Cody Garbrandt: The next UFC bantamweight king

Cody Garbrandt, adorned in a custom suit, steps out of a bus and heads towards the service entrance of the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He is squarely focused on the task at hand, a showdown with veteran Takeya Mizugaki, one of the biggest fights of his life, in the coveted Fox Sports featured bout on the most visible pay-per-view of the year.

As Garbrandt reaches the rolled up garage door, he walks through a metal detector. His eyes begin to scan the throng of people awaiting his arrival. Just as the rush of air conditioning funneling out of the arena hits him, so does the gaze of UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz.

Garbrandt isn’t a stranger to Cruz, a familiar agitator not only to…