The former UFC bantamweight champion showed his defiance in a scary fashion last night.

The stakes in UFC 217’s co-main event went beyond championship gold. For champion Cody Garbrandt and challenger TJ Dillashaw, honour, revenge and survival were also on the line.

The teammates turned enemies went to war for all the marbles, and in that moment, nothing else mattered. This was evident in Garbrandt’s reaction to his stoppage loss in round two.

‘No Love’ had Dillashaw in severe trouble at the end of round one, before taking a head kick and eventually a right hook not dissimilar to the one he landed on TJ in the infamous training video in the second.

The challenger swarmed on Garbrandt, compelling referee Dan Miragliotta to step in at around the midway point of the second round.

While the stoppage was certainly warranted – Cody was not intelligently defending himself – he was still moving and very much conscious in immediately going head-to-head with the victor.

Understandably aggrieved at suffering his first professional loss, Cody proceeded to storm over to Dillashaw’s corner before telling UFC president Dana White of his desire to ‘go to sleep’, rather than have the fight stopped as it was, as can be seen in the below video via FightAffect.

“Why didn’t they let me go to sleep? I’m fine,” he complained.

It’s an attitude we saw in the main event where Michael Bisping went out on his shield in refusing to tap to Georges St-Pierre’s chokehold, actually falling asleep in the process. The two short-tempered yet prideful former champions embraced afterwards backstage.

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