Dominick Cruz updates on desired charity fight with Monster’s Hans Molenkamp

Former UFC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz has provided an update on his feud with Monster Energy executive Hans Molenkamp.

Cruz returned to action on the UFC 259 undercard last weekend, picking up a decision victory over Casey Kenney. In his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, he set his sights on a charity fight with Molenkamp, claiming that the Monster executive has a habit of making unreasonable demands of fighters.

Speaking to James Lynch for Fanatics View, Cruz revealed that he’s been contacted by higher-ups at Monster about his issues with Molenkamp.

“The company has reached out to me and they were very open-minded with me at the top,” Cruz said. “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.”

Cruz has also been contacted by Molenkamp himself, but it doesn’t sound like there has been any fence-mending just yet.

“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,” Cruz explained. “There was no words. It was just a screenshot of our conversation. So it was very passive aggressive, very his way of doing things.

“He always pretends to be my friend to my face and then does shady things,” Cruz added.

At this stage, it’s unclear if Cruz will get his desired fight with Molenkamp, who outweighs him by a significant margin. Most fans and pundits consider that outcome unlikely, but the former UFC champ is holding out hope for the chance to settle his beef with the Monster exec in the cage or ring.

“I’m not angry at this person,” Cruz said. “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,” Cruz continued. “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.”

What do you make of the rift between Dominick Cruz and Hans Molenkamp?