If you haven't seen Cody Garbrandt storm off interview with Dominck Cruz, you really should

Nobody was caught by a hot mic when UFC bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz did a split-screen video interview with challenger Cody Garbrandt to promote their UFC 207 co-headliner.

Unlike Jon Jones’ death threat to Daniel Cormier, Garbrandt was fully aware he was live, at least until he decided to rip off his lavalier mic and attempt to get into the room next door, where Cruz resided.

In a very calculated campaign to get under Garbrandt’s skin, Cruz appeared to win his biggest victory to date. Using the challenger’s girlfriend as bait in an overtly sexist push, he goaded Garbrandt until he had the camera to himself, free to launch more verbal attacks as Garbrandt’s manager and UFC staff restrained him from tearing into the next room.

“There’s no winning or losing this – this is telling this kid the truth,” Cruz (22-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) told a producer, seated after briefly rising to welcome Garbrandt (10-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC). “He needs to control his girl and not let her get embarrassed. I don’t want my fans to attack his girl. I love women. I’m a momma’s boy. I don’t want to see the things she says to me attack her. I want to keep his girlfriend out of this, and he should have told her that. So as far as I’m concerned, I did him a favor, and I did his girlfriend a favor by kindly telling her to stay out of his big-boy business.”

Cruz, of course, was referring to an earlier flash point with Garbrandt that was touched off when the girlfriend in question, Danielle Pimsanguan, posted a video of the champ choked out by Garbrandt teammate and coach Urijah Faber in their first bout. Cruz told her to butt out, and Garbrandt stepped to her defense online.

Cruz had already floated the soundbite that Pimsanguan “wore the pants” in her relationship with Garbrandt. But this time, it was a call to action.

“He’s just angry that I’m right,” said Cruz, now a full frame on the screen. “That’s why he’s pacing. That’s why he unhooked himself. And the other reason he unhooked himself is because he has to be a self-perceived savage. A savage can’t do this interview. A savage can’t control himself during this stuff. A savage has to act crazy, has to act emotional. And he has to do this, because this is what an ‘alpha,’ a savage, does.”

Cruz used air quotes to highlight the word alpha, thus neatly framing his argument with a reference to Garbrandt’s longtime team – and Faber’s home base – at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif.

Today, the two will come face-to-face for the event’s ceremonial weigh-ins at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Conference Center, just a short way down the road from the T-Mobile Arena that hosts the pay-per-view event. This time, there won’t be a wall separating them. But it’s very likely security will, as it might be when they face off in the octagon prior to the opening bell.

Check out the must-watch video above.

And for more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.