The Film Room: Cody Garbrandt

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UFC 227 is now available on Amazon Prime.

Cody Garbrandt has the chance for revenge this Saturday when he rematches longtime rival, T.J. Dillashaw for the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 227. Garbrandt capped a meteoric rise to stardom by beating Dominick Cruz for the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title less than two years after making his debut and now at only 27 years old, he has the chance to become a two-time champion.

The Curious Case of Cody Garbrandt

Garbrandt is primarily a boxer and has some of the fastest hands at 135. Always mixing it up and fluidly trading in the pocket, Garbrandt has the boxing prowess and power to sleep anyone in the division. What makes Garbrandt’s boxing so special is his ability to mix up his hands. All too often, fighters rely on one combo, making it easy for their opponents to time and either counter or evade. Garbrandt is consistently switching up his looks and rarely throws the same combo consecutively.



With nine of his 11 wins being by KO, Garbrandt has shown to have power in a division that historically lacks knockouts. He generally likes to pressure opponents to the cage and look for his right hook, but he is just as comfortable sitting back and countering when needed. He’s not going to overwhelm you with options since he rarely throws kicks or initiates grappling exchanges, but his speed and in-the-pocket boxing is second to none in the division.



As mentioned, Garbrandt has a decent countering game despite being an aggressive leading attacker. When Cruz got desperate and came forward in the later rounds, Garbrandt routinely stepped back and landed a counter lead hook. He also finished Takeya Mizugaki in just 48 seconds with a counter right straight.



Although he couldn’t get the finish, Garbrandt knocked down Cruz multiple times in their fight for the first time in the Dominator’s UFC career. This was partly due to Cruz getting desperate in the later rounds and abandoning his game plan, but it is impressive nonetheless.



But the most impressive part of his masterclass against Cruz was his footwork and ability to read Cruz’s footwork patterns. Before the fight, Garbrandt looked unimpressive for a title contender. His footwork was forced, he loved to trade in the pocket and he moved forward aggressively, a seeming recipe for disaster against a fighter like Cruz. Also, Garbrandt seemed extremely emotional before the fight and everything seemed to be going awry before the fight. Instead, he developed quick footwork and ability to read Cruz’s footwork along with incredible upper body movement and defense. He fooled us all and put on one of the greatest performances in UFC history against one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time.



Something interesting Garbrandt does is striking off a “cage bump.” A cage bump is when a fighter gets backed to the cage and slightly bumps off it, usually with hands dropped and relaxed like their opponent knows to give them a second to recover. Garbrandt noticed this tendency in most fighters and attempts to strike when they are coming back from the bump. Against Cruz who cage bumps more than anybody, he routinely looked for his right hook any time Cruz was near the cage.



Garbrandt’s main source of success is trading in the pocket but it is also what lost him the bantamweight title against Dillashaw the first time. This sport is filled with risk and reward and if you’re going to stand and trade in the pocket you must be wary of the dangers in doing so. It’s hard to judge Garbrandt for this style since he has had so much success, but if the point of combat sports is to hit and not get hit, then he might want to limit the wild exchanges in the pocket.

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