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Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has opened up on his decision to retire.
‘The Dominator’ is widely considered one of the greatest bantamweights in MMA history, and for good reason. Sporting a 24-4 record, Dominick Cruz dominated the UFC 135-pound division for years. Despite dealing with a variety of injuries, he managed to hand fellow legends such as Urijah Faber, T.J. Dillashaw, and Demetrious Johnson losses.
However, after a knockout loss to Marlon Vera in August 2022, Dominick Cruz took a step back from fighting. After nearly three years away from the cage, the former champions signed a deal to face Rob Font at UFC Seattle in February. Ahead of the bout, Cruz admitted that it would likely be his last.
Sadly, Dominick Cruz didn’t even get to make one final walk to the cage. Just weeks out from the bout, the former UFC champion revealed a devastating shoulder injury forced him out. Not only that, the 39-year-old stated that due to the injury, he would never be able to compete again.
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Dominick Cruz opens up on injury which forced premature UFC retirement
Appearing on a recent edition of the Anik & Florian podcast, Dominick Cruz opened up on his decision to retire. There, the former UFC champion admitted that the injury he suffered is far more painful than anything he’s dealt with before. His shoulder had dislocated previously, and despite taking extra precautions, he still ended up getting injured. This time around, however, there were major complications.
“After [rehabbing my shoulder], I booked the fight and then they offered me Rob Font.” Dominick Cruz stated on the podcast. “I was like, ‘I should just take it’. I’m not going to get in better shape, I feel amazing still now. I felt amazing before the second dislocation and that’s why I took the fight… It was a basic thing I’ve done a million times. You’re on your back from half guard, you get up on your elbow, and then you reach to a single and you use your elbow to get up… It pretty much shot out the back the second I put my elbow down and went to pull in that single leg… That was excruciating pain.”
He continued, “…When they went to slide it in, it was sitting very particularly. So they had to do an X-ray to see how to pull it back in. What direction to yank your arm when they reset it, because if you pinch certain nerves then it can shut the whole arm off and it’s just really damaging. So I’m in the hospital for an hour and 15 minutes, my arm starts turning blue and when I see my fingers turning blue and just things being weird and the pain was excruciating, it just gave a different perspective for me… This was enough pain to teach me something and get me to kind of say, okay.”
What do you make of these comments from the ex-UFC champion? What’s your favorite memory of Dominick Cruz?
