The list of fighters who are willing to step into the octagon to fight UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor is a pretty big list, and now you can add current UFC bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz.
Cruz, who was doing analyst work on Fox Sports 1 for UFC 204, was asked about a potential fight with the featherweight champion.
"McGregor is picking his own fights, so it's not up to me," Cruz said. "That's not up to the UFC--it's up to McGregor. I know just as much as McGregor about this sport and it seems the only way you can beat McGregor is with your mind. I know I can do that. I can also technically beat him. I know at 145 pounds I'm extremely hard to deal with. I can beat McGregor--absolutely. I'd love to fight him at 145 pounds or 155 pounds if he wins the title. I don't care. I'm the champion and my style is built for moving up in weight class because I don't take damage."
Cruz also talked about the speculation that the majority of fighters in the UFC hate McGregor, something that welterweight Donald Cerrone spoke about recently.
"I don't have it on a factual basis that everybody hates the guy; I think they are just upset at how much money he made and how quickly he made it on his own," Cruz said. "The UFC kind of favors him in situations, but that doesn't make me hate him, that just makes me try to understand the situation and make that situation better for myself. You got to play the cards the way they are given and I wasn't given the same cards as him, so I have to use what I've been given to grow with that. You shouldn't model yourself after him, you should be yourself and just understand that you can't choose who goes viral or who becomes a superstar--that's out of our control," he continued. "That's a mixture of the promoter, the company or the business or the UFC pushing you while you push your own brand at the same time. You have to have that viral personality and [McGregor] happens to have that. He's got the accent; he's got a certain personality that he portrays himself as on camera and that's fine--that's how it's working for him. It doesn't mean everyone needs to do that."
Despite the fact that Cruz has fought as low as 135 pounds, and McGregor has fought as high as 170, they've both competed at lightweight.
