My thoughts on Dominick Cruz versus Conor McGregor at 145

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domin8rj

Guest
, and why do I think that Dominick Cruz will win this fight.

Now that Conor has shown that he actually has enough cardio to sort of last for five rounds, I feel that this fight could be a feasible one to make. Well, provided that he can, at the very least, maintain a similar level of cardio after the weight cut.

Now, both of them are rather similar in many ways, both are very good counter fighters, both are the current champion of their respective weight classes, and both are really, really great on the mic. I believed that this is currently the most intriguing match up(superfight?) between all of the current divisional champions, as both(currently) possess a very different, yet very beatable style for either fighter’s skill set.

In addition, this is a fight that could very well takes place in the near future, as Cruz has stated before that he would have no problems with taking on a superfight, meanwhile Conor claimed that he will have no issues with making the featherweight limit again. Given that both fighters have more or less cleaned out their respective division(subjective, I know), this could be the fight that will both generate buzz again for the lighter weight division, especially bantamweight, and not forgetting the red panty night for both fighters, and the UFC.

Disregarding any unwillingness to go down in weight again on Conor's part, and should the stars aligns, how do you think this fight would go? Well, here are my thoughts(beware, very long):

Disclaimers:

*First thing first, I am only intrigued in this match up because I am THAT confident in Cruz's skills, and not because I think that Conor is a bad fighter by any means.*

**Do keep in mind that I am not a fight specialist in any ways, and most of the stuff here, unless sourced, are all formed from my own opinions. Do leave constructive criticism for me if you disagree with any of my points, and if I recognized it, I may even add it into the op, with credits of course.**

***I am a HUGE fan of Dominick, so I may be a tad bias. Still, I will try to be as neutral as I possibly can.***

Now, without any further ado, here we go.

Official stats:


Even with only an inch of height difference, Conor enjoys a massive 6 inch reach advantage over Cruz. Yet I feel, even with the inherent disadvantage, I do believe that Cruz will still be able to avoid most of his shots, and at worst, cruised to a hard fought controversial split decision after surviving a knockdown or two. Even so, it's still worth noting that Dominick has never faced anyone of significance with a reach longer than his own, while Conor had successfully knocked out all of his UFC opponents who are shorter than him.

Techniques/Fight IQ

McGregor; The second fight that he had with Nate proves that he can’t really hang with the elites of the lightweight, bearing in mind that style makes fight and Conor style would still be relatively easy for the better wrestlers in the division to glue him to the ground. Honestly, Conor's lack of elite ground skill is common knowledge now.

That being said, Conor used to make his name with the counter punching game, however, ever since he had fell in love with his left(and after his ACL injury), he has never fought the same again. Granted he did fought with some defensive skills in the second Nate fight, however, his brilliant display of footwork here has never been seen again; Nothing truly illustrates this point better than this article here, and a little less loosely here.

In short, he has (d)evolved into a pure pressure striker, and even in his latest fight, despite the rare flashes of past brilliance, he had basically fought with the same rudimentary style. However, this fight also shows us that he can implement an effective leg kick heavy game if he wishes to, which can be rather detrimental to Cruz's game if applied properly. However, in theory, a pure pressure punching game is still easy pickings for Cruz, but Conor does have his power as his wildcard factor. However, when we look at Cruz's stats, we can see that he, like he himself has stated many times before, has been hit the least in the entire history of the UFC.

While it's true that Conor did fought a little smarter in his second fight with Nate, the core strategy of his fight, as evidence by his 2 opening rounds, is still to wait for opportunities, slip and counter with that heavy left of his(that, and his leg kicks, of course). However, he still largely threw his much vaunted movements out the window for that fight. If he can regain some of those movements, he may very well be able to catch Cruz as he is darting in, however, as of now, I feel that the only way that he can hit Cruz is either him trying to close a lot of distance really fast, before Cruz could get away, or to wait for Cruz to make a mistake and the opportunity to crack him arises. The latter more likely to happen than the former, and even so, it is still a very, very slim chance at best, as the only fighter who manages to chase Cruz down on the feet is the fastest mma fighter alive currently.

