The UFC bantamweight champion has added his own view to the Conor McGregor/Donald Cerrone dispute that has played out in the past week.

The fallout from the duo’s row at the UFC 205 press conference the week prior saw welterweight contender Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone tell Sports Illustrated that ‘all’ the fighters in the promotion hate the Irishman.

“He’s not one of the fellas. He’s not a good dude,” Cerrone explained to the outlet.

“Just as a person, I ain’t a fan of his. I just tune him out, because behind the scenes he is like a scared little kid. He hides from us. When they line us all up they take Conor and put him in another room because he can’t be around other fighters because we don’t play that s**t.”

Nigh-on four years of injury-induced absence from the Octagon forced Dominick Cruz to take up a punditry spot with FOX Sports, which allowed him to gain far more access to his peers than ordinarily possible.

As for Cerrone’s theory on Conor McGregor’s unpopularity among the MMA community, Cruz was dismissive, but with a caveat.

“I don’t base things on opinion – I base them on fact. And I don’t have a factual basis that everyone in the UFC hates the guy,” Cruz told TMZ.

“I think what they’re upset at is the fact of how much money he’s made, how quickly and on his own, and also how the UFC favours him. But that doesn’t make me hate him. That makes me try to understand the situation and make a better situation for myself.” I choose not to dislike or hate the people that are making that money because they’re doing something different – it’s a choice.

And to me, hating somebody, being bitter at them for making more money than me, that’s only going to hold me back from doing what I want to do personally.”

While Conor McGregor’s unprecedented financial success understandably irks some of those who have slaved for longer in one of the toughest sports known to man, the lightweight title challenger has received praise for his methods and success from the likes of Ben Rothwell, and renegade-turned-Bellator star Rory MacDonald.

@TheNotoriousMMA coming out with a dvd box set "change your bum life in 3 years" … lord knows i would buy it! 😂 — Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) April 6, 2016

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