Taming The Beast: How to Make Cody Champion Again?

How difficult will it be for Cody to overcome his emotions and fight smart?


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“At the end of the day, when you get knocked out like that, I don’t think you should be fighting [without taking some time off],” Abdelaziz said of Cody Garbrandt (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“The UFC is doing their job. They’re going to Sacramento, they offered Cody a main event spot — and this is the right thing to do for the UFC, but it’s our job to be like, ‘You know what, guys? We’re going to go back [and take some time].’ Cody’s been having problems with his hand. Especially getting knocked out like that, I think your brain needs a break.

“But in a way he’s too much of a fighter,” he said. “When you touch this kid, punch him, he wants to come and kill you, right? He’s too much of a fighter and I think he needs to get himself right, physically and mentally. And I think we’re going to see a lot of changes coming up, the way he’s going to fight. He’s got to go back to the Dominick Cruz era, when he was having fun, when he was enjoying it, when he was embracing it.

“I think it’s more mental for Cody than anything else, than skill level. Cody has unbelievable jiu-jitsu, he has unbelievable grappling, unbelievable wrestling. But we don’t see it, right? You will see Cody come again, but he’s going to come right.”

--The MMA Hour
 
Robbie Lawler used to fight a little like that. He has certainly more than evolved!
 
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It may be irreparable now but keeping his hands up + using lots of head movement would be a great start huh
 
If he would stop fighting like a dumbass maybe he'd have a chance.

But he chooses to fight with his ego and lets his emotions interfere. Standing and banging like an idiot got him knocked out in his last fight.
 
Maybe he should go up to featherweight. Less of a weight cut, more fluid cushion in his pea brain, idk. He's always gonna fight emotionally
 
Just can't get emotional in there and become a brawler. He's got legit hands but would rather brawl the moment he lands something clean and knock his opponents head off. Staying composed in there is why he got the win against Cruz.

I like Cody.
Hope to see him fight for the belt again.

I also agree that any fighter that gets knocked out or takes heavy damage should take extended time off. Blew my mind to see Till trying to get the Lawler fight after getting brutally knocked the fuuuuck out.
 
Step 1. Leave team Alpha Male
 
The best boxer in the division, great wrestler (ohio state champion as a freshman, runner up as a sophomore), better than avg JJ. He just needs to gameplan, and stick to that gameplan. He gets ahold of his temper, and remembers that it's a marathon and not a sprint he could win the gold back. Step 1 should be leaving Beta Fail. Step 2 sports psychologists. Look at what poirier was able to accomplish after seeing a sports psych doctor on the regular. Cody could make it back up top. A lot of fun fights left too. Linekar, Yan, Marlon are all awesome fights on paper. We will see I guess
 
Don't use his chin as a punching bag... dude lost his movement after the Cruz fight, maybe go looking for it.
 
Not calling him a can but personally, I believe it's completely possible that Cody just isn't as good as we were led to believe. His big coming out party was against the fellow undefeated but unproven Thomas Almeida (who hasn't exactly panned out either) and then he beat Mizugaki who was pretty clearly on his way out at that point.

In terms of the Cruz fight, I still believe that people are FAR too used to the idea of him coming back and looking the same after an injury (they are still expecting that even now). He looked great against Mizugaki the first time he came back but he looked pretty average against Faber (who was on his way out) and Dillashaw gave him a TON of respect in their fight.

That's not to say Cody's win over Cruz isn't legitimate; not at all. I just feel that it might have raised expectations for his career path too high as it was just one performance. Considering how inactive Cody has been since then and how steep his competition has been (not to mention TJ was cheating), it's difficult to tell how good he really is as we only have 2 extremes to judge him on.

TL/DR: Cody is too inactive for us to really know where he's at (similar to Gus). If he fights 3 times a year against top 10 guys, we can make better judgments.
 
Cody is a meathead. He would have to change his entire personality.
 
Not calling him a can but personally, I believe it's completely possible that Cody just isn't as good as we were led to believe. His big coming out party was against the fellow undefeated but unproven Thomas Almeida (who hasn't exactly panned out either) and then he beat Mizugaki who was pretty clearly on his way out at that point.

In terms of the Cruz fight, I still believe that people are FAR too used to the idea of him coming back and looking the same after an injury (they are still expecting that even now). He looked great against Mizugaki the first time he came back but he looked pretty average against Faber (who was on his way out) and Dillashaw gave him a TON of respect in their fight.

That's not to say Cody's win over Cruz isn't legitimate; not at all. I just feel that it might have raised expectations for his career path too high as it was just one performance. Considering how inactive Cody has been since then and how steep his competition has been (not to mention TJ was cheating), it's difficult to tell how good he really is as we only have 2 extremes to judge him on.

TL/DR: Cody is too inactive for us to really know where he's at (similar to Gus). If he fights 3 times a year against top 10 guys, we can make better judgments.
I totally agree with everything you said, very well said. Cody has 1 solid win and its against Cruz by decision, and Cruz has had more injuries than Cain and the entire local elderly residents nursing home put together.

Cody is very unproven, he needs a lot more top 10 wins to even be in a title discussion for me, he has 1 top 15 win by decision. He is very chinny in my opinion, he has some good power in his right hand, haven't seen enough of his wrestling or submission game to judge.
 
I totally agree with everything you said, very well said. Cody has 1 solid win and its against Cruz by decision, and Cruz has had more injuries than Cain and the entire local elderly residents nursing home put together.

Cody is very unproven, he needs a lot more top 10 wins to even be in a title discussion for me, he has 1 top 15 win by decision. He is very chinny in my opinion, he has some good power in his right hand, haven't seen enough of his wrestling or submission game to judge.
His chin is definitely beatable which is a big concern for someone with his fighting style. I definitely think going to a sports psychologist to curb his emotional fighting style would help but IMO, he doesn't have the chin or defense to survive the striking exchanges his style invites. Time will tell but his win over Cruz might be a Chris Weidman type of situation... he beat "the guy"... but he didn't become "the guy"
 
I wonder if winning the championship didn't do any favors for his patience. Like having won it all — especially without suffering a loss in the UFC — persuaded him that he's too good to have to worry about being careful anymore.
 
Honestly his team should've spotted these problems in sparring and worked to correct them early. So either they don't care or Cody is too dumb to learn.
 
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