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With travel restrictions across the globe preventing fighters from making it out of their respective homelands, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has had to adjust and shuffle its upcoming slate of fights, beginning with UFC 249.
Indeed, the pay-per-view (PPV) event will now feature an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson, who will collide on April 18, 2020 as a result of Khabib Nurmagomedov being stuck in Russia.
And just like Gaethje took advantage of someone else’s unfortunate situation, Dominick Cruz is ready to do the same. “The Dominator” says he is ready and willing to face UFC bantamweight champion, Henry Cejudo, at UFC 250 on May 9 should Jose Aldo not be able to fly out of Brazil.
“Now he (Cejudo) is saying that Aldo may not be able to get in, and Yan may not be able to get in. And now the MMA world can know that this fight is a real possibility,” said Cruz during a recent interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
“That’s really the situation, since they can’t come in, it opens up a slot for me to slide in there. And I will always take a fight with the title. That’s what we do this for, you slide in and take the title shot when’s it’s there. And realistically, with Aldo and Yan out and this opportunity there, why wouldn’t I take it? That’s what I have been asking for a long time,” he added, before saying that there is no telling if Cejudo will actually back up his words of giving Cruz the title shot if all else fails.
“However, I also believe that Henry has a habit of saying things just to get the hype to get people talking about it, or to talk about him.”
Aldo may not be out of the fight just yet, though, as Dana White recently revealed that he is in the process of acquiring a private island in order to allow his international stars to fight during the coronavirus pandemic.
Should Cruz get the fight, it will be the former champion’s first taste of action since late 2016, as multiple injuries have forced him to sit on the sidelines for the last 40 months.