https://youtu.be/JPpAgLOTIq4

This Friday, in the co-main event of UFC 207, undefeated 25-year-old Cody Garbrandt will challenge Dominick Cruz for the UFC bantamweight crown. Though Garbrandt’s road to this title shot hasn’t been a particularly long one – at least, not according to TJ Dillashaw – it has been a hard one.

During a recent media scrum, Garbrandt addressed several of the low moments of his martial arts journey, including his being stabbed in the chest and leg several years ago.

“I’ve been in so many street fights, bar fights, I’ve been stabbed,” he said nonchalantly. “I’ve been in some really close calls where I didn’t think I was going to be able to come out of the fights.” 

When asked about the circumstances of this stabbing, Garbrandt recounted a scene that sounds like it belongs in The Outsiders.

“I got 12 staples in [my leg],” he said. “It was a little backcountry bar, man. I remember I was going to pick up some buddies from the bar. I was DD, I guess you can call it. I don’t think I was even old enough to drink. I came out, and it was raining and a bunch of people were about to fight, and I saw one of my friends; they were getting jumped, getting booted in the face. And next thing I know this guy comes out in front of me, just squawking about how he’s been to prison and this and that. I’m like ‘man, come on, I’m not trying to fight.’ He pulled out a blade and he kind of hit my chest with it, but it hit the end of it. And I was like ‘alright.’ I knew it was a knife and, you know, I had to do what I had to do. He stabbed my friend too, through his arm and bicep. Severed his bicep.”

As frightening as this backcountry quarrel sounds, Garbrandt says it was a key moment in his life, as it helped him reevaluate and put things in perspective.

“A lot of events in my life really put [things] in perspective,” he said. “That was one of them.” 

Do you think Garbrandt can upset the odds and defeat Cruz this Saturday? Sound off, PENN Nation!