Cody Garbrandt isn’t the least bit flustered by Deiveson Figueiredo’s trash talk ahead of UFC 300.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Garbrandt (14-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) is set to take on former two-time flyweight kingpin Figueiredo (22-3-1 MMA, 11-3-1 UFC) in a 135-pound bout on the April 13 mega-card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).
The pair were originally scheduled to fight in October 2020 when Figueiredo held the 125-pound title and Garbrandt was going to move down in challenge him. “No Love” was forced to withdraw due to lingering health issues stemming from a bicep injury and COVID-19, and the matchup never came back together. Until now.
Both men are eager to be locked in the octagon finally, and Figueiredo has cranked up the pre-fight banter when he recently told MMAFighting.com that Garbrandt was “mentally weak” and would fold once a big shot lots. That’s nothing short of amusing to Garbrandt, who said he sees right through the comments.
“I’ve been there,” Garbrandt told MMA Junkie on Friday. “When you’re mentally weak, and you don’t believe yourself, and you have to speak more and talk more and try to get into your opponent’s head. I’ve been that person. I know deep down inside what that is. That’s insecurity of yourself. Having to say those things just to pump yourself up, get yourself ready. Then he thinks, too, it’s going to get in my head. He thinks the way to victory is to get into my head by doing this. Go ahead. Focus on all this, because remember, you’ve got to back up that talk, as well. You’ve got to back that up.
“He’s missed weight a few times. That’s being a p*ssy. That’s the biggest mentally weak block you can ever do. You have to make weight. You quit on yourself. You adversary isn’t even in front of you throwing strikes and taking you down and trying to put an elbow through your skull. You broke by yourself. So he has to digest that and understand he’s broke before even getting in the octagon. Maybe that’s something he has going on mentally where he has to foreshadow or put out there to try to get in my head. But I already know what it is and I’ve been focused on camp training hard, training like a mad man. I’m just hungry.”
For Garbrandt, 32, this encounter with Figueiredo, 36, is a clean slate. He said he can’t pull too much from the brief preparation he did for Figueiredo several years ago, and approach his camp intelligently.
“I was in such a different mindset in that camp and in that period of my life that I don’t really recall too much,” Garbrandt said. “It was all about focusing on me and getting back to myself coming off a huge knockout win over (Raphael) Assuncao, had momentum and then it was taken away.”
With the fight just over a week away, Garbrandt, an honorable mention in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie bantamweight rankings, is ready to put hands on No. 14-ranked Figueiredo. It’s an important fight for both men. After going on a well-documented 1-5 slump from 2017-2021, Garbrandt enters UFC 300 on a winning streak for the first time in more than seven years.
Figueiredo, meanwhile, is looking to further build his stock at bantamweight after earning a unanimous decision win over Rob Font in his divisional debut at UFC on ESPN 52 in December. The fight will serve as the opening bout on the historic UFC 300 card, and Garbrandt is highly motivated to deliver a vintage performance.
“Nothing (has) stood out to where it was like, ‘This guy is something special’ – he’s average,” Garbrandt said. “I feel like my skillsets are way higher than him across the board. The wrestling, the striking, the conditioning, the speed, for sure, and elusively. He’ll see. I’m just excited to go in there and push this pace on him and just drown him in there.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
