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Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt is set to make his return to competition in December 2023. UFC CEO Dana White revealed the news while speaking at the DWCS Press conference.
Dana White revealed that Joe Reeves, the new member of UFC’s matchmaking machinery, met a few UFC fighters at the UFC Performance Institute and proposed a fight for Cody Garbrandt after the meeting. White said:
“He did make a fight today. He met a bunch of fighters in the PI today, and one of them was Cody Garbrandt. 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.”
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Watch Dana White discuss Garbrandt's return from the 11:16 mark of the video below:
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The date for Garbrandt's return and the name of his opponent is still under the veil. The official announcement of the fight will be made in the days to come.
Dana White's praise for Joe Reeves, Cody Garbrandt's struggle to gain momentum in the UFC
Joe Reeves is the winner of the ‘Matchmaker Sweepstakes’ competition and the UFC has hired him as an employee. Dana White is extremely impressed with Reeves’ knowledge of the UFC roster. He said:
“He knew everybody, you can’t bring up a guy on the roster that he don’t know. He knows everybody on the roster.”
Now that the stage is set for Cody Garbrandt to show his talent, the former champion can resume his mission to regain the top spot. 'No Love' was previously scheduled for a fight against Mario Bautista at the UFC 292 PPV event in August 2023. However, he was forced to pull out of the fight due to a training injury. But the cancellation is just one of the many problems that the Team Alpha Male standout has been faced with.
The 32-year-old’s last major win came against bantamweight great Dominick Cruz all the way back in December 2016. He has not been able to put a winning streak together since the historic performance that saw him become the UFC bantamweight champion.
Back-to-back losses to T.J. Dillashaw in title fights stripped Garbrandt’s momentum in a major way. He has lost five of his last seven bouts, four of which were devastating T/KO defeats.
‘No Love’ got back in the win column with a unanimous decision victory over Trevin Jones at UFC 285 in March 2023. A few more wins can put him back in the conversation for a title shot.
