Jimmie Rivera to Dominick Cruz: Defend your spot or get out of the way

After collecting consecutive win number 20 by taking out Thomas Almeida at last night’s (Sat., July 22, 2017) UFC on FOX 25 event inside Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York (highlights), Jimmie Rivera took the opportunity to call for an interim title fight or a bout against Dominick Cruz.

And while he walked over to Cruz — who was Octagon-side calling the action -- to tell him his callout was out of respect, “El Terror” has another message during his post-fight media scrum.

“Yeah I said no disrespect, I know he likes to trash talk, and I will trash talk a bit with him, he’s a funny guy. I did interviews with him on Thursday morning, and I thought he was going to be funny, be he was really professional. At the end of the day, he is sitting on the bench right now and he thinks he deserves a title shot. Either defend your spot or get out of the way.”

And if Jimmie had his way, he and Cruz would throw down when the promotion invades Madison Square Garden once again for a pay-per-view (PPV) event on Nov. 4, 2017 in New York City.

Currently sitting at No. 4 spot on the official rankings and with 20 straight wins in his back pocket, including going undefeated inside the Octagon, Rivera definitely made a case for his shot at the strap next, or at the very least a No. 1 contender’s fight against Cruz.

Speaking of Cruz, he suffered his first loss in over eight years to current champion Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 last December, coughing up his 135-pound strap in the process. And since the promotion hasn’t shown any sign of going away from a proposed fight between Garbrandt and Dillashaw, it makes sense to book Cruz vs. Rivera, perhaps on the same card.

Right?

For play-by-play coverage and full results for UFC on FOX 25 click here.