Garbrandt: Dominick Cruz will move to 145 ‘or retire before he has to fight me’

In what’s become something of a trend lately, the UFC bantamweight champion has joined Michael Bisping and Tyron Woodley as a fighter who’s just not all that interested in fighting the top contenders in his own division right now. Over the last month, Cruz has started eyeing the title holders outside his division for potential superfights. Not just the money machine that is Conor McGregor, but potential bouts with Jose Aldo and Demetrious Johnson as well.

The reasoning behind this shift in ideology from title holders seems pretty obvious: money. A fight with McGregor, or Aldo, and possibly even DJ is just probably worth more (or in the case of McGregor, definitely worth more) than fights with Dillashaw or Caraway or Lineker. Well, at least that’s one explanation. The other, as offered by Team Alpha Male’s Cody Garbrandt, is that Cruz is running scared.

Garbrandt was recently on AXStv’s Inside MMA, where he had this to say about Cruz’s wanderlust (transcript via MMAFighting):

"Dominick Cruz can't knock anybody out. He's got grapes for hands...Dominick knows that I'm coming for him, like everyone. He's the champion so he has an X on his back but I'm definitely in his head and he knows he doesn't want to fight me. That's why he wants to move up, talk about moving up to [145] and fighting some other people. He's trying to either get out of the division or retire before he has to fight me."

That’s not all, however. For Garbrandt his dislike of the champ extends beyond the shade Cruz has been throwing over the division’s contenders:

"I just think the guy's a dork.... I don't like his style. I feel like he's a point fighter, he goes in there trying to point and take everyone to decisions. He doesn't go in there and be a true fighter. He goes in there and just tries to out point people. This is the fight game. We come out here for finishes."

You can check out the full interview below, including Garbrandt’s thoughts on his upcoming fight with Takeya Mizugaki and his thoughts on former teammate TJ Dillashaw:

Garbrandt is currently set to face Mizugaki at UFC 202 on August 20th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event will be headlined by a rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more news and updates on the card as fight night approaches.