Cody Garbrandt has opened up on his intense battle with COVID-19 and his other health scares in 2020.
After Garbrandt beat Raphael Assuncao he earned a flyweight title shot against Deiveson Figueiredo. However, he was forced out of the bout due to COVID-19 and had an intense battle from it. He also says he contracted the virus at one of the worst times possible.
“It’s a bummer,” Garbrandt said to Yahoo! Sports. “Worst time I probably could have had, but I look at it like if that’s the worst thing that happened to me, well, there are people losing their lives and their loved ones. It was tough, but I’ll heal from it. It was just one thing after another.”
After having to pull out of the flyweight title fight, Garbrandt’s focus was on his health. Although he is a top-tier athlete, he still struggled with the virus. He also dealt with a kidney infection in March which forced him out of the original date with Assuncao.
“I’ll never, ever take my health for granted again,” Garbrandt said. “I was in the hospital for seven days, hooked up to an IV, dripping in me every four hours. There were so many labs being drawn. [I learned] never to take health and being able to do the little things daily we do for granted.”
Now that he is healthy, Cody Garbrandt will return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC Vegas 27 this Saturday. The former bantamweight champion will face Rob Font in a very intriguing bout.
Garbrandt enters the scrap coming off the highlight-reel KO win over Assuncao back in June. The win got him back into the win column after three straight KO losses to Pedro Munhoz and TJ Dillashaw twice to lose his bantamweight title. If he beats Font on Saturday, he could put himself back in line to get a title shot.
Do you think Cody Garbrandt will defeat Rob Font on Saturday?