Furthermore, after Conor’s most competitive fight to date, his lack of takedown defense is still questionable at best. He did defend against a bunch of takedowns by Nate, but we all already knows that Nate isn't known for his amazing takedown offence. Cruz, on the other hand, times his takedowns perfectly, and has almost taken down every opponent of his who he wants to take down, sometimes at will. Sure, he might not be able to keep Conor down(Conor is really good at scrambling to his feet), but the many takedowns over the course of the fight will greatly benefit Cruz if the fight goes into the hand of the judges.

His cardio, while seemingly adequate, may not seems sufficient to go full 5 rounds with a cardio machine like Cruz. Still, it can be argued that it was a pacing problem, as he seems to have caught a second wind in the fourth round of that fight. If he can fight Cuz in his pace, this may not be a problem at all, but honestly, given his penchant of being the aggressor, and the fact that almost none of his previous opponents possess the kind of feints and footwork that Cruz is so well known for, I feel that Conor might be frustrated by all those movements enough to be lured into dance off, in the hopes of a better chance to land that left of his. Therefore abandoning the stalking style which he had currently adopted, playing into Cruz’s pace and gassed out within the first three rounds instead, if he doesn't land that fight ending punch while he is still fresh, of course.


Cruz; On the other end of the spectrum, we have Cruz, who has essentially dominated the bantamweight division with his superior skills and adaptability. To be honest, I truly have no idea how brilliant his game was until I watched some of his skill breakdown videos by experts of the game. He has literally been my favourite fighter ever since I saw him dominated Scott Jorgensen back in the WEC, and even after putting his fight replays on repeat for years on now, I still can’t explain to you how amazing he is on the feet. I will let this video by bjjscout do its job instead:



***For a more in depth breakdown of Cruz’s fighting style, you can check out these 2 videos(also by bjjscout), courtesy of Homeless Infant:





Now, the only person he didn't exactly took apart was T.J. Dillashaw, but it's worth noting that he was suffering from plantar fasciitis starting from the halfway point of the 4th round, and was also suffering from a little bit of ring rust, despite his frequent claims of its nonexistence. Still, even after a long 1.5 years of layoff, he managed to come back from another ACL surgery, another one on top of his other two, and still managed to make TJ looks bad at times during their bout for the title.

Now it could be true that his genetic blueprints may not be the most suited for battle, but his mind certainly is, for he is now one of, if not, THE best analyst in the game alive today. The way he that he approach the game is exceptionally intelligent, as can be seen from the above video. Now, that sort of fight IQ is especially dangerous for his opponents, as he can adapt to his opponent on the fly much faster than a normal fighter would. When he realises that his standup would lose to Demetrious’s one, he immediately switched into a more grappling oriented offence. More subtle examples are quite evident here, in Dan Hardy’s breakdown of Cruz vs Faber 3 on UFC 199. While Cruz’s performance against Faber in UFC199 is amazing, let us not forget that Faber, while still dangerous, is now just a shell of his former self.

Truth to be told, Cruz's style is most favorable against shorter(reach) fighters, the constant movement, together with his counters, which generates a natural shield around him, which can be really hard for a shorter fighter to predict and penetrate. However, I believed that his style will be almost as equally effective against taller opponents as well. Let us not forget, he doesn't just darts out of the way, he slips and rips really well too.

Against taller fighters, especially those with longer reach, I think that slipping their strikes would be Cruz's priority, instead of mostly darting out of the way. In turn, he would be countering with loads of followup flurries as his primary offence(a la his fight against TJ), before darting away or level changing for a takedown. Much more dangerous? Yes, however, a taller fighter usually means a slower fighter too, which means that he would have more time than he usually has to react and execute his counters. In addition, since he'll be spending so much time inside of his opponent's reach, his takedowns(i.e. knee tap; like I have mentioned before) would be there all day as well, and if his opponent managed to defend against it? He is still one of, if not THE best, at mixing things up inside the octagon.

