TJ Dillashaw claims the UFC “put like $6 million” into marketing Cody Garbrandt as the next Conor McGregor
Former UFC champion TJ Dillashaw has claimed that the promotion poured millions into marketing Cody Garbrandt as the next big thing.
As we know, Cody Garbrandt has proven to be one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ in MMA history. Following on from his iconic UFC bantamweight championship win over Dominick Cruz, the expectation was that he’d go on to become one of the biggest stars in the promotion.
Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way. He was thrust into a rivalry with former training partner TJ Dillashaw and in two straight fights, he was knocked out by Dillashaw.
This led to a real period of decline for him and, in many ways, Garbrandt has never recovered. In a recent interview, TJ opened up on just how much the UFC invested in ‘No Love’.
https://twitter.com/Home_of_Fight/status/1854952430917894395
Dillashaw opens on Garbrandt
“He had a lot of pressure on him too,” Dillashaw said of Garbrandt. “He had an amazing fight against Cruz. I’ve never seen Cody Garbrandt be that good. His style is perfect for Cruz. He’s by far the fastest human being I’ve ever trained with when it comes to reaction times and how quick he is. He’s got great wrestling, and he’s got power in his hands, so it was a perfect match up for him.
“Coming off that, UFC was like ‘Hey, this is our next big horse, let’s put some money into him.’ So they market the s—t out of him, put him in a bunch of commercials, got some celebrities behind him. From what I was told, they put like $6 million into marketing him before our fight, gave us The Ultimate Fighter. So he went to massive stardom — way bigger than me — fast. They wanted him to be the next Conor McGregor, like run your mouth. I wouldn’t say he was the sharpest tool in the shed to be able to do something like that, so he just like said s—t, and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Quotes via MMA Mania
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