Up to this point, there hasn’t been a whole lot of drama involved with men’s fighting. For the most part, it is just two dudes that respect each other, even if they don’t necessarily like each other, that schedule a day to get in the octagon and see who is the better fighter on that day. And we pay attention. I mean, there are a few exceptions like McGregor and Diaz and of course the TUF TV show.
But it was different for the ladies. The world professional female MMA had core followers, but it wasn’t main an attraction until Ronda Rousey created enough soap-opera-like drama to get the general public to pay attention. Now, that we know that the girls can be just as good as the boys, we don’t need as much storyline to tune in.
TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt Drama
It all goes back to TUF season 25 where the sh*t talking and dramatic banter went back and forth between Garbrandt and Dillashaw. Cody “No Love” had knocked out Dominick Cruz, and taken the bantamweight title away from the very man who took it from Dillashaw. Now they were coaching against each other on TUF and as the season wore on it seemed more and more like they were turning TJ Dillashaw into the “bad guy” who takes pranks too far and does everything possible to get under Garbrandt’s skin.
To make matters worse, Team Dillashaw absolutely crushed Team Garbrandt. By the Semi-Finals, there wasn’t even a single member of Team Garbrandt left in the fight bracket.
Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt 1
There was a lot of hype going into this fight. It was all playing off the drama from the TUF show and how much these two fighters hated each other. The organization seemed to be behind Garbrandt once more, by highlighting what a jerk Dillashaw was during Season 25 and the majority of fighters pulling for or favoring Garbrandt in the head-to-head.
So No Love got all the love and went into the bout as the favorite on the odds-boards and the favorite in the minds of many more. Rumors spread of Dillashaw’s departure from training with Team Alpha as not of his own choice, but because he was going too far during training sessions and hurting his teammates. His overly aggressive, dangerous training habits were often brought up, and it seemed the entire world wanted Garbrandt to take Dillashaw down a peg or two.
Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt 2
TJ is the favorite coming into the fight this time around. I checked this Bovada review to make sure I was getting the most current odds, and it’s close. Although TJ is the favorite, you can still find Cody at even money. So there are high expectations for a good fight.
Cody probably is the better striker, even though Dillashaw TKO’d him last time around. He is faster and at least as accurate as Dillashaw. But, I think Dillashaw has gotten better at tracking and anticipating where his opponent’s head will be. So we’ll have to wait and see. With all of the bombs that were thrown, the first installment could have easily gone the other way. That said, I have to lean Dillashaw. With his style of head movement, I could see Cody walking into another big right-hand at some point. But as I alluded to before, in the game of bomb dropping, it is often the first that lands on target that ends the war.
Prediction: Dillashaw
