Cody Garbrandt “won because the other guy lost the points” at UFC 326, per fighter who has history with ‘No Love’

Cody Garbrandt was able to get back to the win column after a foul-sustaining effort against Xiao Long, and someone who was previously slated to fight ‘No Love’ thinks that the latter would have won if point deductions had not transpired at UFC 326. The fighter in question is Julio Arce, who previously had a fight booked with Garbrandt that ultimately didn’t come to fruition because of an injury at UFC 285.

Julio Arce touched upon Garbrandt’s recent victory ahead of his own fight on March 28th as Arce competed with Alexei Pergande at PFL Pittsburgh. When asked for his thoughts on Garbrandt’s relatively recent UFC 326 win, snapping a two-fight skid he had prior to beating Long, Arce said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“I mean, in a way, good for him [Garbrandt]. It was just an awkward fight because with the low blows and then it’s kind of like okay, I get he was pissed off [about] what happened. Because I mean, that low blow, if you have to puke, I mean, that must have been difficult. I know like with the language barrier with his opponent, it was probably like communication was a little choppy.”

“But then when you’re pointing down to the ground, you want to fight, and all you do is yell at the guy but then it’s like there’s no sense of urgency. He won because the other guy lost the points. But I think in reality it would have been the other way around. So those kind of point deductions gave him the fight. I wish that fight would have happened. I think we would have had an amazing fight. But again, that’s at ’35. I moved up for a reason. I’m tired of those cuts.”

Cody Garbrandt eyes a ranked UFC contender for his next test, post-UFC 326

Cody Garbrandt is pretty freshly back to winning ways, but already has his next adversary in his crosshairs. This was mentioned by the former UFC bantamweight champion in the UFC 326 post-fight press conference, as Garbrandt stated [via Cageside Press],

“There’s this David Martinez from Mexico. He’s a young prospect that’s just beaten two top guys. Beat Chito [Vera] a few weeks ago, beat Rob Font earlier, he’s in the top 10. I like his style. That’s a good fight for me stylistically to get me back in the top 10.”