"Love this fight" - Cody Garbrandt has fight booked against returning UFC vet; fans excited

Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt will return to action for a second time this year in the closing pay-per-view of 2023, UFC 296.

Garbrandt will face Brian Kelleher at UFC 296 on December 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Journalist Marcel Dorff broke the news on X (formerly known as Twitter):

"BREAKING Former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) returns on December 16th at #UFC296. "No Love" takes on Brian "Boom" Kelleher (@brianboom135) in Las Vegas."

Fans reacted to the fight announcement with excitement:

"Love this fight"

"December 16th is a gonna be a movie"

"Lets GOOOOO BOOM!"

"Great scrap"

"Good fight for both imo"

"First mega PPV of the year!! Great card"

Other fans expressed their appreciation for the UFC's newest hire and matchmaker Joe Reeves, who was responsible for putting this fight together:

"That's going to be a fun one the new matchmaker is starting off on the right foot"

"Is this the fight the new guy made?"

"Matchmaker Joe is bout to drop some bangers, this is such a good sign"

"What a fight Joe is cooking already"

"100 percent the new guy is a MMA Fighting and OTTNO fan booking Boom. @AlexanderKLee @MikeHeck_JR"

"Joe cooked"

Check out fans comments in the screenshots below:

Fans react to Garbrandt vs Keller at UFC 296.

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Dana White praises Joe Reeves for his roster knowledge and making Cody Garbrandt fight

UFC president Dana White was all praise for Joe Reeves, the newest matchmaker in the promotion.

Reeves won a fan competition, Matchmaker Sweepstakes, and later blew away White and the rest of the UFC officials, resulting in him being hired:

“You want to know how f*****g good Joe is? I just hired Joe. Joe works for us now. This f*****g kid is awesome. I did all the contracts and I came back in, and I said I got one more. ‘You want to work for the UFC?’ He freaked out. He is a f*****g UFC lunatic. He went toe to toe with the boys today. Bring up a guy on the roster that he don’t know. He knows everybody on the roster.”

White also narrated how Reeves met Cody Garbrandt and ended up setting up the fight for him:

“They were talking and I guess Garbrandt said, ‘Listen, if you’re the matchmaker for a day, I want to fight in December.’ So he came in and started pitching us on fights for Cody Garbrandt in December, and he made a fight.”

Check out White's comments below [11:18]: