Cody Garbrandt attempts to lure TJ Dillashaw into rematch, ups the stakes with interesting offer

Last week, UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway was forced out of his UFC 222 title fight with Frankie Edgar, leaving the card without a main event. From there, the UFC began a desperate scramble to find a suitable replacement fight. One of the options was a rematch between bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw and former champ Cody Garbrandt, who fought back in November, in a fight that saw Dillashaw brave an early scare to win by knockout.

While this potential rematch generated plenty of buzz, Dillashaw was pretty quick to express his complete disinterest in it. He did just beat Garbrandt, after all, and with a newborn son at home, and grand plans for a superfight with flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson in the works for July, the timing doesn’t make a lot of sense for him.

Garbrandt, however, doesn’t seem to be willing to give up on this fight. Speaking on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, the former champ attempted to up the stakes, offering Dillashaw a portion of his fight purse to accept the fight.

“I’ll give him a cut of my purse if he wants it, if the UFC doesn’t want to compensate him,” Garbrandt said. “It’s not about money for me, it’s about principle. It’s about getting my title back. I’m healthy. OK, we both haven’t been training — OK, cool. Four weeks, we’re fighters at the end of the day. We’re gonna fight. If he wants a cut of my purse, I’ll give [it to] him. If it’s money for him, OK.”

“When the UFC calls and gives you can opportunity like that, you jump all over it,” Garbrandt added. “I don’t know, man. He wants to make a lot of excuses and bring fatherhood into it. It’s the same thing. I understand, whatever. But you’re gonna sit there and tell me you can’t train because you’ve got a kid?”

Would you like to see a TJ Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt rematch at UFC 222?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/5/2018.