Cruz: Why Garbrandt got title shot over ‘whiny crybaby’ Dillashaw

UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz spoke recently with Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie and explained why Cody Garbrandt was selected over T.J. Dillashaw as his next challenger. The pair fight at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cruz had vacated his belt due to injury and won it back beating Dillashaw at UFC Fight Night 81 in January. However, he won via split decision, and Dillashaw has been adamant that a rematch is in order. The first title defense went to Urijah Faber, while Dillashaw avenged a loss to Raphael Assuncao at UFC 200 in July. However, a lively feud then developed between Cruz and the undefeated Garbrandt and that blossomed into a title fight.

Dillashaw was now twice not impressed and is booked for a fight at UFC 207 with John Lineker. A win for Dillashaw would seem to guarantee a title shot. Cruz has a theory about why the gold is now twice out of reach for Dillashaw.

The new owners of the UFC, they’re a management company, they deal with high, elite-level stars, and if you really look at the background of the people who just spent $4.2 billion on the UFC, they’re going to make specific decisions according to making the business better, said Cruz. Dillashaw, in my opinion, doesn’t make the business better. Cody, with the emotional wreck that he is, people can grasp to that because they see the emotion in him, they see what he’s thinking, they see what he’s feeling. He lets it all out. Dillashaw is fake. Everything Dillashaw does is a lie. He can’t let his true self out.

If he did let his true self out I think he would be much more interesting – but Dillashaw holds back. You saw it in our first fight, in our first interview, he holds back his emotion. Now, after I punked him, and then I beat him and took away his interim title and made him realize he never was the champion, he started talking. You’re hearing more talking out of T.J. Dillashaw right now than you ever heard not only when he was the interim champion, but ever in his entire career. You’re hearing more of Dillashaw now. I helped Dillashaw. I made Dillashaw more relevant. I made Dillashaw have a voice and I taught Dillashaw how to come out of his own shell. He can hate me for that all he wants, but this guy is talking more than ever.

[Garbrandt] is run by Faber and he’s good at talking toward title shots. The guy’s got eight title shots he’s never completed, so any guy with that background in media and understanding how to get a title fight, is going to help Cody get that title fight, and that’s what he did. He coached Cody into getting a position by doing what the big executives of the UFC want to see. T.J. Dillashaw left that coaching and he went to hang out with Ludwig to sell peanut butter and talk about being a martial artist when that’s nothing that he’s actually trying to do. He’s actually just wanting a big fight, but he’s unwilling to do what it takes. He keeps his mouth shut but he’s finally just starting to open it up now. Now we’re starting to see who T.J. Dillashaw really is. He’s a whiny little crybaby when he doesn’t get his way. That’s basically about it.