After losing his bantamweight title to Cody Garbrandt at last December’s UFC 207, Dominick Cruz made it clear that he was interested in a rematch with “No Love”, although he also let it be known that he was content with Garbrandt defending his title against fellow former champion TJ Dillashaw, whom Cruz beat in 2016.
Garbrandt and Dillashaw were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 213 this past July, but “No Love” was forced to withdraw from the fight with a back injury. The two will finally face off at November’s UFC 217 in New York.
With that being said, it was recently announced that Cruz would take on surging contender Jimmie Rivera at UFC 219 in December, and he explained why he accepted that fight on yesterday’s (Oct. 2, 2017) edition of The MMA Hour:
“I was wanting to wait for that title fight to come back around, and once [Garbrandt and Dillashaw] fight, just jump right back in there and face the winner,” Cruz told Ariel Helwani. “It only made sense, because I faced T.J. and everybody would want to see me rematch, I think, if he won, and I faced Cody and I think everybody would want to see me rematch if Cody won.
“What it comes down to is that I am not the king of the bantamweight division, Cody’s not the king of the bantamweight division, either; Sean Shelby is. He makes these decisions as to who fights who. And he said, ‘If you don’t fight Jimmie Rivera, Jimmie Rivera and Assuncao would fight and they would get the next title fight, not you.’ So he would end up giving me the loser, probably, of Cody-T.J.”
It makes sense that the winner of a bout between Cruz and Rivera would be next in line for a shot at gold, but Cruz made it clear that Shelby has the final call:
“Sean Shelby makes the decisions of the matchmaking in this division, so I listened,” Cruz said. “I have never picked a fight my whole career. I’ve never said, ‘This isn’t right, this isn’t that.’ I’m not here to complain. I enjoy fighting, I want to fight, so that’s why I’m doing it.
“This is the next matchup that creates a title shot for me.”
Do you expect Cruz to get passed Rivera later this year?
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