Urijah Faber explains why Cody Garbrandt should fight Dominick Cruz next
At UFC 199 in June, Urijah Faber came up short in his attempt to take the bantamweight title away from incumbent champion Dominick Cruz, which likely brought an end to their trilogy of fights against each other.
As soon as the fight was over, Faber was immediately championing his teammate Cody "No Love" Garbrandt as the next contender in the bantamweight division and the biggest threat to Cruz's reign.
Since that time, Garbrandt and Cruz have been involved in several heated exchanges through various interviews as well as a backstage altercation just last month at UFC 202. Later that night, Garbrandt earned his third straight knockout with a 48-second drubbing of former WEC title contender Takeya Mizugaki.
Garbrandt appears to be on a collision course with Cruz in the near future, but former champion TJ Dillashaw still believes he should be the person to get the next crack at the belt after he lost a very close decision to the current champion back in January.
Dillashaw's former teammate Urijah Faber disagrees.
"I'm excited for it. Honestly if you look at social media, Cody has like three times the interaction of anyone else in our weight class. He posts something, people are excited about it," Faber said when speaking to FOX Sports on Wednesday.
Garbrandt is undefeated in his professional career and he's proven to be a knockout striker with massive power in his hands while also coming from a wrestling background from his days growing up in Ohio.
Garbrandt has promised to shatter Cruz's jaw if they ever step into the cage together and Faber would like to see him get the chance to prove it.
Faber never directly pointed the finger at Dillashaw, but it's clear that he was sending a message to his former protégé and any other fighter in the division who might complain about Garbrandt jumping the line and getting a title shot now instead of later.
"There's only one way to find out — you fight the other guy people think is the top guy right now," Faber said. "That's the way you do matchups.
"It's not 'this is fair' or 'I feel this way' — this guy is possibly the baddest dude on the planet, let's find out. He's been knocking everyone out."
