When it came down to the next challenger for the UFC bantamweight title, Dominick Cruz had two logical opponents. First was T.J. Dillashaw, the former UFC champion who rebounded from a close loss to Cruz by defeating top contender Raphael Assuncao in July, and second was Cody Garbrandt, the undefeated up-and-comer who scored a trio of big-time knockouts in 2016 and developed a simmering feud with Cruz on his way up the UFC ranks.
The UFC ultimately elected to go with Garbrandt, eschewing a higher-ranked foe for a juicier storyline and new blood. The decision was unsurprisingly a polarizing one, but it didn’t much matter, as Cruz and Garbrandt are slated to tangle on Dec.