Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images The UFC's summer blockbuster schedule draws to a close with a bad-blood rematch between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw for the bantamweight title at UFC 227 on August 4. The former teammates engaged in a back-and-forth November 4 battle that saw Dillashaw shock No Love with a second-round knockout to become the champion for the second time. It was Garbrandt's first loss of his professional MMA career. After a meteoric rise to the championship and subsequent fall, he'll look to avenge the only blemish on his record nine months later. Also featured on the card is the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC's rankings Demetrious Johnson. Mighty Mouse will look to defend his flyweight belt for the 12th consecutive time in a rematch against Henry Cejudo. Johnson knocked out Cejudo in the first round in their first encounter in 2016. Since then Cejudo has put together back-to-back wins against Wilson Reis and Sergio Pettis to earn a second crack at the belt. It's a strong doubleheader of title fights to anchor the pay-per-view. Here's a look at the latest ticket information, odds via OddsShark and fight card along with a look at the latest hype for both of the biggest bouts on the card. Tickets: StubHub Video Play Button Videos you might like Main Card (10 p.m. ET, PPV) TJ Dillashaw (-120) vs. Cody Garbrandt (-110) - UFC Bantamweight Championship Demetrious Johnson (-500) vs. Henry Cejudo (+350) - UFC Flyweight Championship Cub Swanson (+285) vs. Renato Moicano (-375) JJ Aldrich (+200) vs. Polyana Viana (-260) Thiago Santos (-400) vs. Kevin Holland (+300) Preliminary Card (8 p.m. ET, FX) Brett Johns (+205) vs. Pedro Munhoz (-265) Montel Jackson (-110) vs. Ricky Simon (-120) Kyung Ho Kang (+175) vs. Ricardo Ramos (-225) Sheymon Moraes (-120) vs. Matt Sayles (-110) Preliminary Card (6:30 p.m. ET, Fight Pass) Jose Torres (+115) vs. Alex Perez (-145) Danielle Taylor (+210) vs. Zhang Weili (-270) Marlon Vera (-500) vs. Wuliji Buren (+350) Garbrandt Seeking Retribution Against Dillashaw Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images The buildup to Cody Garbrandt's rematch with TJ Dillashaw has been less intense than the first fight, but the animosity still remains. The former Alpha Male teammates don't like each other. They've made that known. Where most hype surrounding a fight comes from theatrics and over-the-top barbs, there's a real disdain between these two that was shown when Dillashaw screamed in Garbrandt's face at the conclusion of their first bout. It's a seen Garbrandt is committed to avoiding again. "He wants to get in my face after he TKOs me. He's classless, man," the former champion said, per Kevin Iole of Yahoo. "That’s what irks me about the guy. He puts on a front for everyone and tries to be someone he’s not. He acts for the cameras. He tries to do reverse psychology and say that it's me doing it. I'm raw and real and always have been. T.J. just switches back and forth of who he is. I feel bad for the guy." No Love also believes that the outcome of his first encounter with Dillashaw was impacted by injuries. This time, he says he feels much healthier and is ready to show fans that he's back to being the guy who outclassed Dominick Cruz for the belt. "Life is all about learning and growing, and so, lesson learned," Garbrandt recounted to Iole. "I got too emotionally involved with the banter before the T.J. fight. But it was all I was able to do. I couldn't do anything else because my body wouldn't let me.” Dillashaw isn't buying the story on his end. He is preparing for the fight expecting Garbrandt to be better but believes he's making excuses for himself. "I prepare for everyone to be a monster,” Dillashaw said, per John Morgan of MMAjunkie. "I prepare for every situation. Same reason why I got hit in that first round, (but) I was able to come back in the second. You can't focus on this stuff. You can't overlook anybody. You've got to expect him to be awesome, right? But it's excuses, you know?" More so than the physical health, the thing to watch will be how well Garbrandt has recovered mentally. In the first fight, he nearly finished the fight in the first round before getting careless in the second round. Dillashaw took advantage. The champion