Dominick Cruz Willing to Give Urijah Faber a Title Shot

Dominick Cruz spoke with MMAjunkie about a possible title shot for Urijah Faber and more. Check out the highlights:

On giving Faber a title shot: “I like that Faber matchup because we were supposed to fight but it got put off because of my knee injury, so I feel like that could happen. It’s been 10 years of building with this guy, and I just kind of want to shut him down and keep him out of the division after this. He really isn’t the most relevant guy in the world, but he still does a pretty good fight. He brings some things to the table. He’s still got a championship mindset. I think this is just another gift for Faber. He’s been gifted his whole career with title shots, but oh well. Screw it. I’m all he’s got left, so I might as well give him one more.”

On recuperating from his fight with Dillashaw: “I wasn’t really banged up (after the fight), just my foot hurt. Of course it’s going to hurt worse at the end of the fight, especially because where we fought they didn’t let us tape stuff. If you go across the world in any sport anywhere, you can tape your ankles or your hands or your knees. Well in a fistfight, apparently you’re not allowed to, so it’s super silly. That really hurt my foot very badly because I was taping it the entire camp, so I was used to having that support. If you take away that support and have to fight at a thousand miles an hour, my foot gets hurt a little bit. I’m attacking it very aggressively in rehab, doing the things I need to do to get rid of the inflammation, and my body’s feeling strong. My knees are feeling strong. It’s just a matter of upkeep, staying strong, getting faster and rebuilding the body to get to top form because my last camp I came in off ACL injury and I had to skip a lot of portions of building my body because I had to focus on technique for the fight itself. … Now I can build all those things back up around all this time and have a full body going into this next fight.”

On his value to the UFC: “I just want to sit down and talk to those guys and see where they’re at with me. They do run the company, and I’m sure they have some reason for doing what they do in every situation. So I would like to sit down and pick their brain and see what they’re thinking about me. I know what I’m capable of, I know what I’m worthy of, I know the level I compete at, and I know what kind of a professional I am, so I just want to see what they think about it. From there I’m not asking for anything that I don’t deserve. I’m realistic with myself. I know I’m not bringing in the amount of butts in the seats as Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey, and I’m not asking for probably what they’re getting because they bring the butts to the seats. What I’m asking for is what I’m worthy of, and I want to see what they’re thinking because I know what I’m capable of doing not just in this division, but think about what I’ve done in the UFC for the past three years out. It’s not like I’ve just been sitting on my hands doing nothing. I’ve been promoting the division, I’ve been promoting the UFC, I’ve been promoting the sport, and I’ve been teaching people about the sport. Shoot, I taught T.J. Dillashaw his entire style, from the desk. I was out four years. That wasn’t even the best me (against Dillashaw). I can get better than that, and now that I’m healthy, I can prove that. If I can do that then, that only hurts me. I still made it happen, so that should have some say of what I’m capable of doing and what I’m worth. The bosses always have a different mindset, and you’ve got to hear what they have to say.”