Cody Garbrandt may not be fit enough to compete just yet, but he may have just booked himself a fight in June.
The undisputed UFC bantamweight champion was supposed to be defending his title against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 213, but 'No Love' was forced to withdraw from the bout with injury.
It was expected that the bout would just be moved to a later date to allow Garbrandt time to recover. This would seem like the perfect solution for everyone as Dillashaw would still get his shot and that season of TUF currently being aired that's supposed to culminate in their rivalry being settled inside the Octagon will not have been made in vain.
However, Dillashaw isn't a massive fan of that option, he wants to fight. The former champion has been pushing heavy for a flyweight title fight against Demetrious Johnson, which hasn't sat well with the man sitting atop the 135 lb throne.
https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/867278133661122561
Enter Matthew Kline Kader. The body builder has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and for some inexplicable reason, he took offence to Garbrandt's jab at Dillashaw needing money to finish his gaff.
In his eyes, Garbrandt is the one who is stopping the bout from happening and therefore doesn't deserve the right to talk smack about the man who's actually looking for a fight.
https://twitter.com/Shallowking/status/867328815135039488
Social media beef... not really ground-breaking stuff. We see non-fighters talk trash about trained killers on Twitter every day, but this story took a bit of a turn when Kader puffed out his chest and made the classic 'bro, if we were in a fight' meathead remark.
https://twitter.com/Shallowking/status/867504108516679680
Garbrandt then tweeted out the address of his gym (a remarkably easy thing to Google) in a bid to get the body builder over for the scrap that he wanted.
He was probably thinking, 'This will be it now. He'll either shut up on Twitter or just not show up to fight'. He probably thought that the guy was a mere keyboard warrior whose bark is greater than his bite. he probably thought that tweet would intimidate him.
https://twitter.com/Cody_Nolove/status/867563742996774912
The bold move didn't work though. It didn't stop Kader from hitting send on tweets aimed at his expense.
In fact, it only encouraged Kader to keep it going. He started off by accepting Garbrandt's invitation, adding that he would be bringing his own camera crew to ensure that the whole world would be able to witness the beatdown.
https://twitter.com/Shallowking/status/867587386607255552
We know what you're thinking. 'Yeah, right... of course he's definitely going to show up.'
Well, be prepared to change that 'Yeah' to an 'Oh' and replace that elipsis with an exclamation mark because Kader's after buying himself a bloody plane ticket to Sacramento in June.
He sent a screenshot of the ticket to Garbrandt on Twitter just to prove that he means business.
https://twitter.com/Shallowking/status/867628458867736576
Not only has the flight been bought, but Kader has taken it upon himself to do all the promotion for this supposed fight, including this crudely edited promo video...
https://twitter.com/Shallowking/status/868646040169095169
...this crudely-made fight poster...
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUlsQlJBzXM/?taken-by=shallowking
...and this crudely-edited photoshop, complete with bonkers caption.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUqHXLmBYSz/?taken-by=shallowking
If you think a professional fighter is unlikely to actually grant a Twitter troll their wish and fight them, we must remind you of what happened with former UFC fighter Josh Neer. 'The Dentist' was receiving so much abuse from a fight fan on social media that he agreed to duke it out with him in the gym.
The
subsequent footage that emerged from the fight went viral, mainly because of Neer's reluctance to take it easy on the average Joe.
So June 25, folks... it might just happen.
