Former MMA fighter, kickboxer, and current MMA striking coach Duane Ludwig told Bloody Elbow on Monday that Dominick Cruz’s sustained barrage of verbal attacks on his star pupil T.J. Dillashaw are, “Just another aspect of the entertainment industry.”
“It’s something that entertainers do,” said Ludwig. “Rather than fighters and martial artists.”
Ludwig continued, “[Cruz] prefers being in front of the camera talking instead of doing, he’s just used to that routine. He’s not a martial artist, he’s a combative athlete like a handful of today’s MMA fighters. I don’t consider them martial artists, but combative athletes, they’re lacking discipline… well, maybe not discipline, respect, I’ll say that.”
When asked who else Ludwig considered ‘combative athletes’, Ludwig stated he prefer to, “Leave it at that.”
Among many other things, Cruz has publicly stated that he believes Dillashaw is a ‘wannabe‘ utilizing a style he helped originate within modern MMA. Ludwig takes exception to this. On comparing both men’s approaches in the cage he said, “It’s not a similar style though, because they both switch their stances, Cruz does it to be defensive, and run around into positions so he can time takedowns, and T.J. switches stances so he can attack and can do whatever he needs to do when we need to do it. So, it’s a bit of a different rhythm. Cruz is not fluid in both stances.”
Ludwig then highlighted what he thought was the key difference between his student and the former champ.
“One important aspect which people haven’t caught onto yet is [Dillashaw] being able to fight in both stances and the transitions in between,” He said. “He’s a modern day ninja, there is no one at T.J.’s level. Period.”
Despite not considering Cruz a martial artist, Ludwig is relishing the opportunity to formulate a gameplan against him. “I enjoy it, for sure, because we haven’t faced someone who moves around like Cruz. I appreciate the challenge. It’s gonna be fun.”
When asked if part of the strategy would be targeting Cruz’s oft injured knee, Ludwig stated it was “fair game”, but also made it clear that attacking the knee was not something he and Dillashaw had focused on in training.
Along with Dillashaw, Ludwig himself has been targeted by Cruz’s words. ‘Bang’s’ response: “I prefer for people to be respectful, I feel like he’s just another one of those guys that lacks respect, you know, you give respect to get respect, you don’t give it, you don’t get it so… there you go.”