Cody Garbrandt: Daily Routine

Cody Garbrandt rebuilt his love for fighting with a ruthless routine: two-a-days, precision training, and meals dialed to the gram.

For a time there, Cody Garbrandt hated his choice of career. The Ohio kid who had been fighting his whole life and had reached the pinnacle of the MMA world suddenly could no longer stand the sport. “My hate for it was heavy,” he confessed.

“There was a time in my life and my career where I didn’t want to watch the fights,” said the former UFC bantamweight champion. “My wife wanted to order every fight, stay up to date on articles and what was going on.”

To understand Garbrandt’s feelings, you have to look at how quickly he rose through the UFC ranks. At the beginning of 2016, he was fighting just his third bout in the UFC, by the end of 2016, he was staring down the reigning bantamweight champion and arguably the division’s GOAT, Dominick Cruz. He defeated Cruz via unanimous decision to win the title in just his second year in the UFC.

But when a fighter rises that quickly, there’s always gaps and holes in his life — from a fighting point of view, but also personal and business-related. “I rose to the top really fast and there were things I needed to correct and work on,” he admitted.