.@Cody_Nolove to Dominick Cruz – "Keep my belt polished". https://t.co/CKGFe6tvxC
— Inside MMA (@InsideMMAaxstv) August 1, 2016
Rising UFC Bantamweight contender Cody Garbrandt has “no love” for the champion of his division, longtime Team Alpha Male rival Dominick Cruz.
During his appearance on “Inside MMA” on AXS TV recently, “No Love” Garbrandt shared his belief that Cruz, who pretended not to know who Garbrandt was when asked by the media about him after he defeated Urijah Faber at UFC 199 in the first defense of his latest reign as UFC 135-pound champion, is avoiding fighting him.
“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.”
Outside of the obvious issues the Faber-led Team Alpha Male camp has had with Cruz over the years, Garbrandt claimed that Cruz’s fighting style is one of many reasons why he isn’t a fan of him.
“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.”
Speaking of Team Alpha Male, Garbrandt also made it clear that T.J. Dillashaw, a former member of the team who left with former team head coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig, “can get it too.”
“T.J. too. He can get it too. T.J., Dominick, all those guys can get it. They talk sh*t but they know the real truth. They know I’m the lion in this division and I’m coming to eat them all.”
