Henry Cejudo has called for a ‘tune-up’ fight with Dominick Cruz for his next bantamweight bout.
The former UFC bantamweight champion, Cruz, has not fought since he lost the title to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207. Since then injuries have kept him away from the Octagon. Yet, he says he should be cleared to fight soon and says the UFC is interested in giving him a title shot against Henry Cejudo when he returns.
“I think UFC is pretty interested in booking us,” Dominick Cruz said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “You have to look at what’s been done. I set the most records in this division, first-ever to hold the title here. I had it for the longest time of anybody in the division and the people that I beat to get to the title, I didn’t have an easy road. And not to mention my own setbacks that I’ve had on top of that.”
If they were to fight, Dominick Cruz is confident he would regain his title and dethrone Henry Cejudo. He is not impressed with “Triple C’s” resume, as he says most of his wins are guys he has already beat.
“He’s acting like he’s beat a bunch of people that haven’t been beat before,” Cruz said. “So that’s what I didn’t really understand. However, the shirt he’s wearing in the video has my name on it, so that’s cool. A tune-up fight? Yeah, I am going to tune him up, so he got that right. He knows I’m going to tune him up, it’s that simple.”
Meanwhile, Dominick Cruz believes Henry Cejudo is simply not on his level. He knows winning an Olympic gold medal is impressive. But, he says in Cejudo’s MMA career nothing has impressed him and he still is very new and soft to the sport.
“The things that he has done in the sport, you have to tip your cap to him in the sport of wrestling,” Cruz explained. “But in the sport of fighting, he is still very green, very new and extremely soft. This man has been catered to his entire life because coaches his whole life have seen him as a super athlete.
“So they always pull him out of the masses and take care of him, coddle him, baby him. He came straight out of high school to the Olympic training center to compete in wrestling.”
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This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/2/2019.