up short trying to beat St-Pierre at welterweight. Since that time, there have been six fights pitting champion versus champion in the UFC.

Lately it seems like everybody on the roster is calling for “champ-champ” status but UFC analyst and retired fighter Alan Jouban argues that those matchups are no longer being earned and it needs to stop.

“All these guys now that want to go double champ,” Jouban said during the year-end episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “They want to fight up. They want to fight in a new division too soon. You haven’t cleaned out the top five much less the entire division. I think you know where I’m hinting. Everyone keep saying that so soon.

“They win one fight and they want to go up or down and fight. I think you need to clean out the division not only to earn it. The right to do it is one thing, the right to earn to do it, you need to earn it in terms of you’re good enough to go up against a bigger guy and be able to compete and make it worth our while.”

Prior to his recent win over Colby Covington at UFC 296, Edwards was already talking about moving up to 185 pounds with designs on possibly challenging the winner of the upcoming middleweight title fight between Sean Strickland and Dricus du Plessis.

Meanwhile, UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev called for the chance to move up to welterweight to take the belt away from Edwards after only two title defenses of his own with both wins coming over UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski.

“Islam has not cleaned out his division nor has Leon Edwards cleaned out his division,” Jouban said. “Even that conversation being thrown around to me is ludicrous.

“Because neither guy has done what they need to do yet to earn that matchup. I wish that talk would go away.”

Jouban says that’s the biggest difference between all these champions calling for the chance to win a second title versus the attention that was paid to the proposed Silva vs. GSP fight for all those years.

Because Silva and St-Pierre were so utterly dominant while rattling off a record breaking number of title defenses in their own divisions, the chance to see them do battle felt special and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

That’s just no longer the case if every champion in the UFC tries to jump around to a different weight class with only one or two title defenses under their belt.

“You know why Anderson Silva versus GSP sounded so enticing? It was two champions that had cleaned out both divisions,” Jouban said. “That’s what makes it a super fight. It doesn’t make it a super fight if neither guy has cleaned out the division or if one guy has cleaned out the division and the other guy just became the champion. It’s not as enticing.

“Yes, we got a good fight out of Islam and Volkanovski but it needs to be both guys. Both guys need to have three or four title defenses in the division against top guys and then the super fight starts to organically make itself. But you can’t start calling guys out after one win.”

Jouban believes the calls for champ vs. champ fights in the UFC have almost become a novelty and it’s no longer about pitting two of the best fighters in the world against each other.

Fundamentally, Jouban has no problem with a champion earning the right to claim a second world title but jumping up a division just because you can doesn’t mean it should actually happen.

“You know what makes it feel special? It’s water cooler talk,” Jouban said. “What would happen if Georges St-Pierre put on a little weight, put on some muscle and he went up and took on Anderson Silva! What? I mean Anderson’s so good, he’s so tall but GSP put on 10 pounds of muscle! Now he’s able to shoot the takedowns, what would happen? Could Anderson stop the takedowns? Would he be able to pop the triangle like he did on Chael Sonnen? GSP’s much too savvy for that! It creates that conversation and that’s what’s fun.

“But you can’t create that conversation off one title defense. It’s not there yet. It hasn’t been earned. At this point, it’s becoming the fighter looking for the big payday. The fighter looking for something to add to the resume. The fighter looking for a feather in their cap. Rather than the ‘what if’ conversation that we all want. That what if conversation comes from two dominant guys over a long period of time.”

Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio

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Off the back of his upset decision loss to former champion, Joseph Parker over the course of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, former WBC heavyweight king, Deontay Wilder has shockingly claimed that long-time rumored foe, Anthony Joshua was set to retire – rather than fight him, if he beat Parker.

Wilder, a former undisputed WBC heavyweight titleholder, co-headlined a ‘Day of Reckoning’ billed card in Riyadh over the course of the weekend, suffering a one-sided unanimous judging loss to Parker, failing to mount any real significant offense over the course of their 12 round distance.

And in the night’s headliner, Watford-born puncher managed to extend his winning run to three straight fights, landing a corner’s stoppage TKO win over Swedish contender, Otto Wallin.

However, in the days ahead of the event in the Middle East, reports emerged confirming how Wilder and Joshua were set to agree terms on a two-fight deal – if both of them won their respective fights on Friday night.

Deontay Wilder claims Anthony Joshua was set to retire

And in the immediate aftermath of his loss to Parker, with the kibosh now placed on a long-rumored bout between the two, Wilder claims he heard Joshua was set to retire rather than fight him if he won.

“They really don’t want that fight,” Deontay Wilder told 78SPORTSTV.” When I lost did you see how happy he (Anthony Joshua) was coming out? ‘Now I can escape.’ I broke out laughing. I made him able to perform like that. He was like, ‘I ain’t gotta fight Wilder.’”

