Dominick Cruz took a pot-shot at his fellow UFC color commentator Daniel Cormier during a Q&A with the press yesterday and later that same day the double-champ DC made sure to bring it up during a face-to-face sit down.
“When it comes to ‘DC,’ I usually mute it,” Cruz told reporters at the UFC 269 media day. “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, and 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 I’m doing it, but I’m not gonna hold my breath on that, that’s for sure.”
It wasn’t long before DC caught wind of the criticism from his colleague and while he appeared willing to laugh it off when they met for an interview on his YouTube channel, he did tell Cruz face-to-face that it was a low blow.
“The things we talk about privately, we aren’t supposed to say in public,” Cormier said to Cruz. “That’s what you just did. That’s our rule. You say so many things privately that I would never say publicly. You and I say things privately that we would never say publicly.”
However, Cruz was in no mood to apologize and instead looked to justify his earlier comments, while also pointing out that he had told reporters that he also considered him to be ‘like a brother’.
“I held you accountable,” Cruz responded. “Accountability is love, D.C. Accountability is love. It’s love. It’s a generalization.
“I’m not allowed to say what I feel? I’m wrong?”
Cormier went on to tell him that he does in fact do his due diligence before broadcasts, including watching past bouts of the fighters on the card among other things.
“Dominick, there’s a different way to prepare for a fight than watching film,” Cormier said. “It’s not singular. I do watch. I watch film every single time. Do I watch fights to the extent that you watch fights? No. I will openly sit here and say I don’t watch fights to the extent that Dominick Cruz watches. I do watch film. Every single time.
“I watch every one of your fights. I’ve called your last fights. I’ve called your last two fights. But before those fights, I watched prior fights. I watch winning fights. I watch losing fights. I watch all the fights.”
DC did however admit that in the early days of his stint as a UFC commentator he used to pay someone to take notes for him prior to the event, but stressed that he no longer does that.
Fellow color commentator Michael Bisping also joined the fray and lightened the mood while attempting to mediate between the two, and Cruz even gave Cormier an opportunity to get his own back by asking for critique on his own commentary, to which DC replied that he can be “a little dry” at times.
However, DC did also make sure to stress again to Cruz that he felt he should have kept his criticism of his work on the mic to himself.
“Can I tell you something right now as a friend? It was wrong of you to say what you said this morning,” Cormier told him. “Because that was not fair of you as a colleague to do that publicly. You should tell me.
Watch the full conversation between them below.
