Having seen a back injury prevent Cody Garbrandt from defending his bantamweight title against TJ Dillashaw at UFC 213, Dominick Cruz is preparing for the unexpected
Garbrandt beat Cruz in convincing style last year to take the 135-pound strap back to Team Alpha Male and engaged in a heated war of words prior to their bout at UFC 207.
Should the champion fail to make the date at Madison Square Garden in November, Cruz will gladly step in. The same applies to the man who Cruz beat to take his title back in 2015, TJ Dillashaw:
“I’m always training, I’ve been training this whole time,” Cruz said on a recent episode of UFC Unfiltered (h/t MMAMania). “For me, the title shot is important. I’ve earned that shot, I held the belt longer than anyone in this division and I help build the division.”
“I gave Cody that shot when I could’ve fought T.J. again. I have been doing this to build the division. I brought another guy up and fought him for the title because I wanted another guy in the mix. We needed that for the division. If any one of these guys gets hurt I would like to slide in and challenge for the title, 100-percent.”
Cruz doubts that the champ or Dillashaw will fail to make it this time around:
“I don’t think either one of these two guys are going to pull out of that card, because of what I said about the pay-per-view [percentages] and all that stuff. I think they will be there. And I hope they are so they can go out and get that fight done, I think it will be a fun fight regardless.”