“The rumor was he was talking about retiring if I won,” Deontay Wilder explained. “March 9., the fight still can go on. But this is a perfect way for them to get out.”

Do you think Deontay Wilder fights Anthony Joshua in the future?

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The UFC revealed their nominations for the fight promotion’s 2023 Knockout of the Year award.  The nominations include: Israel Adesanya’s UFC 287 knockout of Alex Pereira to become a two-time middleweight champion, Justin Gaethje’s UFC 291 head kick knockout of Dustin Poirier to win the ‘BMF Belt,’ Sean O’Malley’s UFC 292 knockout win over Aljamain Sterling to capture the bantamweight championship, and Islam Makhachev’s UFC 294 head kick and punches knockout of featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski in their rematch. 

Do you agree with the nominations?  Relive those knockouts below.

UFC 2023 Knockout of the Year Nominees

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Aljamain Sterling says that Sean O’Malley isn’t quite the star he would have you believe.

In August, Sterling faced O’Malley in the main event of UFC 292. O’Malley won the fight by second-round knockout, claiming the UFC bantamweight title, and potentially creating MMA’s next big superstar. But Sterling is a little skeptical of that. As the then-bantamweight champion, Sterling received a cut of PPV revenue and given how big the fight was supposed to be — billed as the biggest in bantamweight history — “The Funk Master” admits to being disappointed with the actual numbers.

“I was just watching something with my lady and I got the Pay-Per-View numbers, and me and her were going through it, and I’m just like, ‘These are the numbers that this guy was trying to say he’s this big PPV star? Oh my god,’” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “When I saw the numbers I literally sat there — if I had any idea that this is what the numbers would have been, if I could have predicted that this is what it would have been, my ass would have waited and taken my vacation then and geared up to fight now. Because this is ultimately when they said I would be able to fight, January, February, March, because if I didn’t fight in August they wouldn’t have had any other ‘spots.’

“It is what it is. I rolled the dice. I trusted that the bag was going to be this, wow, blow me away, bigger than all the other ones. It wasn’t. So with that being said, it is what it is. I’m still happy I made some extra money. I had a really good year. Life’s good.”

Disappointing PPV numbers is especially unfortunate for Sterling as he didn’t take the fight under ideal circumstances. “The Funk Master” successfully defended his bantamweight title against Henry Cejudo in May and was then cajoled into a three month turnaround to face O’Malley. Sterling made it clear that ultimately he chose to fight and so he can live with the result, but believes it may have cost him the title.

“I know the circumstances. The guys who follow the sport and knew my situation, how I was coerced into that fight — ultimately, it was my decision,” Sterling said. “It was never like, ‘If you don’t do this, you’re cut. If you don’t do this, we strip you of your belt.’ It was, ‘This is the situation. You either take it or you don’t.’ I decided to roll the dice and things didn’t go my way. If I had more time to heal, I think the outcome maybe would have been a little bit different. That’s just my two cents, but who knows?”

That being said, Sterling was also clear that he doesn’t blame O’Malley for any of this, saying that “Sugar” simply took advantage of his opportunity and that he’s the one who messed up.

“There’s a lot to be said about fight, when you make those decisions in the heat of the moment. I made a bad decision,” Sterling said. “He had good instincts, and when I made the decision and put it there for him, my man capitalized. I can’t take anything away from him for that. If I were to do that 100 times, and have the best training camp of my life, he still catches me like that if I go and make the same exact mistake, because he’s trained. So respect where it’s due, from my vantage point. But I do know that I just don’t make mistakes like that and I think it was more frustration from like, ‘I just want to be done fighting.’ It is what it is.”

The fight with O’Malley ended up being Sterling’s final fight at 135 pounds, at least for now. The former bantamweight champion is now set to make his featherweight debut against Calvin Kattar at UFC 300 in April, and though Kattar isn’t a top-five opponent, “The Funk Master” hopes that with a good performance, he might find himself in another title fight sooner rather than later.

“They would have given me a bigger fight if there was an opportunity,” Sterling said. “One of the early names was Arnold Allen, but I did ask for the O’Malley rematch and maybe that’s why I didn’t get the Arnold Allen fight. I do think they would have given it to me, it’s just that the cards didn’t align, and for whatever reason, Arnold is fighting Movsar Evloev and this is the fight that works out for me.

“Still a fun fight, still a guy that puts me in a great spot. If I win and I can look good doing it, and Alex Volkanovski wins, and depending on who wins between Arnold Allen and Movsar Evloev, depending how that fight goes, I could be a shoo-in for a title shot. It just depends on the performance.”

UFC 300 takes place on April 13 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

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