Coach says Garbrandt interested in meeting Mighty Mouse at 125 lbs: ‘It’s a gangster move’

Coach says Garbrandt interested in meeting Mighty Mouse at 125 lbs: ‘It’s a gangster move’

Coach says Garbrandt interested in meeting Mighty Mouse at 125 lbs: ‘It’s a gangster move’
UFC

Coach says Garbrandt interested in meeting Mighty Mouse at 125 lbs: ‘It’s a gangster move’

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Google Plus

Team Alpha Male head coach Justin Buchholz says that a possible superfight between Cody Garbrandt and Demetrious Johnson is something their interested in, after Garbrandt gets by T.J. Dillashaw.

The last time a bantamweight took interest in fighting Demetrious Johnson at flyweight, the UFC made a complete mess of it. T.J. Dillashaw – having found out his bout with Cody Garbrandt was off due to injury – called out ‘Mighty Mouse’ for a chance at the flyweight title. The UFC loved the idea and tried to get it booked as quickly as possible. But Johnson wasn’t all that keen, and what followed was a drawn out public spat between the flyweight king and Dana White.

Eventually, Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt got re-booked – the fight now goes down on November 4th at UFC 217 – but the talk about a potential bout with Demetrious Johnson hasn’t gone away. Only, it’s not Dillashaw making the overtures this time around.

In a recent interview with the Five Rounds Podcast, Team Alpha Male head coach Justin Buchholz talked about Garbrandt’s own potential interest in dropping to flyweight to face Johnson. But, it’s a move that Buchholz says needs to happen soon, before the cut gets too hard for the bantamweight champion (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“I’m confident that can happen,” Buchholz said of the idea of Garbrandt making the flyweight limit. “That’s nothing. I’ve seen a lot harder things than that. Cody can make that weight and keep his power and put the weight back on and go back to ‘35 at this point in his career, while he’s young. We know the dangers of switching weight classes and whatnot with Roy Jones Jr. and you can see the stuff with B.J. Penn. We know what we’re doing here. Everything’s a science now. You’ve got to be on top of your game so you can get the correct people and set the right systems in place. We can do it old school so that’s why I’m confident with all the new school stuff it’d be even easier.”

And while Johnson himself has said that he might be willing to return to bantamweight and challenge Garbrandt, once he’s broken the record for title defenses, Buchholz seems much more interested in seeing his fighter make the drop. Plus, if it happened quickly enough, it could prevent DJ from breaking Silva’s unofficial title defense record (one which includes his win over Travis Lutter).

“Just to do it because it’s a gangster move. At that point he’d be breaking Anderson Silva’s record so it would be for the people of Brazil. We’ll keep that record intact.”

All that provided Johnson still has the belt, of course. The flyweight champion takes on Ray Borg at UFC 216 on October 7th in Las Vegas, NV. A win there would give him the official title defense record, and maybe give fans a chance to see a fight between two UFC champions.