is a cerebral fighter, so it's possible he does it again. However, if Garbrandt is more healthy this time around and learns lessons from the first fight, he might finish what he started this time. This fight will test the skill and mentality of the former champion. Prediction: Garbrandt via second-round TKO Humbled Henry Cejudo Ready for Second Shot at Mighty Mouse Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images Henry Cejudo was supposed to be one of the legitimate contenders for Demetrious Johnson. The flyweight champion struggles to find 125-pounders who can challenge his well-rounded skill set in some way. In defending his belt 11 times, he's proved that some fighters simply don't deserve the opportunity to be in the cage with him. Cejudo wasn't supposed to be one of those people. The Los Angeles native is a gold-medal Olympic wrestler and came into his first bout with the champion at a perfect 10-0. Johnson didn't seem to care too much about any of that. He took just two minutes and 49 seconds to end the fight. The loss humbled Cejudo and encouraged him to go out of his comfort zone to find ways to get better. Since the loss, Cejudo has traveled to different gyms across the globe to refine his game and improvements have been made. After losing a close decision to Joseph Benavidez, Cejudo has turned in two dominating performances. Now, he thinks he's ready. "I'm just a more intelligent human being. Hungrier," the 31-year-old said, per Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting. The fact that I have a chip on my shoulder. Not necessarily a chip on my shoulder, but losing to Demetrious, the challenge is different, the respect level is different.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES -- For awhile there, it seemed like the trash talk was going to subside between UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw and former titleholder Cody Garbrandt. The beef between the two former teammates at Team Alpha Male was featured on a season of The Ultimate Fighter and all the way up to their first fight at UFC 217. So at first, in the leadup to Saturday night’s UFC 227 main event rematch, the animosity seemed played out and the talk was mostly focused on the bout itself. But as the hours draw close to their second clash, the tension level has once again risen, and old animosities are beginning to flare anew. Garbrandt got the ball rolling at Wednesday’s open workouts at LA Live by calling his opponent “classless.” Garbrandt remains ticked off by Dillashaw’s actions after knocking Garbrandt out at UFC 217, where he got in his vanquished foe’s face and screamed and then taunted his cornermen. “He’s classless, that’s T.J., he’s always been like that,” said Garbrandt, who skipped his workout and instead held a question-and-answer session with fans. “That’s who he is. It was classless. Win or lose, when I outclassed Dominick Cruz, I gave him my respect. T.J.’s up in my face and flexing on my team, acting like a little as*hole. I remember every single thing, that’s what motivated me this whole entire camp, T.J. getting in my face after that fight.” DIllashaw, for his part, laughed when apprised of Garbrandt’s statements. “Did you guys hear me on the mic after the fight?” Dillashaw asked. “I had nothing but compliments for the guy. If anyone is classless, it went more in my direction.” Garbrandt also dismissed the notion that he didn’t deserve an immediate rematch after losing, saying that his victory over Dominick Cruz, who defeated Dillashaw to end Dillashaw’s first title reign in 2016, is enough to justify getting right back to the front of the line. “I outclassed one of the best bantamweight champions in the world [Cruz], who outclassed him,” Garbrandt said. “if you watch that fight with TJ and Dominick, TJ was swinging at air, got outclassed, he said it was a close fight. And you know why? He feels entitled. He had a silver spoon in his mouth his whole life, you know what I mean? He doesn’t know anything about adversity, it’s always b*tch and cry. It takes two years to get back to the top, he said. OK, but you’re not knocking people out. I was knocking people out in the first round. That’s why I got the title shot over him.” Dillashaw, again, scoffed at Garbrandt’s words. While admitting he doesn’t have the hardscrabble, from-the-streets