Cody Garbrandt has hit a snag in his professional mixed martial arts career, but his supporters believe he can snap out of the funk.
One of those supporters is his manager, Ali Abdelaziz. For the past three bouts, Abdelaziz has seen Garbrandt stopped twice by T.J. Dillashaw and most recently by Pedro Munhoz. While things haven’t been smooth for “No Love” as of late, Abdelaziz senses a change on the horizon.
Garbrandt Set To Undergo ‘A Lot Of Changes’
MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour” had Abdelaziz as a guest. Abdelaziz touched on a number of topics and one of them was Garbrandt’s fighting future. Abdelaziz expressed confidence in the former UFC bantamweight title holder’s ability to make a strong comeback:
“Believe me, he is [one of the best bantamweights in the world]. But in a way he’s too much of a fighter. When you touch this kid, punch him, he wants to come and kill you, right? He’s too much of a fighter and I think he needs to get himself right, physically and mentally. And I think we’re going to see a lot of changes coming up, the way he’s going to fight. He’s got to go back to the Dominick Cruz era, when he was having fun, when he was enjoying it, when he was embracing it.
“Cody, what he needs right now is somebody to say, ‘Hey, shut up, move on. You need to do this and do this and do this and do this.’ Right? And I think it’s more mental for Cody than anything else, than skill level. Cody has unbelievable jiu-jitsu, he has unbelievable grappling, unbelievable wrestling. But we don’t see it, right? You will see Cody come again, but he’s going to come right. And I told him, ‘I will not allow you to fight.’ And Cody respects me enough to listen to me, believe me. [I said,] ‘I’m going to make sure your hand is good, your head is good, and you have 10 weeks of hard training camp, healthy.’”
Garbrandt hasn’t earned a win since Dec. 2016. That was when he earned a unanimous decision victory over Dominick Cruz to capture the 135-pound gold. Many have labeled Garbrandt a “flash in the pan,” but clearly “No Love” wants to prove his doubters wrong.
