Cody Garbrandt's career looked to be right back on track after a one-hitter quitter at the horn over Raphael Assuncao at UFC 250 to snap a three-fight losing skid.
The "Knockout of the Year" candidate for 2020 earned the former bantamweight champion a title shot at flyweight against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 255 in November.
But the opportunity to become one of the rare few to become a two-division world champion never came, and Garbrandt returns for the first time in nearly one year when he headlines Saturday's UFC Fight Night event against Rob Font. It was 12 months that Garbrandt would like to forget about.
"It was tough," Garbrandt told DAZN News. "I worked so hard to get back in the winner's column and what I was able to do inside the Octagon and to just remind everybody what I'm here to do and what I'm capable of doing each and every outing inside the Octagon, to getting back to title contention in a different weight class. That opportunity is very exciting. I definitely feel like I carve Figgy up every day of the week and twice on Sunday. That was the fight that I was excited for. Then obviously we're in a pandemic, and COVID happened."
COVID-19 has scrapped a lot of fights inside the UFC. The majority of fighters fully recovered, and the UFC rebooked them into fights. Garbrandt (12-3) wasn't one of the lucky ones.
"COVID hit me hard," Garbrandt admits. "I had about every symptom that you could have. I battled through it, trained through it, worked out through it. I never let my body get to rest, and it just took over. There's not much I could do."
What made Garbrandt's situation different from others is that, at first, he didn't even realize he contracted the coronavirus. He felt something was off after a day of training while preparing for Figueiredo. He couldn't pinpoint the problem, and things spiraled from there.
"Not knowing that I had COVID, I'd work out and literally never been that fatigued in my life after one training session," Garbrandt said. "I thought something didn't feel right. I would lay down and wake up, and I'd have vertigo. The room would be spinning. Then it would kind of go away. Then I'd be nauseous for three or four days to where I couldn't do the grappling or the mixed martial arts. I was just doing conditioning and lifting in certain ways that wasn't having me in these different positions of the martial arts as you're in uncomfortable positions a lot. I was trying to keep my lungs open stay training, thinking this s—t will stop because I had vertigo and was my first symptom. I thought it'd go away, and maybe the crystals will reside back in the regular tubes. I've had it before, and it lasted a little bit. But this was different than the previous time because I was so fatigued and wheezing was in my chest. But I didn't know."
"I started cycling around that time, and we had a lot of fires that are really close to my home in California. The (air quality) index was like 400, and I was doing up to 100 miles a day. I'd go 50-100 miles every couple of days just to get the conditioning because I couldn't grapple. I couldn't do anything like pad work. I got vertigo so bad from that. So being on the bike, I just in that position where I wasn't turning my head. I was literally pumping my legs and burning my lungs. I was wheezing in my chest. I thought it was from the smoke outside. I would try to go early in the morning at like 4:30, 5:00 in the morning when the smoke wouldn't roll in, and then by 10, 11, the index would be horrible so I tried to get done before that. I ended getting pneumonia and vertigo. It was one of those things like damn. It was bad timing for it. I always took COVID seriously as obviously people were dying from it. If I had it, I'd fight it off because I'm in good shape. I rest. I recover and I take care of my body. But not knowing I had it and pushing through it, I was doing 100-mile cycling rides at a high height, doing training and conditioning. Then I was like, 'I feel good today, and I go and do an MMA workout and feel horrible after. It was just this constant couple months of up, down, up down."
Garbrandt got tested and it revealed he did have COVID-19. He went into isolation for 14 days and then immediately went back to the gym and continued his preparation for Figueiredo. The Team Alpha Male member was determined not to let COVID-19 deter his path of making history.
"I hit pads for the first day, and I felt great," Garbrandt said. "I was on point. I was sharp, fast, quick movement, everything. I was like, 'Man, I didn't miss a beat. Let's go. We're going smash this fool.' My bicep felt a little tight afterwards. My biceps always hurt. I hit with power and speed. That's the first thing I get sore on me is my biceps from pad work for not doing it for a while."
The good vibes didn't last for long as disaster struck again for the 29-year-old from Ohio.
"I went to bed that night, and I woke up like three, four in the morning with excruciating pain in my arm," Garbrandt said. "I knew I got to get sleep. My brother was out visiting, and he was up. I showed him my arm and told him I think I got an infection in my arm. I didn't know. My arm was three times the normal size of it. I had to practice in the morning, and I ended up texting the coach and told him I'm going to go to the doctor real quick, but I got hill sprints in the evening. I didn't want to miss any training or anything because I'm getting ready for this world title fight.
"I thought I tore my bicep. My arm was like three times the size of it by the elbow and the bicep. The vein ruptured and ripped in half, and blood was filled in my arm. My whole vein down from the middle of my bicep all the way down to my hand was basically an electrical cord. It was so hard you couldn't touch it. Hitting it was super sore and sensitive. I ended up going to my doctor, and then I went to an urgent ultrasound and MRI. That guy didn't see nothing. They would get an ultrasound, and they told me I had blood clots. I was taken to the hospital, and I got some injections of blood thinners in my thigh for like three days in a row to speed it up because they didn't want it to break off and travel. I was on blood thinners for about four months."
After getting through what he said was a "mental fog" for about six months, Garbrandt eased himself back into training. He admits there were good and bad days on his road back to being able to prepare for a fight. When the UFC came calling to see if he was ready to make his highly anticipated return to face off with Font, "No Love" answered the call and was itching to get back at it.
While the UFC hasn't given him an assurance of a title shot against the winner of the rematch between Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno at UFC 263, Garbrandt feels if he does what he expects to do against Font, there's no reason he shouldn't get the opportunity.
"I think so," Garbrandt exclaims. "It's something I go and do. If I come off two big knockout wins against guys that are in the top five in the division up above that, and I'm a former world champion that's paid his dues in the UFC. I was granted the title shot. I think I bring a lot of eyes to the flyweight division. That's if Figgy gets past him. I want to fight Figgy. I think that Figgy will win. I'm excited for that fight. First and foremost, I'm focused on Rob, and I got to go out there and do what I do. I'm just excited to fight. I can't wait to get my hands on this dude and get him hurt and take him out."
Out of Garbrandt's 12 career wins, ten of them have come via knockout. He expects the same result come Saturday night but with a unique twist.
"I'm going to wake up in the morning, flip the coin and decide which round, how I want to take him out and which hand to knock him out with," Garbrandt said. "I'm going to wake up in the morning on Saturday and flip the coin. (If it) lands on heads, it's the right hand and (if it) lands on tails, it's the left hand."