UFC champion Dominick Cruz gives very balanced perspective of Conor McGregor’s conflict with the UFC

Dominick Cruz hits nails like he hits his opponents - square on the head.

The UFC bantamweight champion made an appearance on the MMA Hour on Monday and unsurprisingly, one of the biggest soap operas the sport has ever seen was one of the topics he was asked about. Cruz admitted he felt sympathetic with Conor McGregor for sticking to his guns and refusing to show up at the UFC 200 press conference, despite the fact that it cost him his place in the main event. Having lost a fight before, albeit just the one to Urijah Faber, Cruz understands McGregor's mindset of wanting to focus all his energy on preparing for fighting.  

"You can't really side with anybody. I put myself in Conor's shoes. I've lost a fight before. When you lose a fight, it puts you back to the drawing board, you've got to change something." "I get where Conor's at, he wants to put his head down, train, focus, be the best Conor he can be because of that last loss. It can shake you when you lose like that. His mind is focused on the best he can be, so I can understand that."

Prior to UFC 196, McGregor had dominated everyone he had faced in the UFC, notching up seven straight wins before Nate Diaz forced him to tap for the third time in his professional career. Cruz believes the loss made McGregor realise he wasn't unbeatable.

"He realises that he’s human now. He realises he can lose. He hit Nate with everything he had in the first round and Nate did not back up, not for one second. That's a different type of fight."

Cruz also feels that Diaz's unique personality and refusal to give in to McGregor's goading before the fight may have given McGregor a rude awakening.

"Not to mention we have never seen anybody stand up to Conor McGregor's antics. Every single person he's faced prior to Nate Diaz was broken mentally, I mean shattered mentally before they even stepped in the cage. You can't break Nate. He does not care. He fights for a different purpose. He's a real OG, for lack of a better term.”

https://twitter.com/SetantaSports/status/706360917261492224 However, Cruz also understands that McGregor has been the architect of his own demise. The Notorious has always embraced the huge spotlight and has consistently filled the media darling role the UFC have encouraged.

"On the other side of things, you do what the UFC wants, they want you to do the media. Conor is a failure of his own success. He's so good at this media that they are going to ask him to do a ton." "So it's like, kind of a mixed thing, he's getting paid a lot of money to do this stuff, a lot of money, and people want to see it, he's in high demand. So, because he's in high demand that makes him a failure of his own success, if you know what I'm saying."

So the big question is would Cruz like to be in McGregor's shoes? Hell yes, he would!

"I'll be honest, if the UFC said, 'hey Dominick, we're going to pay you 100x what you're getting paid now and you are going to make McGregor money', I'll go live with Ariel Helwani for my entire camp, eat everything you eat, do every radio interview you do, go out there and be ready to fight."

Cruz will complete a trilogy of fights against Urijah Faber in UFC 199's co-main event on June 4 with the bantamweight crown going on the line. The event is headlined by another rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman for the middleweight strap.