Dominick Cruz has a message for the current UFC bantamweight champ.
If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.
Former dual-champ and current UFC 135-pound champ Henry Cejudo recently relinquished his flyweight title and has called out an array of former champions, including former UFC bantamweight champ Cruz.
Cruz (22-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) hasn’t competed since losing his title to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 in December 2016, his longest layoff to date. But despite all this time away, he’s still being constantly called out by the likes of Cejudo and rising contender Cory Sandhagen.
And Cruz, who’s been sidelined due to a shoulder injury, says if Cejudo wants to call himself the greatest, he has to get through him.
“Well, I’m kind of in a Diaz situation, Nate Diaz situation, where I’m like, ‘You got Henry Cejudo calling me out, why would I want to fight anybody else?” Cruz told Brendan Schaub on the latest edition of “Food Truck Diaries.” “He’s the title holder, he’s got an Olympic title and thinks he’s a ’25-pound and ’35-pound champion. That’s the guy to beat, and he wants to say that he’s the GOAT; you’ve got to beat me, bro. It’s plain, simple, period.”
“It’s just like, let’s do this. I’m right here, I’m finally healthy. We’re both coming off shoulder surgery, we’re both from Arizona, we were both on the same national wrestling team. I know his style. I know everything about him, I know his background. I know how he grew up.”
But Cejudo (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has recently diverted his attention to another former champion, longtime UFC featherweight king Jose Aldo, who recently suffered a loss to Marlon Moraes in his 135-pound debut.
And while many are baffled as to why Cejudo would target someone coming off of a loss, Cruz thinks Cejudo is going after the easier choice in Aldo.
“Realistically, fighting me makes you the best in the division if you can beat me, but I think you know the truth; that’s why you’re going towards an Aldo that lost to Moraes, who you beat,” Cruz said. “That gives some comfort, where you got me you could face, after a three-year layoff, where I’ve looked very good before in the past, and I fight a little unconventionally, but the way I see it is we’re both coming off shoulder surgery and so that makes this an even fight to have.”
Plagued with injuries throughout his career, Cruz has proven that ring rust does not always exist. He was able to return from an almost three-year long layoff in 2014, taking out Takeya Mizugaki in just over a minute. He was then forced to sit out once again for almost 16 months before returning to dethrone then-champ T.J. Dillashaw, reclaiming his bantamweight title.
He’s spent his time off working as an analyst and commentator for the UFC, a gig that has kept him busy and financially sound, but Cruz said he is ready to step back in the cage.
Hopefully in the first half of 2020.
“Within the next six months,” Cruz said. “I’m healthy. This year, I will fight as long as everything stays in line like it has, and I learned that a lot of what was stopping me has just been keeping focused on the now and not worrying about things you can’t control.”
Dominick Cruz: Henry Cejudo isn't the GOAT unless he beats me