Cody Garbrandt explains how he got kicked in the face by Jean-Claude Van Damme

Garbrandt, who stormed out of the gym, said his teeth were nearly knocked out

In the days that followed former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt's title loss to TJ Dillashaw at UFC 217, Garbrandt and Urijah Faber welcomed Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme to their Team Alpha Male gym in Sacramento, California. 

In a story hilariously told by Garbrandt (11-1) during a December appearance on the "Real Quick with Mike Swick" podcast, the 57-year-old Van Damme inadvertently kicked him in the teeth, causing an angry Garbrandt to leave the cage -- and eventually the gym -- to avoid starting a confrontation. 

Two months later, video of the infamous kick, complete with Garbrandt's NSFW reaction, has finally emerged. 

Garbrandt, 26, explained on the podcast he had known Van Damme for some time through a mutual friend and would speak on FaceTime. Six days after his loss to Dillashaw in November, Garbrandt agreed to work out with the action movie star at the gym. 

"He drove up from L.A. to Sacramento in his car. He came and trained and did a little bit of partying," Garbrandt said. "So the first day we came to the gym, he gets on this bike and does 38 minutes exactly to warm up. He has his head wrapped with towels and he's sweating profusely all over the place. The guys had taken him out the night before -- Danny [Castillo], Urijah and them -- so they were drinking a little bit, boozed up and sweating alcohol."

Garbrandt, who said he was appreciative at how excited the action movie star was at sharing his knowledge, also pointed out how profusely Van Damme sweat over the group of fighters as he stretched them "in weird positions" for nearly an hour. 

"Forty minutes of that goes by and my hips are hurting and I'm sore from stretching already," Garbrandt said. "Finally, he started showing some kicks with Chris [Holdsworth], but he's literally all over the place going from stretching to kicks.

"He started showing kicks on Chris and he threw this fast-ass kick. I don't know what it's called but it's the one he always does, like a hook kick. Chris blocked it and was like, 'Oh s---, I better keep my guard up.' Then I was like, 'Damn, he threw at Chris' head fast, without even any warning.' Then he started drilling Chris with toe stabs, and there's one video where I'm just like shaking my head, like 'S---, I'm glad he's not doing that to me.'"

Garbrandt would ultimately get closer than he bargained for when Van Damme, who began training in martial arts at the age of 10, asked to show him the same kick. 

"So I do it like three or four times on him. I put it down and I got into this fight stance and I saw in his eyes like, 'Oh, you want to go?'" Garbrandt said. "And it was all weird. I had my back against the cage, and he started playing with me like he was going to throw some kicks and then he started throwing hands, like slapping at me. So I was like, 'What the hell, you know?'"

Then came the kick. 

"He f---ing kicked me with that heel hook kick, right in the teeth," Garbrandt said, "I was like, 'M-----f-----!' I was pissed, I was so mad. I looked over at [teammates] and I was like, 'Keep this m-----f----- away from me. He just kicked me in my teeth dude.' How many times have we punched at each other and we can pull our punches? This dude straight kicked me in my teeth!

"I'm not going to lie, he has a fast-ass kick, but obviously I wasn't thinking [he would kick me]. I was demonstrating the kick that he wanted to show on me. I was pissed and I went black like I wanted to rip this m-----f-----'s head off. But that's Jean-Claude, what are you supposed to do?"

According to Garbrandt, after he left the cage with a busted lip and in a hot sweat, Van Damme immediately dropped to his knees and started crying, "My champion!" in a remorseful tone. 

Faber, who continued to heckle Garbrandt in the aftermath, shared his memories of the incident to TMZ this week.

"Jean-Claude was the one who dropped down and got so emotional and we had to console him," Faber said. "I was trying to tell Jean-Claude that it's OK and this kind of stuff happens all the time and he was like, 'No! What have I done?' He was big-time upset because he could tell Cody was pissed and he was a big supporter of our team.

"The comedy of what went down, it was a real emotional time. The anger and sadness, and people needing to be consoled, it was like a movie scene. Cody said the only thing that saved Jean-Claude at that moment was his age."

Garbrandt said he exited the cage and the gym so quickly, that a number of bystanders quickly grabbed their phones to take video of what had happened.

"It looked like, from the outside, that I hit him and dropped him and he was crying," Garbrandt said. "Everyone was like, 'We thought you knocked him out and hit him.' It was like, 'No. The dude kicked me in the face and about knocked my teeth out. I had to walk out of there because I was about to beat his ass.' 

"I'm telling you. This guy has hit that kick thousands of times. He has been a martial artist for as long as he has been doing karate. He knows how to pull that kick." 

Faber was asked by TMZ who he believed would have won if a real fight had broken out. 

"If it came to fisticuffs, I would have to take the former champ at the moment," Faber said. "But, you never know. Jean-Claude is a mystical creature; he could have pulled s--- out of his hat and got it done."