“You Can’t Run Away From Your Destiny” – Petr Yan Takes a Jibe at Cody Garbrandt

Published 04/15/2020, 2:45 PM EDT

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Petr Yan and Cody Garbrandt have a bit of history between them. The surging Russian contender, in an interview, took a subtle shot at the former champ Cody Garbrandt.

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Following a string of losses, Garbrandt has decided to move down to Flyweight. Despite being one of the best punchers in the 135-pounds category, Garbrandt’s haymaker style of fighting has led to him being knocked out multiple times. Garbrandt argued that weight-cutting has never been an issue for him. Subsequently, he wishes to drop down to 125-pounds.

However, Petr Yan accused Garbrandt of running away because of his losses.

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“I think he is just running away from Bantamweight,” Petr told James Lynch on theScore MMA podcast. “He cannot prove himself in Bantamweight anymore. He’s been knocked out three times in a row in this division. So he’s just looking for an easy way out. But you can’t run away from your destiny.”

Yan and Garbrandt had an altercation backstage after the former knocked out UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber last year. Although the altercation was not physical, it was intense nonetheless. The fiasco initially began after Garbrandt took a shot at Yan on Dana White’s Instagram post.

“When we had an altercation after my fight with [Urijah] Faber, he told me that he would call me out after the fight with [Raphael] Assuncao. But now he is going down to flyweight,” Yan added.

Garbrandt was booked to fight Raphael Assuncao at UFC Colorado on March 28th. The pairing failed on multiple fronts.

Firstly, Garbrandt was pulled out from the fight due to “kidney issues”. Later on, the entire card was postponed due to Coronavirus.

Petr Yan accuses Garbrandt of stealing his spotlight

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Defeating a UFC Hall of Famer garnered Petr Yan the most attention in his MMA career. His name became known to a lot more fans after he knocked out Faber with a head kick.

But the backstage altercation with Garbrandt diverted some of the attention towards itself. Yan felt that it is Garbrandt’s habit to attract the attention of the media.

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“Cody likes to be the hot news. He likes to be thrown in the media,” Yan recalled when talking about his altercation with Garbrandt at UFC 245. “It was my night. I just won the fight. All the attention was on me. So he tried to steal some of the attention for himself. What else can you do when you lose three fights in a row. All he can do is talk.”

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Yan is booked to fight Marlon Moraes in June later this year in UFC’s first trip to Kazakhstan. The bout will be most likely for the No. 1 title contender. Meanwhile, Garbrandt has declared that he will go down a weight class after he fights against Assuncao.

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Written by:

Rishabh Singh

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Rishabh Singh is an MMA author at EssentiallySports since 2020. An engineer in the making, his love for combat sports began by watching Anderson Silva light people up inside the Octagon. When he isn't busy in his technical pursuits, he is an avid reader with a love for sports in general and sporting history in particular.
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