Why Did Cody Garbrandt Leave Urijah Faber’s ‘Team Alpha Male’ Gym? Who Is the Ex-UFC Champ’s Current Coach?

Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt is back in action this weekend after a stellar 2023. ‘No Love’ is gearing up to go head-to-head with former two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo in the UFC 300 opener, looking to maintain his winning ways. Before the historic pay-per-view event, let’s take a closer look at Garbrandt’s MMA training background.

Cody Garbrant started training in combat with his uncle when he was in his preadolescence days. After enrolling in Clermont High School, he started pursuing wrestling and even football. Moreover, ‘No Love’ earned All-State honors in football, but decided to turn his mind to MMA when he was 18 years old. After some time, he joined ‘Team Alpha Male‘ after moving to California. So what made him walk out now, or did he? Let’s find out!

Cody Garbrandt and his time training with ‘Team Alpha Male’

After turning professional, Cody Garbrandt emerged as one of the biggest upcoming bantamweights in 2014. At that moment, he decided to move to Sacramento, California to become a full-time MMA fighter and started training with ‘Team Alpha Male’. The team was led by the former 3-time UFC title contender, Urijah Faber. ‘No Love’ built a great relationship with Faber and he went on to win the bantamweight championship by defeating Dominick Cruz while representing ‘Team Alpha Male’.

However, following his championship win at UFC 207, Cody Garbrandt drastically fell off from his status as a top contender in the bantamweight division. He had racked up three consecutive losses from 2017 to 2019, when he decided to take the help of other coaches, causing him to leave ‘Team Alpha Male’ and he even opened up about it during the UFC 250 virtual media day.

Garbrandt’s reason for leaving Urijah Faber’s team and current coaches and gym

Cody Garbrandt felt that a change in his ways of training was necessary after succumbing to three losses. He decided to start training in a gym based in New Jersey under coaches Mark Henry and Ricard Almeida at Mark Henry MMA. Nevertheless, Garbrandt continues to split his time training in both gyms, and that helped him secure his only win from 2018 to 2022 against Raphael Assuncao.

‘No Love’ mentioned during the UFC 250 media day the opportunity to be able to mix the lessons he learned while training with both gyms worked in his favor. That is why he chose to take help from a couple of more coaches other than Urijah Faber. “My coaches from Team Alpha Male and my coaches in New Jersey… all blended everything together and always constantly on each camp’s been reminding me to be myself,” stated Cody Garbrandt. The former champion also told ‘The Athletic‘ in 2019 that training in New Jersey also allowed him to pay his family a visit more often.

However, Garbrandt would leave Mark Henry MMA in 2021 and start training at Xtreme Couture with coach Eric Nicksick and Dewey Cooper in 2022, while also representing ‘Team Alpha Male’. He still splits time training in both gyms to this day.

Cody Garbrandt showcased a dominant performance in his last fight by knocking out Brian Kelleher at UFC 296. Fans are now starting to believe that ‘No Love’ could find himself in title contention again. However, we cannot assume anything before UFC 300 as we wait to see how things pan out for the Uhrichsville native.

Read More: Meaning Behind UFC’s Holly Holm’s Nickname ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’