Dominick Cruz speaks with Monster Energy higher-ups

Dominick Cruz defeated Casey Kenny via Split Decision at UFC 259, and then called out Hans Molenkamp, the owner of the combat sports gear company Triumph United, and BJJ black belt under Dean Lister and Jocko Willink, who works with UFC sponsor Monster Energy. Cruz alleged that Molenakamp was using the prospect of continued Monster sponsorship money as leverage to get fighter involvement in content on the social network that cast him in a good light.

“We take any such allegations seriously and are looking into it at this time, said Monster in a statement.

Cruz spoke recently with James Lynch for Fanatics View, and said he’s in communication with Monster. Cruz also declined even to refer to Molenkamp by name, instead referencing him as “that person.”

The company has reached out to me and they were very open-minded with me at the top, said Cruz. …They reached out and they were very open-minded and they were hearing my side. I couldn’t really do that before. If you think about it, I’ve been with Monster seven-plus years and because of the person that I spoke about, if I was to talk to that person the way I did yesterday, I would have gotten a flood of text, a flood of calls like ‘What are you doing? Why are you talking to the bosses? You can’t be doing that, man, because then they start asking me questions.’ Like, why can’t I do that? So it was nice to get that call and it was nice to have that talk without hearing from that person.

That person has reached out to me but all he did was take a screenshot of our text message conversation before I did the post-fight interview. There was no words. It was just a screenshot of our conversation. So it was very passive aggressive, very his way of doing things. No communication just what does that even mean? He always pretends to be my friend to my face and then does shady things.

I’m not angry at this person.To be angry would give him a lot of power over me. There’s none of that. It’s just like, this is wrong dealings man and it’s unprofessional and it’s actually illegal in some ways, how you’re treating us, so I’m here to stand for that because if it’s happening to me, I’m positive it’s happening to other fighters…

I didn’t expect it to blow up like this. I just wanted to get – to me it’s a win-win. He’s gonna have a problem with me so let him get it out on me if he wants and charity wins. Like, legitimately. I fight people for a living. This isn’t new to me. When I fight somebody, I’m not mad at Casey Kenney, I don’t hate him. We’re fighting, this is what it is. He brags a lot about being that so he’s in the same boat now. Let’s give you the opportunity.