PhotoCred: Instagram - @missjessyjess
Jessica-Rose Clark: Dominick Cruz ‘put all of us on the chopping block’ with Monster callout
Jessica-Rose Clark wasn’t too fond of Dominick Cruz‘s comments about Monster Energy’s Hans Molenkamp earlier this year.
At UFC 259 in March, Cruz defeated Casey Kenney via split decision before taking to the mic to call out Monster Energy representative Hans Molenkamp. Challenging him to a charity fight, Cruz alleged that Molenkamp had been “holding fighters hostage” in exchange for social media clout.
Hans Molenkamp has taken photos with many UFC stars including Conor McGregor.
“His whole argument was that Hans is a clout chaser but Hans isn’t using Dom’s name for f*cking anything,” Jessica-Rose Clark told My MMA News. “Dom’s the one who brought him up in that interview and was all, ‘Ah, I’ll still fight him for charity.’ Who’s clout chasing now, Dominick Cruz?
“I don’t know, that whole thing pissed me off because one, I’ve been friends with Hans since before I was ever on the Monster team. He was one of the very first friends I made when I moved to the U.S. His kids call me ‘Auntie Jessy,’ I’m super close with his wife. He’s such a f*cking great man and he goes out of his way to help everyone that he can. And for Dom to turn around and do that because I don’t know what his reason was, he was still contracted by Monster, he was still getting paid by them every month. I don’t know what created that.”
While several stories from athletes and those around Molenkamp came to light following the callout, Clark wasn’t the only one to stand up for her friend as did former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Ultimately, Cruz put more than just himself in a bad spot with Monster according to the Australian.
“He put all of us on the chopping block,” Clark said. “I nearly lost my job, we all almost lost our jobs because of him. Because he was f*cking selfish. I’m glad that they’ve worked stuff out because I don’t care about Dominick Cruz at all. But I’m glad for Hans’ sake that they’ve worked it out because it put so much stress on him because him and Dom have been friends for years. That was heartbreaking to have someone that you thought was a friend call you out publicly like that when you hadn’t done anything to them. That was f*cked up, that was a dick move.
“I’m glad that it’s kind of washed away now because I don’t know that many people understand how much damage Dominick did, not just to Hans but to all of us, every single person on the Monster team. He jeopardized all of our jobs and I’ll forever be angry at him about that.”
Jessica-Rose Clark returns this Saturday night at UFC Vegas 41 when she faces off in a bantamweight clash with Joselyne Edwards. It will be “Jessy Jess'” first fight in over a year following a stellar third-round TKO performance over Sarah Alpar that led to a hiatus due to a torn ACL.
“She’s good,” Clark said of Edwards. “She has a good record, she has a lot of good wins. She’s got good striking, she’s got good boxing, you know? And she’s big. This is what I’ve been saying, I’ve been calling myself a baby bantamweight all the time because I’m little. But I feel like she’s my first real bantamweight test in the UFC.”
