Dominick Cruz Hints At Wanting Cody Garbrandt Next

Dominick Cruz continues to dominate the UFC’s bantamweight division coming off a lopsided unanimous decision title defense against Urijah Faber at UFC 199 this past June, and patiently awaits the next man up to challenge ‘The Dominator’ for the 135-pound throne.

One probable prospect who lies on the outskirts of the UFC’s top five bantamweight rankings, comes in the form of heavy hitting Team Alpha Male member Cody ‘No Love’ Garbrandt.

Garbrandt (9-0) comes off a dominating first round knockout win over Brazilian killer Thomas Almeida at UFC Fight Night 88, and made quite the statement en-route to a future shot at the bantamweight title.

In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Cruz commented on the possibility of a future matchup with Garbrandt, who Cruz says has been riding the coat tails of his teammate Faber:

“I like Garbrandt because one, he’s Team Alpha-Fail, and two, he runs his mouth, he’s an emotional guy, he’s got a goofy part in his hair and a ton of tattoos so he thinks he’s tough,” Cruz said.

“All of those things together make for an interesting fight. The fans get behind Cody.

I’ve gotten a lot of tweets about him, he’s got a lot of fans because he’s been riding the coattails of Urijah Faber for a while now, so what he does is he goes, ‘Hey Faber, let me train under you, I’ll get all your fans and you can just send your fans over to me and I’ll just rep the name and let you pimp me out with Torque, and I’ll let you manage me and in this I’ll get all your fans.’

He’s got the Faber fan base, he’s got his own fan base, he’s got his emotions, he’s got his whining and crying and talking about knocking people out.

Between all that, I think he can make a pretty good run at running his mouth at me.”

Cruz eluded to the fact that people want to see a fight between himself and Garbrandt because of the trail of bodies being left at the powerful hands of ‘No Love’, but says that the only thing that will happen in a contest between them two will be yet another addition to Garbrandt’s extensive concussion history:

“I think people want to see it because he’s knocking people out, and I’ll give him that,” Cruz said. “But the good thing for me about that matchup is he’s had a lot of concussions, he knows it.

He had to pull himself out (of fights). I could just add to the list of concussions he’s had and it would be a great night for me I think.”

Garbrandt didn’t waste any time to respond the Cruz’s concussion comments:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIvKDL3ATaB/

“Concussions don’t change clarity,” Garbrandt wrote. “I see right through you! Like I said, keep my belt polished. I’m going to dice that melon head up of yours. When you wake up from being unconscious, I’m going to make you wrap the belt around my waist.”

While Cruz remains adamant he is not trying to pick his own fights, he did state that he is just simply staying on the lookout for the ‘money fights’:

“I’m never the type to pick my fights,” Cruz said. “The things is this: If the UFC heard everything I said, or they heard none of it, they could just sign me up on the dotted line and give me whoever they want.

I’ve always just signed up and said, ‘OK.’ But if you’re going to give me a choice and ask me questions about the matchups I think fans and myself want to see, that’s what I’m talking about.

This isn’t me trying to pick my fights. I will take anybody they put on that dotted line and I will beat them up because I’m the best in this division and I believe that about myself.

But I’m talking about making money and that’s the matchups we’re talking about right now.”

If a bout with ‘No Love’ is what Cruz is looking for next he’ll have to wait a bit, as Garbrandt is currently scheduled to meet Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 202 in just two weeks.