Dominick Cruz slams ‘weak-minded’ TJ Dillashaw for handling of Henry Cejudo loss

UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw did not agree with his stoppage loss to UFC flyweight champ Henry Cejudo. Ever since the loss, he’s been adamant that the referee intervened too early, and that he should have been given more time recover. Former champ Dominick Cruz, one of Dillashaw’s chief rivals, isn’t impressed with these complaints.

“I look at this and say, is this how insignificantly stupid you are?” Cruz said on the the UFC Unfiltered podcast (transcript via MMA Fighting). “To think you complaining and whining about a stoppage is gonna change anything? You just sound like a moron. Like, nothing is gonna change. You might as well just accept what just happened to you and try to grab a hold of your balls instead of run from them and admit the loss. Because you just got knocked out by a [125er]. And you dropped down to a weight class that dried out your brain and you might not have been as durable as you are at 135.”

Dominick Cruz also criticized TJ Dillashaw for ever attempting to drop down to the flyweight division.

“There’s a reason why I never cut down to 125 and it’s not because I couldn’t make it,” Cruz said. “It’s because I knew at that level your brain, with the weight that I cut, it’s dried out and you’re not as durable. A huge part of cutting weight and fighting and coming back from the weight cut is how you do the cut. And the reason why that’s important is it helps your durability. And you have to be durable in these fights, because no matter who you are, you’re getting punched. Everybody gets punched. It’s just a matter of if it puts your lights out or not.

“Now, that’s what he’s saying. ‘Well, he didn’t put my lights out, it should have never have been stopped.’ OK, but did it get stopped? Yes. Why? Because the ref thought he had to save your life. You got kicked in the face, you got an overhand right and you were getting pounded from the top position. The guy was just trying to keep your safe, TJ. So, in the end, maybe don’t put yourself in that position by cutting so much weight.”

Given the controversy that surrounded TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo’s first fight, Dominick Cruz suspects we’ll see another fight between them — this time at bantamweight.

“I’m sure that fight [between Dillashaw and Cejudo] is gonna happen,”Cruz said. “But it’s a sad display for me for the 135-pound division. It just showed what a weak-minded champion we have, in my personal opinion, to not admit defeat when it happens and just make a bunch of sorry excuses. It’s sad to me. He should just take it and move on, because he’s still got the belt. He’s still going to fight. He’s gonna get another shot. He’s not injured, he’s not hurt. So it’s like, what kind of example are you leaving for yourself and everybody else just crying and whining about nothing that can be changed?”

What do you think of these comments from Dominick Cruz?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/22/2019.