TJ Dillashaw is a former UFC bantamweight champion and is still regarded as one of the top contenders to the belt.
But he doesn’t believe Dominick Cruz wants any part of a rematch.
Earlier this year, Cruz bested Dillashaw to regain the title he never lost. Several injuries left Cruz on the sidelines and the UFC was forced to strip him of the belt.
Now that he’s back, Cruz has targeted bouts with Jose Aldo, Demetrious Johnson and even Cody Garbrandt over a rematch with Dillashaw.
“You know, it’s funny – so as soon as Cruz was calling out (Urijah) Faber and didn’t want to fight me, I understood. Whatever. That happened. And then as soon as that fight was over, Cruz is talking about how he wants to do a super fight against Aldo,” said Dillashaw, during a recent interview with Submission Radio. “Well Aldo wants (Conor) McGregor, so that’s not going to happen. Then he was saying he wants to do a super fight against Demetrious. But Demetrious was hurt and already had a fight lined up, so he couldn’t do that either. So if he couldn’t run away from the weight class and not fight me, what’s he gonna do? Jump to No. 8? Would he rather fight the No. 8 ranked guy instead of fighting the guy he should fight? He doesn’t want to fight me, man.
“He knows how tough that first fight was, he knows that I have a legitimate chance at kicking his ass and he just doesn’t want that to happen. He wants to try to make as much money as he can, while he can and stay on top. But I’m motivated now more than ever to get my belt back and he knows that, man. I’m coming for it. So I think that’s the biggest thing that worries me the most. He’s going to do as much trash talk as he can to try and entice people to want this Garbrandt fight so that he can try to stay on top, because he knows he’s going to be able to take Garbrandt apart as well too. That guy is a little bit too flat footed for Cruz. Cruz knows what he’s doing. He’s smart, man. He gets under people’s skin, he picks the fights that he wants. I mean, he just got to fight Urijah Faber, made him look like a fool, and he knew that fight was going to go that way when he should have been fighting me instead.”
Dillashaw added that he plans to sit on the sidelines and wait for Cruz unless the UFC would create an interim belt for him to compete for.
“The only way I’m gonna take another fight is if it is for the interim title cause Cruz can’t come back,” he said. “If Cruz is healthy, that’s the only fight I want. If for some reason they’re going to give up an interim belt, then yeah, I mean, I’ll fight and I don’t care who it is. The thing is, I just want me belt back.”
