Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt has provided an explanation why his UFC 250 knockout was better than Sean O’Malley’s.
Both fighters stole the show at the UFC 250 pay-per-view event earlier this month by producing one-punch walk-off knockouts. Garbrandt sent Raphael Assuncao to the shadow realm in the co-main event while O’Malley put Eddie Wineland to sleep in the main card opener.
Following these huge wins, the bantamweight stars have been linked to a potential fight, with ‘No Love’ calling for old school bantamweight tournament at UFC Fight Island to crown a new champion.
“I don’t know. There’s levels to striking. When you got power in your hands, you can just bend down and just throw something, and if it lands you’ll probably knock someone out. I choose pure, clean, technique, and speed. But they’re both cool,” ‘Sugar’ said about the knockouts.
UFC 250 bonuses: Cody Garbrandt, Sean O’Malley earn bonuses for dramatic one-punch knockouts https://t.co/PlCADvUYSN pic.twitter.com/T45xoRfz6L
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) June 7, 2020
Picture-Perfect
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, the former champion claimed he delivered the better finish compared to his fellow bantamweight at UFC 250.
“Mine was way better. Way vicious. My dude couldn’t get up,” he said.
“I knew that as soon as I started that punch, the trajectory of where it was going, the force and the speed, it was going to connect and knock him out. It was a picture-perfect punch and just a nice walk off.”
“[Assuncao is] leap years ahead of any adversary [O’Malley] has ever fought. Hats off to him. He did good, went out there and performed, got a knockout victory … but you can’t compare when you’re fighting the Top 5 in the world.”
“[O’Malley has] never fought anybody in the Top 15, so that’s a huge difference when you’re able to starch people like that at each level.”
https://twitter.com/_jrickz/status/1269476357123330053
Title Contention
With the win, Garbrandt inched closer to his goal of reclaiming the bantamweight throne as he made his way back to the top five of the official rankings from ninth spot.
“There’s gonna be so many potential bouts that I can have. So many potential knockout performance bonuses that I’m gonna get in my bank from all these guys. They come out and show up, I’m excited for the bantamweight division. It’s the best division in the UFC,” he said.
“We have some killers. It’s a shark tank. You’ve got Dominick Cruz, you’ve got Urijah Faber still doing what he wants to do, you have so many guys. It’s a shark tank division.”
Cody Garbrandt, a past Ohio state champion, showed at UFC 250 that he is not only back, but likely a better, more dangerous fighter than ever before. Michael Midiri shares his takeaways on seven ex-wrestlers who fought at UFC 250. https://t.co/Ls1F47C69p pic.twitter.com/nWGE1H89qo
— InterMat (@InterMat) June 9, 2020
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Cody Garbrandt and Sean O’Malley)