In short, his style would still work very effectively against taller opponents, and yes, it could be a more dangerous fight, as one of his striking defense mechanism would be removed from his arsenal. Still, Cruz, given his cerebral approach to fighting, is still one of the best in the world at readjusting to his opponent mid-fight; He can adapt, and most probably, overcome all of his future opponents, no matter what kind of style he brings to the table.

One thing I would like to add to this is, even with all the negative emotions that he had for Faber, he still fought with a clear and tactical mind. This proves that he won't be underestimating Conor’s movement or power, unlike Aldo. Conor, in his first fight with Nate, shows that his chin is not totally uncrackable, and from the Mizugaki and the Faber fight(not forgetting the Jorgenson one as well), Cruz does have finishing power, or at the very least, enough power to crack chins. So while it won’t be huge possibility, Cruz might be able to knock Conor out if they would met in the middle of the octagon one day.

For Cruz, I believed that this matchup pretty much boils down to if his unique style of fighting would work against a bigger pressure fighter with a longer reach that him. It's plausible that he might be able to catch McGregor with a strike of his own and finish him off with a flurry, or of course, he might also try to mix it up and possibly try to take him to the ground instead. However, we have only seen him effect his ground game on a smaller opponent, so I am not too sure about his chances here. Cruz might be a real good wrestler, but against a smaller opponent before, and like Faber’s and TJ’s, McGregor's scrambling ability might proves to be too much for him, given his poor track record of holding a fighter down. Still, I feel that with Cruz’s mind, he, unlike Conor, will be able to readjust mid-fight and then proceeds to cruise to an unanimous decision.

Media

This does seems to be a bit more of a wildcard to me. Cruz does sounds more educated, his trash talks are usually spontaneous and witty. The way he triggers TJ in this interview in one of the funniest things that I have ever seen in UFC history.

Whereas Conor sounds more rehearsed, but at times he would be at a lost of what to say, especially when his opponent doesn’t responds the way he wants them too. Still at times, he can be really hilarious when he is on point.

Still, they both talk trash with the truth, and are both really entertaining to watch in a press conference. Cruz more than Conor now though actually, the latter seems to have lost some of his mic skills after the Diaz fight. So here’s hoping that he would find some of that shine back(or to prepare extensively), or this would really be a one sided beat down comes fight time.

However, I believe that whatever the outcome of this aspect of the game is, both fighters will be fighting with a clear head comes fight time, as they both has shown before. So, this is really only a battle that matters to the fans.


TL;DR? I pick Dominick Cruz to win via UD, possibly a TKO in the championship rounds.
Why? I feel that Cruz's style would be able to confuse/frustrate Conor(with his current plodding/walking style) enough for the first 2 rounds for him to avoid that big left, while gassing Conor out by the end of the 2nd/start of the 3rd round.

Cruz would have figured Conor's game out by then, and had already made the necessary readjustments to fully counter Conor's style. Meanwhile, Conor, who would be fighting at Cruz's pace the entire time, would be gassing hard and getting sloppier as the fight wears on, thus giving Cruz the UD. Cruz might also find Conor's chin in the later rounds, rocked him due to his sloppiness, and then swarmed for the TKO.

To be honest, I feel that Cruz will only starts losing when age, or his injuries, catches up to him.

What about you? What do you think?

-Update-

It seems like almost everyone who had chosen Conor to win this contest is basing it on his size(and power), and the fact that Uriah managed to drop Cruz, so Conor will definitely knocked him out. It's much easier to rebut the huge amount of similar claims together and thus, I am going to place my arguments here instead.

***So now, before you plan to blindly post the same old reason again, please take a little gander at my points hidden in the spoilers below and try to refute them instead.***

1) Uriah managed to dropped Cruz, thus Conor would knock his ass out easily!

Conor, no matter how great everyone claims he is, isn't Faber. Now, I am not trying to say that Faber is better than Conor here, but both of them possess a different skill set, which also translates into the both of them having their own unique set of attacking patterns which they lead their offence with.

