Jon Anik weighs in on the rift between fellow UFC commentators Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz

Jon Anik has weighed in on the recent rift between fellow UFC commentators Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz.

Cruz (23-3 MMA), who is set to return to the Octagon at UFC 269 against Pedro Munhoz (19-6 MMA), took a shot at his broadcast partner in Cormier during Thursday’s media day session.

“I watch Anik do so much homework leading up to a fight. People have no idea how much homework he has to do to be prepared for that, and the most kudos goes to him. He leads us in the broadcast with how he talks,” Cruz said at media day. “When it comes to Daniel Cormier, I usually mute it. 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.”

Cormier later confronted Cruz about his controversial remarks during a exclusive interview on his YouTube channel (see that below).

Most recently, fellow UFC commentator Jon Anik was asked to share his thoughts on the Daniel Cormier – Dominick Cruz rift during a interview with MMAJunkie.

“It went from entertaining I think to start  – to being a little disappointing,” Anik said. “I knew inevitably I was going to be asked about it. They all prepare differently, so I’m not going to engage too much as far as that’s concerned. Dominick and I have spent a lot of time together, so he has seen me intimately prepare for these shows, so I appreciate he had some kind things to say. But any time the broadcast teams are taking any shine away from the athletes that are competing, this is not an ideal situation. The fact that Dana White is being asked about the broadcasters and that friction at the press conference, we’re talking about this instead of Geoff Neal and Santiago Ponzinibbio as our kicker to the interview. So I don’t like when we or any broadcasters take any shine away from our athletes.”

Ultimately Jon Anik just hopes that Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz can remain friends and get past this.

“Hopefully there’s lessons to learn all around,” Anik said. “Dom don’t give a rip what people think. He shoots from the hip. He’s one of my best friends in the world and he’s insulted me to my face and he’s been right. He’s not afraid to tell it how it is. There are many instances in the past where Dominick has shot from the hip and it doesn’t seem to grab many headlines. Hopefully, they can smooth things over in terms of their personal relationship, but Dominick Cruz is not going to back down I can tell you that.”