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Cody Garbrandt had a mixed reaction to Sean O'Malley becoming bantamweight champion.
O'Malley became the new king at 135 pounds following a second-round TKO win over Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 this past weekend. Garbrandt — who has no love lost with O'Malley — was supposed to be compete on the card against the latter's teammate Mario Bautista before injury ruled him out.
But their history aside, “No Love” was surprisingly happy for O'Malley to become champion. However, he still sees glaring weaknesses and holes in the new champion's game.
“I’m happy for ‘Sugar’ Sean,” Garbrandt said on the Believe You Me podcast (via MMA Fighting). “I think it’s great he’s a champion in our division, I think he has a lot of holes and weaknesses that are going to be exposed a lot. But right now, let him enjoy the championship and what he was able to do on Saturday night.”
Garbrandt, a former bantamweight champion himself, was particularly impressed with Sean O'Malley living up to the hype and not being daunted by the bright lights of the moment.
He also feels Sterling was too hellbent on taking the fight to the ground which led to his demise.
“I’m happy for ‘Sugar’ Sean to finally get out there and — he had a lot of hype, and he went out there and he rose to the occasion and put away Aljamain,” Garbrandt explained. “Looking at that fight, I just think that Aljamain was just too adamant on getting it to the ground. He wasn’t very comfortable with the movement. I have the best footwork and movement in the whole bantamweight division, and I knew that was going to be a problem being in the bigger cage, being the wrestler.
“‘Sugar’ Sean is a counter striker, and he (Sterling) lunged in, left himself open, and you can’t do that with a good counter striker. He knows what Aljamain’s game plan was: Get him to the ground and wrestle him. ‘Sugar’ Sean was like, ‘I’m literally going to fight tooth and nail to not get taken down.’ Aljamain made a costly mistake that made him lose the title.”
Garbrandt, meanwhile, has some work to do if he is to challenge for a bantamweight title again. He's 2-5 since becoming the champion back in 2016 and is currently out of the top 15.
That said, the 32-year-old believes his best days are still ahead of him.
“It’s not [hard to watch],” Garbrandt added of the division’s changes and growth. “I truly believe that a lot of my best performances are ahead of me. I just have to get the body right. Once the body’s right, mentally, physically, emotionally, I love this. I truly do.
“It’s the best job I ever had. It truly is. But I’m happy for those guys.”
