Dominick Cruz breaks down TJ Dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz broke down the upcoming fight pitting TJ Dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen.

Cruz recently returned to the Octagon with a split decision win over Casey Kenney at UFC 259 last month. He’s one of the top contenders in the 135lbs division, and one fight that he has his eyes closely fixed on is the upcoming 135lbs bout between his rival Dillashaw and the top contender Sandhagen, which goes down on May 8. Speaking to James Lynch ahead of this big bantamweight fight, Cruz broke down the matchup between Dillashaw and Sandhagen, explaining how he thinks Dillashaw has to game plan for him to get the win.

“Somebody asked me in another interview, who’s the hardest guys to gameplan before the fight? And it’s the one that had the layoff, and he’s had a long layoff. He’s been out two-plus years. He got double shoulder surgery, he got a complete revamp of his body, completely rested. So who knows how he’ll show up? I will assume he will show up a lot healthier and a lot better than before, to be honest, because of the two-year layoff. Especially once you repair your shoulders,” Dominick Cruz said.

“I know as a champion I went into a lot of fights with injuries. This fight (with Casey Kenny) was the first fight I went into in a long time with no dings, nothing was hurting, and it felt very good to fight that way. So if he’s going into the fight like that then he has a good chance against Sandhagen. But he’s going to have to mix in his takedowns and wrestling. Because I think if that fight stays standing, then I think Sandhagen has a very good chance of finishing it. You don’t have to finish every takedown, but you’ve got to at least mix it. You’ve got to create some sort of options there because Sandhagen has been looking really sharp.”

Do you agree with Dominick Cruz about how the TJ Dillashaw vs. Cory Sandhagen fight might play out?