The Octagon arrives at the State Farm Arena on June 14 where several former UFC champions will be in action.
Kamaru Usman returns to face Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Atlanta while in the co-main event, Rose Namajunas is set to take on Miranda Maverick.
Near the top of the card, another former titleholder, who is also looking to get back in the win column, will make the walk for the first time in over a year.
Cody Garbrandt was submitted by Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 300 last year after he was able to string together back-to-back wins.
‘No Love’ may have struggled to put together a consistent run in recent years but there was a point in time where the undefeated bantamweight champion appeared to be the promotion’s newest star.
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TJ Dillashaw claimed that the UFC invested millions into making Cody Garbrandt the next big star
Cody Garbrandt’s rise up the bantamweight ladder showed lots of potential with the undefeated knockout artist dismantling each of his opponents.
‘No Love’ then went on to shock the world by dethroning Dominick Cruz at UFC 207 with a near-flawless performance from the challenger.
It then came time for his first title defense, with his former training partner TJ Dillashaw looking to reclaim the belt.
There was a lot of history between the two men following Dillashaw’s controversial exit from Team Alpha Male which led to some bad blood between the two camps.
Following two high-stakes title fights and a dramatic season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, Dillashaw stood tall having stopped Garbrandt on both occasions with highlight reel finishes.
In a recent interview on The Casuals MMA podcast, Garbrandt’s old nemesis spoke about the huge amounts of pressure that were put on the undefeated champion following his win over Cruz.
“Coming off that, the UFC was like, ‘Hey, this is our next big horse. Let’s put some money into him.'”
Dillashaw claimed that the UFC had put a lot of money into building their new star, with the hopes that he would go on to become a Conor McGregor-like figure.
“So they marketed the s— out of him, put him in a bunch of commercials, got some celebrities behind him. From what I was told, they put like $6 million into marketing him before our fight, gave us ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ So he went to massive stardom, way bigger than me – fast. They wanted him to be the next Conor McGregor, like run your mouth.”
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Cody Garbrandt has failed to replicate the success of his win over Dominick Cruz
Following his consecutive knockout losses to TJ Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt has been unable to fully bounce back and regain his lost momentum.
His one-shot knockout over Raphael Assuncao certainly showed that ‘No Love’ was still capable of earning big wins and producing remarkable highlights, but he has had some big setbacks in recent years.
| Opponents after TJ Dillashaw | Event | Result |
| Deiveson Figueiredo | UFC 300 (2024) | Submission loss |
| Brian Kelleher | UFC 296 (2023) | Knockout win |
| Trevin Jones | UFC 285 (2023) | Decision win |
| Kai Kara-France | UFC 269 (2021) | Knockout loss |
| Rob Font | UFC Vegas 27 (2021) | Decision loss |
| Raphael Assuncao | UFC 250 (2020) | Knockout win |
| Pedro Munhoz | UFC 235 (2019) | Knockout loss |
He’s back on June 14 to take on Brazilian veteran Raoni Barcelos, who earned a big win earlier this year when he halted the undefeated streak of Payton Talbott.
The 38-year-old has already shown in 2025 that he’s a very effective spoiler, which could make him a tough test for Garbrandt.