story of so many successful fighters, he believes he’s had to earn everything he’s accomplished. “I wouldn’t say I grew up with a silver spoon,” Dillashaw said. “Yeah, I was very fortunate. I have a great family. I was raised the right way, my parents did a great job, I owe them everything. Without them, I’m not the man I am today. I don’t have maybe the typical fighter story of having to grow up rough. I grew up great. I had to work my ass off to get anything I wanted. My first vehicle I had to buy it myself and work to get it. My dad was really hard on me.” All of this flies in the face of the cordial greeting the duo gave one another at the UFC’s 25th anniversary press conference in Brooklyn in April, which seemed to indicate the heat was off between the two. The way Dillashaw sees it, given that Garbrandt lost last time, his opponent is flailing around trying to find a new way to get in his head. “He’s trying to be a nice guy, he’s trying to flip the script,” Dillasahw said. “He was a jerk, a bully, and now I have so much ammo that he wants to smooth it over, be the nice guy now. It’s a little bit of a different situation. He can’t be a prick now.”<doc-sep>Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight champion, Cody Garbrandt, was no doubt anticipating a slew of media questions this week as he gears up for his TJ Dillashaw rematch in the UFC 227 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, taking place this Sat. night (Aug. 4, 2018) inside Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Though I’m sure he was expecting said questions to be about his championship title fight, not some offensive tweets he made back in 2012. But, this is the new world we live in, where people target a celebrity and start digging through their social media history to extract any sort of impropriety. Have a look: Cody Garbrandt might want to delete some of his old tweets. #UFC227 pic.twitter.com/pEqZhlJAaS — Borrachinha Depot (@FullContactMTWF) August 1, 2018 “That was when I was a teenager,” the ex-champ told the combat sports media. Garbrandt, 27, was actually 21 at the time. “It’s lyrics,” Garbrandt said (via MMA Junkie). “I grew up hanging out with blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, selling drugs. That’s a street word we would always say. It wasn’t like I was using derogatory words toward anyone. That’s how we grew up. It was kind of normal. That’s it. It’s a learning experience for a lot of people to not use that word in this day an age.” It doesn’t seem like “No Love” will be spending much time perseverating on his old tweets, as Dillashaw is going to try to take his head off when the cage door closes this weekend in the “City of Angels.” For much more on that upcoming showdown click here.<doc-sep>It’s not a ‘stacked’ card by any estimation, but UFC 227 has at least two must see fights and promises a lot of action. TJ Dillashaw rematches Cody Garbrandt for the bantamweight title in the main event, and Demetrious Johnson rematches Henry Cejudo in the co-main. And even if they’re bouts we’ve seen before, they should be great showcases of the highest levels of MMA skill. As always, if you enjoyed the show, give us a ‘like’ over on YouTube. And while you’re there, consider subscribing to MMANATIONDOTCOM. That way you’ll always be among the first to get the latest BE shows, interviews, and analysis. If you’re looking for our audio-only productions, you can find us on SoundCloud and iTunes. Note: Volume leveling for the first 50ish minutes is off, but corrected later in the episode. Here’s a look at the UFC227 lineup as it stands right now: PPV CARD T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt - 1:34:58 Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo - 1:18:50 Thiago Santos vs. Kevin Holland - 1:15:55 Polyana Viana vs. JJ Aldrich - 1:09:06 Cub Swanson vs. Renato Moicano - 57:10 FX PRELIMS Pedro Munhoz vs. Brett Johns - 45:37 Ricky Simon vs. Montel Jackson - 37:24 Ricardo Ramos vs. Kyung Ho Kang - 29:49 Matt Sayles vs. Sheymon Moraes - 23:32 FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Jose Torres vs. Alex Perez - 15:46 Danielle Taylor vs. Zhang Weili - 10:30 Marlon Vera vs. Wuliji Buren - 6:00<doc-sep>
