Cruz says he deserves title shot, Garbrandt will retain belt vs. Dillashaw
Few people have as vested an interest in the next UFC bantamweight title fight than Dominick Cruz.
"The Dominator" will intently watch Cody Garbrandt - the man who dethroned him last December - defend the divisional strap against TJ Dillashaw this summer, and called dibs on the winner in a Monday appearance on Ariel Helwani's "The MMA Hour." The way Cruz sees it, the rivalries he built with both Garbrandt and Dillashaw, the tantalizing matchups each of them present and the nine-year unbeaten run he mounted before losing to Garbrandt put him in prime position to face the winner.
"There's three people in this division that people know, and that's me, TJ and Cody, and the reason why you know us three is because I've been fighting these two people, and I've been talking about them and I've been building them on FOX, and giving them a lot of shine and I've also been bashing on them, too," Cruz said. "But the mixture of the entire thing has built the three of us, and I think that between the three of us, we could probably fight for 10 years and always have a good fight.
"I'm the No. 1 contender now, and to fight backwards in the division, after the amount of title defenses I've had in the past, it doesn't even resonate or make sense to me. I'm here to fight the best in the world, to fight for the title, and I think I've earned that position."
Having gone five rounds with both Garbrandt and Dillashaw, Cruz was naturally asked which of the opposing "TUF" coaches he expected would get their hand raised in the grudge match. In typical analytical fashion, the former champ chose the incumbent to win, not because of his superior technical proficiency, but because the fallout from Dillashaw's acrimonious departure from Team Alpha Male - where Garbrandt trains - and his drama-heavy stint on the show will weigh far too heavy on him come fight night.
"I think that mental strain and the loneliness that he's feeling on that show over this period of time is wearing on him and I think that the mental aspects of that are what get him beat against Cody, not the technical aspects that TJ has."