It’s one thing to lose, it’s another thing to lose in essentially identical fashion three consecutive times.
Cody Garbrandt was on top of the men’s bantamweight world at UFC 207, after he unseated Dominick Cruz as champion and became the first man to defeat the ‘Dominator’ at 135 lbs. His knockout power and exciting style seemed to resonate well with fight fans, and it certainly resonated with Dana White — who declared a month prior to his UFC 217 showdown with T.J. Dillashaw that Garbrandt “could be the next big star.”
Garbrandt hasn’t won a fight since, all while showcasing himself as Exhibit A in the famous adage, that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.