If you ask UFC bantamweight Dominick Cruz, he’ll tell you nobody deserves anything. He’ll also tell you there’s something dodgy about TJ Dillashaw getting a title shot after just one victory, telling The MMA Hour that it “sounds like a hook-up”. “He was suspended for cheating, so to get a shot after one win, OK, cool. Sounds like a hook-up to me.
He got two years off, didn’t really lose any money and then just gets right back up in [the title picture]. It’s not like he had an easy fight; [Cory] Sandhagen’s no joke. But still, one fight? Pedro Munhoz and all these other people that are in the division that have just been competing, competing, competing, it’s crazy.
Dominick Cruz Smells Something Fishy About TJ Dillashaw: “Sounds like a hook-up to me’
But I kind of get it, because when I was laid off for so long with my knee injuries, I came back, fought [Takeya] Mizugaki, blew my knee out again, and came back and got a title shot. But I hadn’t lost, and I hadn’t gotten in trouble for anything. I just blew my knees out. So, it’s a little different, and I got my shot that way.” Cruz continued, offering outside-the-Octagon analysis of TJ Dillashaw’s storyline.
“But it’s showing me that what is dominant in each division is ticket sales and storyline, and the storyline of T.J. Dillashaw, the fact that he cheated, isn’t really in that. If anything, it just makes people dislike him more, which will make people tune in. So I think that the storyline is more important for the UFC than anything else to sell tickets than who deserves what.
I’ve said it a million times. Nobody really deserves anything in this sport. You get everything you earn. He fought Cory Sandhagen. He earned that. But that’s pretty much my layout. I think that there’s a lot of good fights you can make. To make that one? I guess so. I guess, but there’s plenty of other fights you can make that you could give that opportunity to besides him. But obviously, the storyline sells, so they’re going with it.”
Dominick Cruz has twice held the bantamweight championship, and is very interested in taking on current champ Aljamain Sterling.
“I’ve told them dates. I’m ready to fight. Right now, I’m at a point where I’m fighting for my legacy. I’m a multiple-time world champion.
The belt’s important, but really, going toward the belt just cements my legacy, and that’s why it’s important to go that direction, to be fighting the Jose Aldos, the Petr Yans, the T.J. Dillashaws, the Aljamain Sterlings, the [Merab] Dvalishvilis, that are right there at the top.
I’m not asking for some kind of handout. I’m asking for the toughest dudes in the world, and when the date matches up, it’ll happen.” Do you agree with Dominick Cruz? Let us know in the comments.
