Dominick Cruz has something to say about T.J. Dillashaw’s intentions to drop down to flyweight and fight Demetrious Johnson.
Since he won back the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 217 last December, T.J. Dillashaw has not been too keen on defending it against the next top contender. Instead, he has been planning to drop down to 125 pounds and face champion Demetrious Johnson in a possible super fight.
Those next in line at 135 pounds like Cody Garbrandt are willing to make major compromises just to make a fight happen. Recently, another former champion in Dominick Cruz joined in on the call for Dillashaw to stay and defend his title instead.
“I think [the championship] should be my next fight, but they play weird games where they want to give T.J. Dillashaw an easier fight because he doesn’t want to fight somebody hard right after he won the title” Cruz said on Max Out with Ed Mylett (transcript via MMA Fighting). “He wants an easy fight. So he wants to fight somebody that he knows he can keep the belt a little longer before he knows he gets a really hard fight, whereas I went T.J. Dillashaw, Urijah Faber, Cody Garbrandt and then I lose the belt.”
“Let’s go T.J.! I beat you,” Cruz continued. “Don’t you want to get that back? Stop going down and looking for little baby boys at 125. Silly Dilly, that’s what I call him.”
Cruz feels he could pose a real threat to Dillashaw second title reign, which is why he is also campaigning for a rematch himself.
“I’m sad for him. He’s not challenging himself. He doesn’t see the big picture,” Cruz said. “There’s only a few people that generate interest in this division and I’m one of them. There’s no Ifs, Ands, or Buts about it, so where are you going? That’s the fight people want to see.”
“There’s only a certain fight that create interest in this thing and he’s running all over the place, anywhere but where the interest is, and it blows my mind. It blows my mind because how do you sell pay-per-views? How do you get people to tune in if you’re dodging the people that generate the most of that just because you want safety?”
Dillashaw’s next fight has not been finalized, but according to “Mighty Mouse”, they are currently in negotiations for a possible co-headliner fight at UFC 226 this July.