Dominick Cruz, Dana White talk Hans Molenkamp callout

Every UFC card is going to have one or more moments that make you gasp, “HOLY F***ING S***!!?!.” And too it’s highly likely there will be a moment that makes you think, “what tha f***??!?” At UFC 259 on Saturday, the latter happened after Dominick Cruz defeated Casey Kenny via Split Decision, his first win since UFC 199 on June 4, 2016. In his post-fight interview with commentator Joe Rogan, Cruz didn’t call for a title or #1 contender shot, instead he called out Hans Molenkamp.

It’s been a long amazing journey up to this point, said Cruz to a baffled Joe Rogan, who shut the conversation down in short order. I would love to get a charity fight lined up, in a day and age where a lot of fake people can take pictures next to Lamborghinis. A guy named Hans Molenkamp has been holding a lot of fighters hostage, saying he’s an awesome pro fighter and picking his fights. How about we do something for charity? He’s got a 100-pound advantage. I think we can put on a show with a lot of money.

The hardcore MMA fanbase recognized Molenkamp as the owner of the combat sports gear company Triumph United and BJJ black belt under Dean Lister and Jocko Willink, who runs the combat sports division at UFC sponsor Monster Energy, and wondered why Cruz was calling him out. And casual fans really wondered why Cruz was calling out Johny Cougar’s long-lost German brother.

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At the post-fight media conference, Cruz alleged that Molenakamp was using Monster sponsorship money in order to get fighter involvement in content on the social network that cast him in a good light.

He’ll probably love that he’s getting plugged like this, to be honest, so it’s actually a benefit for him, so he should thank me, said Cruz. It was just that we’re in a day and age where you can—If I take a picture with Conor McGregor like this, now I’m Conor McGregor’s friend, right? If I take a picture with Dominick Cruz and have him commenting on my page, we’re in a day and age where that looks like we’re friends. Well, I may be your friend, but you can’t use me in order to get clout as they put it. I’m not here to be used.

Look at my face, look at my body, I get beat to death for a living. So when you try to force me and you text me if I don’t comment on your page, if I don’t give you an interview, that you’re going to take what pays my bills? What are we doing? Monster sponsors me, not you. This was a callout because he calls himself a pro fighter. He’s got a hundred pounds weight on me and I’m like, we can make this a win-win situation. Let’s do a charity event, Monster picks the charity, and then we scrap it out. He says he’s got three pro fights, let’s prove it, put your money where your mouth is. You’ve got a little, tiny guy calling you out for charity, not for anything else. Why not?

It’s forced to give him clout, forced to hype him up if I want to make money. Monster pays me, so the equivalent would be does the UFC pay me? Yes. Does Dana White own the UFC? Yes. So if Dana White says, ‘Hey, go on my page, and like my page’—Dana White has gone on this man’s page and said something. They ignored it like it didn’t happen. So I’m not the first one to say something, Dana’s also said something, maybe ask him about it.

Dana, maybe you’ll do [put on the charity fight]. Maybe you can set up this charity event. He calls himself a pro fighter, Hans, let’s go.

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This is what Cruz was referencing in regards to White’s comments on Molenkamp:

https://twitter.com/thefightbubble/status/1368397292307365891

White too was asked about it at the post-fight media conference.

It’s all weird, White said. Is Hans a goofy dude? Yeah, he’s a very goofy dude. But they’re a sponsor. These guys are a sponsor, they’re great sponsors, they pay these guys a lot of money. Monster is one of these companies that really, really takes care of people and it’s their company. They can sponsor whoever they want, they can run their business however they want. This isn’t like a work situation where you’re working for somebody and you’re not happy about the way you’re being treated. This is a sponsorship deal. These guys can spend their money and run their company however they want to and nobody’s guaranteed money from a sponsor. It’s a privilege to get money from a sponsor. So if you don’t like the way they do business, don’t do business with them.

They’ve been good to us. They’ve been good to the sport and they’ve definitely been good to the fighters. I get it, he doesn’t like him and some guys have a problem with him. It’s easy to figure that one out, but Monster as a company, they’ve been solid, they couldn’t be any better.