In addition, Faber managing to knock Cruz down was due Cruz slipping(evident by the lack of a stable base at that point of the fight), and at no point did Cruz grapples with his own consciousness during their second fight, evident by him bouncing up immediately after the slip. Let us not forget, Cruz totally dominated(pun intended) Faber in their rubber match too, also, Conor also doesn't possess the kind of gas tank that Uriah has to hang with Cruz for long.

Last but not least, between both Cruz and Conor, the only fighter whose skills has degenerated over the years, since 2013, is Conor, meanwhile Cruz's skills, though seemingly stagnant, is on an upwards trajectory; Cruz outclassed Faber in their third fight, while Conor have already largely left his defensive footwork(he did kept his amazing head movement though) in the past.

2) Conor is way too big, he will easily win with his size!

(This whole piece of text is just copy pasted from my analysis above, it's for the lot of you who had decided that my analysis was way TL; thus you DR.)

Truth to be told, Cruz's style is most favorable against shorter(reach) fighters, the constant movement, together with his counters, which generates a natural shield around him, which can be really hard for a shorter fighter to predict and penetrate. However, I believed that his style will be almost as equally effective against taller opponents as well. Let us not forget, he doesn't just darts out of the way, he slips and rips really well too.

Against taller fighters, especially those with longer reach, I think that slipping their strikes would be Cruz's priority, instead of mostly darting out of the way. In turn, he would be countering with loads of followup flurries as his primary offence(a la his fight against TJ), before darting away or level changing for a takedown. Much more dangerous? Yes, however, a taller fighter usually means a slower fighter too, which means that he would have more time than he usually has to react and execute his counters. In addition, since he'll be spending so much time inside of his opponent's reach, his takedowns(i.e. knee tap; like I have mentioned before) would be there all day as well, and if his opponent managed to defend against it? He is still one of, if not THE best, at mixing things up inside the octagon.

In short, his style would still work very effectively against taller opponents, and yes, it could be a more dangerous fight, as one of his striking defense mechanism would be removed from his arsenal. Still, Cruz, given his cerebral approach to fighting, is still one of the best in the world at readjusting to his opponent mid-fight; He can adapt, and most probably, overcome all of his future opponents, no matter what kind of style he brings to the table(yes, even Conor).

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Note: I am by no means a Conor hater. In fact, if you would look through my previous posts, I have been giving mad props to Conor ever since he knocked Mendes out in August last year. I think that he is a really skillful fighter(with blessed power in his left hand to boot), and that the attention which he is bringing towards the sport currently are probably going to benefit all of the sport's less relevant fighters in the long run, once the money starts trickling down the ladder.

In addition to that, I also admire his courage to challenge up his weight class immediately after getting the belt(but let us not forget, he was given the chance to do so, thus he is definitely not the only champion who is willing to do so), unlike GSP, or to a lesser extent, Aldo. So therefore, my respect for him has been always there; He have the skills and is growing the sport, so what's there to dislike about him?

However, do you know what grinds my gears? Them obnoxious Conor's fans that's who, and I believed that there is no need to state the reason(s) why. It's all good though, at the very least, they are great at keeping my thread alive. Here's a shout out to all them triggered Conor's fans out there who has been keeping my thread alive for more than five days straight now. Cheers!

P.S. if anyone would be so kind as to assist me with setting up a poll, you would be greatly appreciated.
 
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im a huge fan of connor, but Cruz is just a nightmare match up for him.

hard to hit, faster than him, strong chin, great wrestler.

i think the fight goes the same way if Connor fight edgar, with connor lossing by ud
 
You guys can hate all you want on Conor, but no other champ has the balls to challenge a heavier champ. Dominick would never step up to challenge Conor.




Conor via stiff left.
 
I don't want to see Conor face a smaller guy...
 
Now that Conor has shown that he actually has enough cardio to sort of last for five rounds, I feel that this fight could be a feasible one to make. Well, provided that he can, at the very least, maintain a similar level of cardio after the weight cut.


