Dominick Cruz: Faber Only Wants The Fame & That’s Why He Hasn’t Touched A Belt

With the media feud between Urijah Faber and former Team Alpha Male coach Duane Ludwig reaching a fever pitch in recent interviews, “The California Kid’s” archrival Dominick Cruz spoke up to MMA Fighting to give his take on the sticky situation.

Taking the road less traveled as compared to most, who have sided with Faber in branding “Bang” a brash and violent offender, Cruz said that the longtime veteran using his many fans and media time to sway opinions is simply Faber’s normal response when an enemy blasts him in the public:

“So what’s Faber gotta do? Naturally, he’s gotta trash Duane Ludwig. Has to. When we look all the way back to when I fought Faber, it’s the exact same situation in my opinion that he’s doing to Ludwig. It’s like a smear campaign that Faber does when he starts feeling uncomfortable with somebody. He uses his fanbase and his platform to bash somebody when they’re doing something well. That’s what he did to me.”

“The Dominator” elaborated on his opinion, noting how tough it was for him to overcome some of the things Faber said about him when they fought back in 2011:

“Everybody doesn’t know how [many] terrible things he said about me that people believe, because he’s Urijah Faber,” Cruz said. “It made things very tough for me coming up to have people believe in me because you have somebody with the platform saying the opposite.”

Then choosing to deviate from the general consensus, Cruz said he actually feels bad for Ludwig and believes he is the one in the right:

“Poor Ludwig can’t get a sentence out of his mouth if he tried,” Cruz said. “Now he’s working on an uphill battle against Faber, who not only has a platform, he’s live on TV right now, so he’s in the limelight. Faber knows all this, so what he does is he uses the limelight to his advantage. And what does Ludwig do? He’s so dumb that he just starts apologizing when Ludwig is not the one that needs to apologize. He didn’t do anything wrong and to be quite frank, I think Ludwig is on to something. I think he’s right.”

Much of the beef between Faber and “Bang” has been amplified by the fact that Faber’s close friend and teammate, UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw, whom Cruz will finally face in the main event of January 17’s UFC Fight Night 81, now splits his time training between Team Alpha Male and Ludwig’s new base in Colorado. Faber’s opposing coach on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 22 Conor McGregor recently dubbed “The Viper” a snake in the grass who cares only about himself, but in reality, Cruz said he’s only doing what Faber taught him and looking to capitalize on the wildly popular “Notorious” like Faber has.

“The Dominator” then took things to a new level by stating that is the main reason why “The California Kid” hasn’t won a belt in the UFC:

“I think T.J. is just doing what Faber taught him and that’s riding coattails,” Cruz said. “Let’s be real. Faber is one of the best in the world at doing that, figuring out where he needs to be and how he needs to weasel it. Only a guy who knows how to ride coattails is going to go on The Ultimate Fighter and not even fight anybody at the end of the show. He just wanted the TV time. He only wants the TV time, he only wants the girls and he only wants the fame. And that’s why Faber hasn’t touched a belt yet.

“This is just Faber being Faber. Just kind of like, ‘I’m famous, you’re not, ha ha ha. Everybody likes me, nobody likes you.’ That’s his game. It’s real silly and it’s real fake. To me, he’s not a real individual. You get all kinds of different things from Faber. He just wants everybody to like him. That’s all he wants. He just wants friends everywhere. He’s not gonna be real with you. He’s the kind of guy, he’ll tell you what you want to hear instead of the truth.”

With that said, Cruz wouldn’t let Ludwig off the hook that easy, stating that he also was looking to benefit from Faber’s fame to make a name for himself, so there’s no wonder the whole thing ultimately failed to work out:

“Look how Ludwig went to Alpha Male and rode their coattails, too,” Cruz said. “It’s just a bunch of guys trying to be famous and they’re all just a bunch of boneheads stacked into one gym, so it causes a bunch of drama.”