So, Dominick Cruz isn’t happy with the way his fight against Henry Cejudo ended.
The former UFC Bantamweight Champion entered the octagon for the first time in four years and ended up going home empty handed following his second-round loss to Henry Cejudo. Cruz got rocked by a knee strike, and then was blasted by multiple punches until the referee ultimately decided that it was enough for a TKO.
Some fans and critics have questioned whether the referee stopped the fight too early and it appears that Cruz himself is convinced that the official screwed him out of an opportunity to win back the UFC Bantamweight title. Following his match-up against Cejudo, the California native made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the stoppage during his interview with Joe Rogan:
“I’m not sure,” Cruz told Joe Rogan immediately after the fight. “I could have done the same thing Henry’s doing if I wanted to, you know? I wanted to finish this fight. I had never been knocked out before. I don’t feel that I was knocked out tonight.
“I feel like I was still in this fight but if the ref stopped it, the ref stopped it. I specifically made sure and told him that I didn’t agree with the stoppage, which a lot of fighters do but my argument is if I’m standing up to my feet how am I knocked out? You can’t be standing up and be knocked out at the same time.”
However, Cruz has taken it one step further by now claiming that referee Keith Peterson smelled like alcohol and cigarettes:
“You’re rocked. Sometimes you get hit. I’ve been in those positions many, many times though,” Cruz told the UFC’s Megan Olivi. “I had seconds left in the round and I just think that sometimes I wish there was a way to keep these refs a little more responsible sometimes.
“The guy smelled like alcohol and cigarettes so who knows what he was doing?”
Cruz never backs down from his claim when Megan questioned the former 135-pound champ on whether Keith Robinson truly smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. As far as Cruz is concerned, the referee is clearly to blame for his loss against Henry Cejudo, not the fact that he was unresponsive to the Bantamweight Champ's punches on the ground:
“I wish they drug tested them,” Cruz said about the referees. “I know Herb Dean is good. He’s one of the best refs. Immediately when I saw that ref, I was like man is there a way to veto a ref and get a new one? I wonder that. As fighters do we have that choice? I wish we did.”