Efter att bantamviktsmästaren Dominick Cruz gett sig på utmanaren Cody Garbrandts flickvän är spänningen mellan de båda inför helgens UFC 207 större än någonsin.
Den delade huvudmatchen på UFC 207 bjuder på ett riktigt infekterat möte i form av Dominick Cruz mot Cody Garbrandt. Mästaren Cruz och stekhete utmanaren Garbrandt har redan inför mötet delat ut flera verbala smockor mot varandra och mötet väcker många frågor som huruvida Garbrandt kan göra som med alla sina tidigare motståndare och knocka ut Cruz tidigt, eller om Cruz rutin och ovanliga rörelsemönster blir ett nummer för stort för den 25-årige utmanaren.
Inför matchen som äger rum den 30 december har fulspelet på sociala medier mellan bantamviktarna nått oanade höjder. I slutet av november laddade Garbrandts flickvän upp ett gammalt foto på Instagram i form av den enda förlusten genom Cruz (22-1) karriär, matchen mot Urijah Faber på WEC 26.
”Uppenbart vem som bär byxorna i det förhållandet”
Uppladdningen ska ha varit en hämnd för en bild som Cruz tidigare laddat upp, som föreställer när Garbrandt blir brutalt knockad under sin amatörtid. Cruz varnade Garbrandts flickvän i en kommentar att inte lägga sig i ”Big boy stuff”, något Garbrandt kallade ”a bitch move”. I en intervju på The MMAHour skrattar Cruz bort ordväxlingen och menar att det är uppenbart vem som bär byxorna i förhållandet mellan de båda:
“That whole thing that happened with his girlfriend, first of all, I’ll just squash that immediately.I have no problem with his girlfriend or women in general. I love women, I respect women. I’m a mama’s boy, to be perfectly honest. By me going on there, I got tagged by her, apparently — I didn’t even really realize who she was at first until looked into it, and she tagged me in that thing. So all I said, was actually very nicely, I said, ‘don’t get involved in this stuff. Your job is to take care of your boy toy, plain and simple.’
“I don’t know how they are, how they do it, but I don’t want her involved in this stuff. And to me, it’s his job to tell her that stuff, to keep her out of it. But clearly, she probably wears the pants in the relationship because he’s a big softy, as much as he tries to pretend he’s a tough guy. She went out there and tried to defend him, but really, I just don’t want her involved in it. She shouldn’t be involved in it, because I don’t want her to get embarrassed by comments from people on the outside. You don’t get involved in this beef. This is between me and Cody only. This has nothing to do with her, and I was very kind and gentle about letting her know that.”
”Desperat att ge sig på min flickvän”
Trots flera infekterade utbyten under året mellan Cruz och Garbrandt är det ovanligt inom MMA-världen att man ger sig på varandras flickvän, och Cody Garbrandt menar att det är att gå över gränsen:
“Him going onto my girlfriend’s Instagram and doing that, it’s catty to me. It’s desperation. He’s trying to use every angle he can to get me unfocused, riled up, emotional, which is good. I like to be emotional. I feed off it. I love it. I love banter back-and-forth. But going on my girl’s site and doing that is just… I don’t know, I just lost a lot of respect for him. He can say whatever he wants about me and my family and my upbringing, being fatherless and coming from a broken family, things like that. But you going and doing that (to my girlfriend), that’s just childish. That just shows that he’s very immature and he’s just desperate. He’s a desperate man in there.
“It’s crossing a line. Whatever, but I’m not really focused on it. Like I said, my girl can hold her own. I think he needs to be focused on more than going on my girlfriend’s page and talking crap.”
”The Dominator” i sin tur varnar Garbrandt för att ta med sig alltför mycket känslor i matchen. Cruz är van vid att snacka och hoppas ha tagit sig in i Garbrandts huvud vid det här laget.
“No matter what, if somebody can spike your emotions in any way, shape, or form, they’re doing something to you. And that’s a form of control.”
”But I’m going to say that all I can do is be myself and continue to say the things that I’m saying to him, and as you see this take place, I think his reaction alone tells the story. Plain and simple. Just look at his reactions. Look at how he acts. Look at the things he says. And that should paint the picture for people out there.”
Håller ni med Garbrandt?
Omslagsfoto: Mazdak Cavian
