A fascinating bantamweight title fight between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw has been announced as the co-main event for UFC 213 on July 8th in Las Vegas.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the clash between the two ‘Ultimate Fighter Season 25’ coaches for the pay-per-view event on International Fight Week during the UFC 210 post-fight press conference this past Saturday night.
Of course there’s ‘No Love’ lost between these two former teammates, who have become bitter rivals since Dillashaw left their ‘Team Alpha Male’ camp in 2015.
At the time Dillashaw was the 135lb champion, but he then went on to lose the belt after a split decision defeat against Dominick Cruz in early 2016.
Dillashaw has since rebounded strongly with wins over Raphael Assuncao and John Lineker, taking his overall record to 14-3.
During the same period, Garbrandt has been the more active fighter, compiling no less than four tunning victories.
Wins over Augusto Mendes, Thomas Almeida and Takeya Mizugaki all came via strikes in the first round, but the most impressive performance of his career so far was undoubtedly a dominant five round destruction of Dominick Cruz to win the title at UFC 207 in December.
This should be an extremely high level technical battle, and the rivalry between the two will only add further spice and intrigue to the proceedings.
Garbrandt Vs Dillashaw joins a card that doesn’t yet have a main event, but does also have two other major fights on-board, with former welterweight champion Robbie Lawler returning to take on Donald Cerrone, while former heavyweight titleholder Fabricio Werdum heads into a trilogy fight with Alistair Overeem.
Travis Browne vs Oleksly Oliynyk was also recently confirmed for the event as well.
