Cody Garbrandt isn't impressed with 'beat up, crippled, decrepit' Dominick Cruz

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has been a puzzle no one has been able to solve for the past eight years and 12 fights while he's stood tall as the best 135-pound fighter on the planet.

During that span of time, Cruz has bested every contender that's stood in his way while also holding a win over the current pound-for-pound king in mixed martial arts, Demetrious Johnson. Cruz has developed a style and technique in his fights that has made him virtually untouchable, but his next opponent believes he's got the answer to the test everybody else has failed.

Cody Garbrandt may only have five fights in the UFC and 10 bouts overall on his record, but the Ohio native is supremely confident heading into his title fight with Cruz on Dec. 30 at UFC 207.

In a way, Garbrandt has been preparing for a fight with Cruz since he first started pursuing mixed martial arts as a teenager because even back then the current champion was still on top of the world at 135-pounds. In all those years, Garbrandt has studied Cruz while watching every single one of his fights on repeat and throughout all those hours of film study he's learned one thing for certain -- Cruz is beatable.

"He doesn't impress me," Garbrandt told FOX Sports. "He doesn't impress me because he's not fighting fighters who know how to cut off the cage. He never fought a fighter who has a high resume boxing pedigree such as myself.

"Nothing at all really surprises me or I'm in awe about that he does. He's actually a very unorthodox fighter but if you look at his patterns and his movements when he strikes and when he moves and when he evades and darts out, it's all the same. It's always been the same. Dominick's not a fighter that evolves over time. He's stayed the same and no one has been able to figure him out because he's never fought a fighter that's been able to match him. Kind of target him and chase him down."

 

Of course, Garbrandt isn't the first fighter to say they've figured Cruz out only to realize after a few minutes in the cage with him that there's a reason he's been the best bantamweight in the world for nearly a decade.

Still, Garbrandt has done everything possible to counter Cruz's unorthodox style that combines fast footwork, head movement with fast, accurate striking. Garbrandt has forced teammates to mimic Cruz for hours upon hours in an attempt to face the same kind of adversity his last 12 opponents have faced and failed to figure out.

"I'm faster than him. I hit way harder than him. I'm (expletive) way meaner than him. He's not a mean fighter. He doesn't try to get in there and get into a fight. He wants to point, punch and that's fine," Garbrandt said. "This whole camp getting ready for that.

"I've had people trying to get me frustrated and annoyed with running, chasing them down and I'm still getting them."

It's hard to deny that Cruz has faced major adversity in the past few years while sitting on the sidelines for a combined four years while dealing with three major knee surgeries right in the prime of his career. Cruz never gave up hope and eventually returned earlier this year where he reclaimed his bantamweight title in a five-round war with TJ Dillashaw before beating Garbrandt's teammate and friend Urijah Faber this past July.

Garbrandt won't take anything away from Cruz's incredible comeback but he also acknowledges when studying his most recent fights that he feels the bantamweight champion has lost a step since returning.

"I see the same Dominick Cruz. I don’t see any improvements," Garbrandt said. "All I really see is an older, beat up, crippled, decrepit fighter that's going to step in there on Dec. 30. He's probably got two good rounds of movement. Halfway through the second and he'll slow down and be looking for a way out."

 

If there's one area where Cruz undoubtedly got better during his time off was sharpening his mind. Cruz started working as an analyst while he was recovering from his multiple surgeries and quickly became one of the best in the sport when it comes to breaking down fights and picking apart what went wrong or what went right during any particular matchup.

Cruz has transferred that knowledge into his own fight preparation, but Garbrandt feels like that cerebral approach could also be his ultimate undoing when they step into the cage together. Garbrandt has heard Cruz's assessment of his skill set and he's actually holding out hope that the bantamweight champion approaches their matchup with that same mentality.

"I'm going to beat him anywhere. I'm a better wrestler, my jiu-jitsu's better, but go ahead and think that Dominick, that I don't have any of that. I don't work on any of that. I'm just a knockout artist and that's what I'm going to go out there and do," Garbrandt said. "That's what I go out there and do and I get it done, but if the fight needs to go wherever it needs to go, I'm by far the more supreme, more dominant fighter in every area that it goes to.

"I'm the meanest mother (expletive) he's ever going to meet in there. I guarantee you that. I'm not going to give him an inch in there. We're in there, I'm taking his head off. I'm not leaving without the 'W'."

Garbrandt is also happy that Cruz has become such a successful analyst on TV because that will give him a back-up plan after he loses the championship at UFC 207. That's where Garbrandt feels Cruz will shine the most once his career is over and he's happy to give him a little extra motivation to call it a career when they meet on Dec. 30.

"He got that job at FOX broadcasting, I'm glad they brought him on, he's very good at color commentary but he's getting ready for the next chapter of his life. It's evident. You can see," Garbrandt said. "He knows. He knows that he is getting ready for that next chapter of his life without the belt.

"When you're thinking about the next chapter of your life and you've got a (expletive) savage in front of you like myself that's been grinding to take this from you, grinding so hungry. A wolf at the bottom of the mountain is hungrier than a wolf at the top. He's done well. I can't knock him for that, he's skated by on decisions but I leave no doubt, no question that I'm going to be the world champion."