Two big rematches headline the latest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) excursion to Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif., this Saturday (Aug. 4, 2018) when T.J. Dillashaw and Demetrious Johnson face former knockout victims Cody Garbrandt and Henry Cejudo, respectively, with their titles on the line. Earlier that evening on UFC 227’s pay-per-view (PPV) main card, Cub Swanson takes on the surging Renato Moicano, top prospect Polyana Viana pits her Brazilian jiu-jitsu chops against JJ Aldrich’s striking, and Middleweight knockout machine Thiago Santos formally welcomes “Tuesday Night Contender Series” competitor Kevin Holland to the Octagon. UFC 227 is a decent PPV, but the price tag is as bulky as ever. Let’s try and deal with that. What Went Wrong at UFC on FOX 30? I desperately underestimated Alex Hernandez. He managed to overpower and wear down a guy in Olivier Aubin-Mercier known for overpowering people and wearing them down. Moreover, he did so in the clinch, which should have been “The Quebec Kid’s” domain. I would never have predicted that outcome and Hernandez deserves commendation. UFC 227 Odds For The Undercard: Pedro Munhoz (-255) vs. Brett Johns (+215) Ricky Simon (-125) vs. Montel Jackson (+105) Matt Sayles (-110) vs. Sheymon Moraes (-110) Alex Perez (-140) vs. Jose Torres (+120) Ricardo Ramos (-225) vs. Kyung Ho Kang (+185) Weili Zhang (-255) vs. Danielle Taylor (+215) Marlon Vera (-500) vs. Wuliji Buren (+400) Thoughts: Jose “Shorty” Torres is the lynchpin of this weeks’ efforts, though there’s also value in Brett Johns and Kyung Ho Kang. Torres is legitimately one of the best prospects in the entire sport, a two-division Titan FC champion who racked up multiple quality scalps in the span of two years. Though he had trouble in his debut, that was on short notice, and he’d been prepping for a fight at 145 pounds at the time and thus had to shed a lot of weight very quickly. He looks to be better than Perez wherever the fight goes; jump on this underdog line before people realize just how good this kid is. I’m not sure Brett Johns can pull you the win on Saturday, but he should not be a two-to-one underdog. Munhoz’s punching power and lethal submission game are hamstrung by the fact that he never developed a cohesive striking attack or quality takedowns. Johns’ wrestling is rock-solid and, even if his usual grinding style is too risky to employ in the face of “The Young Punisher’s” guillotine, he should be able to hold his own on the feet. Both Justin Scoggins and Rob Font were getting the better of Munhoz on the feet before giving him their necks, after all, and Johns has shown the durability to take Munhoz’s punches without panicking. Worth a look, at least. Kyung Ho Kang is a brilliantly entertaining fighter with a truckload of flaws, boasting the skills to overpower ostensibly superior opposition while occasionally struggling against people he should by all rights destroy. The key here is that he’s gigantic and extremely strong for the weight, looking a damn sight thicker than Ramos despite also being 5’9”. When Michinori Tanaka, whom Kang had a terrific battle with, committed to his takedowns, he had success grinding on Ramos. Kang may or may not be able to do the same, but it’s worth taking a look it. UFC 227 Odds For The Main Card: T.J. Dillashaw (-115) vs. Cody Garbrandt (-105) Demetrious Johnson (-485) vs. Henry Cejudo (+385) Renato Moicano (-400) vs. Cub Swanson (+325) Polyana Viana (-255) vs. JJ Aldrich (+215) Thiago Santos (-370) vs. Kevin Holland (+310) Thoughts: Main card’s a little light on bargains, all things considered. I still think Kyoji Horiguchi is the only Flyweight alive who can challenge Demetrious Johnson at the moment, though, so you could superglue “Mighty Mouse” to another bet if you think the minimal boost is worth it. UFC 227 Best Bets: Single bet -- Jose Torres: Bet $60 to make $72 Single bet -- Brett Johns: Bet $30 to make $64.50 Single bet -- Kyung Ho Kang: Bet $30 to make $55.50 UFC 227 features two big championship rematches, loads of prospects, and some guaranteed slobberknockers that make this a worthwhile investment. See you Saturday, Maniacs! Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver live UFC 227 results on fight night, which is as good a place as any to talk about all the action inside the Octagon, as well as what you’ve got riding on the sportsbook.