Former UFC champ ready to return after prolonged COVID battle

Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt could have allowed himself to get down emotionally during a draining year that saw him miss out on a title fight and battle illness for more than six months.

Instead, he counted his blessings and showed the kind of maturity that just might allow him to win back his belt. He will start that process when he takes on contender Rob Font in the main event of UFC Fight Night 188 on Saturday at the Apex.

The bout headlines a 4 p.m. main card on ESPN-Plus, with the preliminary fights streaming at 1.

“It’s just about figuring out how to balance life and your career,” he said. “Like all of us during this pandemic, people were losing loved ones and jobs. My son is healthy. I still have a roof over my head and a job waiting for me. And it could have been worse.

“I could have been coming off a knockout loss and then have to deal with that.”

The 29-year-old was hoping to build off a knockout of Raphael Assuncao last June that propelled him into a flyweight title bout against Deiveson Figueiredo, but Garbrandt suffered an arm injury and contracted COVID-19, forcing him to pull out of the fight.

It was a more difficult battle than he expected.

“It was basically day-by-day what my body could do,” Garbrandt said. “I was on blood thinners. I had pneumonia. I had vertigo; the vertigo was horrible. I had blood clots, as well. It’s almost easier to have an injury than having COVID. I always took COVID seriously. People are dying from it. But I take care of myself. I’m healthy, I rest, I recover, I eat well, I’m very conditioned. I thought if I had it, it would be like a flu bug, kind of. Man, it was not a flu bug for me. It was intense.”

Garbrandt, who said his doctors credited the amount of cardio he was doing in training camp with keeping him off a ventilator, indicated it took more than six months to start feeling consistently better.

He had some concerns about how his body would react to a training camp. He began with a three-week minicamp and then used health monitoring apps Whoop and Aura to monitor his body’s rest and recovery time as well as how it was responding to increased workouts. He believes he is at 100 percent for this fight.

The Ohio native and Sacramento, California, resident previously dealt with a kidney infection that led to a weeklong hospital stint.

“I’m thankful for my health and to be here right now,” Garbrandt said. “It has taught me life is a marathon and not a sprint.”

It has certainly been a long, grueling journey since Garbrandt won the belt at 25 years old with a victory over Dominick Cruz at T-Mobile Arena in 2016.

Garbrandt lost his next three fights while fighting just once a year between 2017 and 2019. He worked his way right back into the conversation with the win over Assuncao, but then went through the illness.

Earlier in his career, it may have affected him differently. This version of Garbrandt prefers to look at the positives. He believes a victory Saturday will make him the No. 1 contender for either the flyweight or bantamweight title.

“You look back at November and with COVID and the things it took away from my life, but it set me up better with more opportunities,” he said. “If I finish Rob on Saturday, It works out perfect for me.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.