Former undisputed bantamweight champion, Cody Garbrandt has ripped fellow ex-champion, Sean O’Malley ahead of his return this weekend at UFC Atlanta, claiming the Montana striker looked “sh*t” in his title fight defeat to Merab Dvalishvili.
Garbrandt, who returns to action for the first time this year as he fights this weekend in Georgia, will take on Brazilian veteran, Raoni Barcelos.
Sidelined since UFC 300 at the beginning of last year, Garbrandt opened the preliminary card in an eventual rear-naked choke submission loss against former flyweight kingpin, Deiveson Figueriedo in the pair’s bantamweight clash.
Seeing his impressive two-fight winning run halted in his defeat to the Brazilian, Garbrandt had previously racked up a pair of wins over both Trevin Jones, and Brian Kelleher — the latter with a stunning knockout success.
And long said to have the kryptonite to dethrone dominant bantamweight champion, Dvalishvili, Garbrandt was very vocal of the former’s most recent outing over the weekend at UFC 316.
Defending his crown for the second time, Dvalishvili made light work of the above-mentioned, O’Malley — landing a third round north-south choke submission success.
Cody Garbrandt rips Sean O’Malley performance at UFC 316
But as far as Garbrandt is concerned, the pre-fight adjustments made by Contender Series alum, O’Malley were in vain. With Garbrandt claiming the ex-champion looked like “sh*t” in his New Jersey return.
“He (Sean O’Malley) should I kept smoking, because he looked like sh*t [against Dvalishvili],” Cody Garbrandt told assmebled media ahead of UFC Atlanta. “But yeah, whatever he had to do, you know sometimes, you know you lose and you try to reinvent yourself and find yourself. And at the end of the day, man like you know who you are, you know?
“You got to do — I know I’m, you know, one of the best players in the world,” Cody Garbrandt explained. “So it’s like, you know, when you lose, you’ve got everyone in your ear saying you need to do this and do that. Just remember what got you there and who you are at the end of the day.”
