UFC 326: Cody Garbrandt explains how returning to his roots helped him find his love for fighting again
After becoming the UFC bantamweight champion, Garbrandt said the fight game became a business rather than a climb
Cody Garbrandt (14-7-0) will face veteran Xiao Long (27-10-0) in a bantamweight bout on Saturday's UFC 326 preliminary card in Las Vegas.
For the 34-year-old Garbrandt, it's a pivotal fight at a crossroads of his career. The former champ wants to assert himself as still being a threat in the incredibly deep bantamweight division. After claiming the 135-pound championship in 2016, Garbrandt went on a three-fight losing streak and has gone just 3-7 in his last 10 fights since that title victory.
In his preparation for Saturday's fight, Garbrandt told CBS Sports' Shakiel Mahjouri he's tried getting back to what made him a rising star in UFC a decade ago.
"I've really been getting back to my roots in boxing and the finer details of the boxing science -- also with wrestling," Garbrandt said. "What got me to where I was at. The love for wrestling, the love for boxing and then blending that together into my style and how I fight."
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As for why he fell out of love with the fight game, Garbrandt explained that winning the championship wasn't fulfilling and he found himself a bit aimless, before re-committing himself to the grind and trying to recapture the feeling he had when he was on the hunt for that first title.
"I feel like after I became a world champion, it wasn't what it was all cracked up to be. The love for it wasn't [there]," Garbrandt explained. "It was more of a business rather than going in there and being the underdog, climbing up the mountain and becoming a champion. That's what I always was on the hunt for for so long, and I was able to attain that goal -- very thankful I did that -- but to set other goals lofty as the world championship was, wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
"I dealt with some injuries, some personal things, so for me it was drowning out the noise and getting back to what I love. I grew up wrestling, got back to the wrestling grind. Grew up boxing, grew up fighting, so just get back to that fun-ness of being a martial artist, per se," Garbrandt continued. "I never grew up in a dojo or bowing to a sensei. So for me, I grew up street fighting, boxing and wrestling. We'd do that during the week and go have a sanctioned fight on the weekend. So for me just getting back to the love of it and the lifestyle of being a martial artist -- eat, sleep and love it."
We'll see if that return to his roots of boxing and wrestling can bring back the form of old that made him a dominant force in the bantamweight division. If not, Garbrandt admits he'll have to make some tough decisions about what comes next, but he's confident coming out of this training camp that he's ready for another ascent, beginning with a win on Saturday.
