Cruz wants super-fights vs Aldo, McGregor or Johnson, Dillashaw says 'stop running'

After spending years on the sidelines due to injury, Dominick Cruz had an impressive comeback in 2016 where he took T.J. Dillashaw's UFC title, and defended it against Urijah Faber to end their decade long trilogy.

Dillashaw, who recently won a decision against Raphael Assuncao, has been asking for a rematch for a while now, but Cruz says he has no interest in a repeat. In fact, after having already won a total of 7 title bouts in his career, he is currently looking for big money super-fights instead.

"I don't care about that motherf*cker at all," Cruz told ESPN. "I beat that dude three years off the couch. I beat him. He got me at 75 percent. So, the fact that he thinks he beat me is nonsense. I don't need to prove anything to that guy."

"I don't really care about him. There are so many other fights that are extremely important. There's 145. The belt is up for grabs, between the interim belt and Notorious [Conor McGregor]. Who knows? Notorious could get hurt after this fight with Diaz and then be out for 6 or 7 months and then they'd need someone to fight for the interim title. I'm willing to jump in there and fight for the interim world title and bring two belts together. Why not? At 145, I would do that in a heartbeat. That's a much more fun, much bigger fight than anything near TJ Dillashaw."

"Nobody cares about [Dillashaw]. He makes no sales," he said. "I want a fight that makes sense, that gets the people excited. TJ Dillashaw does not make people excited. A fight bringing 2 belts together at 145 pounds, that gets people excited."

"Or a bout with Demetrious Johnson, him challenging himself to come up and fight me, while I beat him up for five rounds again - to prove why I'm the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet - that hypes people up. They're saying he's the No. 1 pound-for-pound best right now and I beat him for five rounds. So, that makes sense, too."

While most pundits would think that moving up a division to challenge Aldo or McGregor is a much tougher bout, Dillashaw thinks Cruz is just doing all that to avoid him. The former champion said as much when he responded to these statements on social media.

"It's comical to me how much of a pussy Dominick Cruz is," Dillashaw wrote. "Trying to do whatever he can to not fight me, pushing to fight senior citizens that should be in a retirement home. Now wanting to jump weight classes to fight so he can avoid me."

"As usual, he's running and doesn't want to fight, he and I both know I won that first fight and he'll say what ever he can to avoid giving back what's rightfully mine! I'm his biggest threat. Stop running, let's get this on paper UFC."