The best and worst from UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith

#3 Worst: Garbrandt’s fight IQ costs him again

Cody Garbrandt was knocked out for the third time in a row at the hands of Pedro Munhoz

Former UFC Bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt came into his fight last night with Pedro Munhoz as a pretty heavy favourite, despite losing by knockout in his previous two fights to TJ Dillashaw.

After last night though, it’ll be hard to trust ‘No Love’ against another top fighter at 135lbs going forward, and that’s something that would’ve seemed impossible when he defeated Dominick Cruz back in 2016 to win the title.

Essentially, Garbrandt snatched defeat from the jaws of a potential victory last night, and in a lot of respects, he only has himself to blame. The general consensus was that he’d become too emotionally invested in his rivalry with Dillashaw, and that caused him to get too wild in his punching and allowed Dillashaw to find the killer shot and knock him out. That wasn’t meant to be an issue against Munhoz, well, until it was.

Late in a competitive first round, Garbrandt appeared to take an accidental headbutt – and that was all it took to trigger a rage inside him that made him swing wild punches at Munhoz with no semblance of defence. Munhoz obliged in the firefight – trusting in his chin more than Garbrandt’s – and seconds later, the former champion was unconscious again.

Garbrandt can recover from this, but I suspect he needs a total change of style if that’s to be possible. The likelihood of him fighting for the title again anytime soon now seems slim, though, and unfortunately it feels like his decision-making is as much to blame as his chin.