Dominick Cruz turned a lot of heads during Wednesday’s UFC 269 media day, and it had nothing to do about his upcoming fight with Pedro Munhoz.
Instead, Cruz responded to a question about from Cageside Press about hearing his broadcast booth colleagues including Daniel Cormier calling his fights by praising UFC play-by-play man Jon Anik — and essentially burying DC for not watching enough tape.
“When it comes to DC, I usually mute it,” Cruz said, in comments that took many by surprise. “I love DC, he’s my friend, but to me, from my experience, he doesn’t do the homework. He wants to get in and out, get the job done, make his money.”
Dominick Cruz (@DominickCruz) praised his fellow commentators and discussed his fight with Pedro Munhoz at #UFC269
⬇️⬇️⬇️
WATCH: https://t.co/azGhYQ3Pcb pic.twitter.com/jbv78I7Sv7— Cageside Press (@Cagesidepress) December 8, 2021
Cruz continued to critique Cormier, who he has shared the booth with on many occasions, saying “I think he cares about us, but it’s just different. He doesn’t do the preparation from my experience. He might now, I’m hoping he watches some film this time on me so he knows what I’m doing and why he’s doing it, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that, that’s for sure.”
Cormier gave his side of the story later in the day — in a face-to-face sit down with Cruz as part of his DC Check-In show.
In an exchange that was sometimes passionate and occasionally awkward, the former UFC double champ acknowledged that he might not watch as much tape as his colleague — but that doesn’t mean he neglects it entirely.
“I will openly sit here and say I don’t watch fights to the extent of Dominick Cruz,” admitted Cormier. “But I do watch film. Every single time. Every fight, I watch you.
I called your last fight. I called your last two fights. Before those fights, I watched prior fights. I watched winning fights, I watched losing fights, I watch all the fights.”
Cormier believes that Cruz’s complaint stems from the fact that he has failed to set the record straight. “You know where the idea comes from? When you say stuff like ‘DC you don’t watch fights,’ I don’t bother to combat it. So you take it as fact, because I don’t say ‘well no I do Dominick,’ because I feel no need to really tell you why or how I prepare for my fights.”
And while admitting that this shouldn’t come between them, Cormier added that “it was wrong of you to say what you said this morning, because it was not fair of you as a colleague to do that publicly.”
Cruz later claimed that “the media did you dirty, not me,” in response to Cormier, claiming that the press “didn’t put any of the loving stuff I said, did they?”
Stories from both MMA Fighting and MMA Junkie both quoted Cruz’s comment about loving DC, though there’s no question the focus has been on the former bantamweight champion’s public rebuke of his colleague.
Cruz’s full UFC 269 media day appearance is available below.