Now, both of them are rather similar in many ways, both are very good counter fighters, both are the current champion of their respective weight classes, and both are really, really great on the mic. I believed that this is currently the most intriguing match up(superfight?) between all of the current divisional champions, as both(currently) possess a very different, yet very beatable style for either fighter’s skill set.


In addition, this is a fight that could very well take place in the near future, as Cruz has stated before that he would have no problems with taking on a superfight, meanwhile Conor claimed that he will have no issues with making the featherweight limit again. Given that both fighters have more or less cleaned out their respective division(subjective, I know), this could be the fight that will both generate buzz again for the lighter weight division, especially bantamweight, and not forgetting the red panty night for both fighters and the UFC.

Disregarding any unwillingness to go down in weight again on Conor's part, and should the stars aligns, how do you think this fight would go? Well, here are my thoughts(beware, very long):

**Do keep in mind that I am not a fight specialist in any ways, and most of the stuff here, unless sourced, are all formed from my own opinions. Do leave constructive criticism for me if you disagree with any of my points, and if I recognized it, I may even add it into the op, with credits of course.**

***Disclaimer: I am a HUGE fan of Dominick, so I may be a tad bias. Still, I will try to be as neutral as I possibly can.***

Now, without any further ado, here we go.

Official stats:


Even with only an inch of height difference, Conor have a massive 6 inch reach advantage on Dominick. Yet I feel, even with the inherent disadvantage, I believe that Cruz will still be able to avoid his shots and at worst, cruise to a hard fought split decision. Even so, it's still worth noting that Dominick has never faced anyone of significance with a reach longer than his own, while Conor had successfully knocked out all of his UFC opponents who are shorter than him.*

Techniques/Fight IQ

McGregor; The second fight that he had with Nate proves that he can’t really hang with the elites of the lightweight, bearing in mind that style makes fight and Conor style would still be relatively easy for the better wrestlers in the division to glue him to the ground. Honestly, Conor's lack of elite ground skill is common knowledge now.

That being said, Conor used to make his name with the counter punching game, however, ever since he had fell in love with his left(and after his ACL injury), he has never fought the same again. Granted he did fought with some defensive skills in the second Nate fight, however, his brilliant display of footwork here has never been seen again; Nothing truly illustrates this point better than this article here, and a little less loosely here.

In short, he has (d)evolved into a pure pressure striker, and even in his latest fight, despite the rare flashes of past brilliance, he had basically fought the same basic fight. However, this fight also shows us that he can implement an effective leg kick heavy game if he wishes to, which can be rather detrimental to Cruz's game if applied properly. However, in theory, a pure pressure punching game is still easy pickings for Cruz, but Conor does have his power as his wildcard factor. However, when we look at Cruz's stats, we can see that he, like he himself has stated many times before, has been hit the least in the entire history of the UFC.

While it's true that Conor did fought a little smarter in his second fight with Nate, the core strategy of his fight, as evidence by his 2 opening rounds, is still to wait for opportunities, slip and counter with that heavy left of his(that, and his leg kicks, of course). However, he still largely threw his much vaunted movements out the window for that fight. If he can regain some of those movements, he may very well be able to catch Cruz as he is darting in, however, as of now, I feel that the only way that he can hit Cruz is either him trying to close a lot of distance really fast, before Cruz could get away, or to wait for Cruz to make a mistake and the opportunity to crack him arises. The latter more likely to happen than the former and even so, it is still a very, very slim chance at best, as the only fighter who manages to chase Cruz down on the feet is the fastest mma fighter alive currently.

Furthermore, after Conor’s most competitive fight to date, his lack of takedown defense is still questionable at best. He did defend against a bunch of takedowns by Nate, but we all already knows that Nate isn't known for his amazing takedown offence. Cruz, in the other hand, time his takedowns perfectly, and has almost taken down every opponent of his who he wants to take down, sometimes at will. Sure, he might not be able to keep Conor down(Conor is really good at scrambling to his feet), but the many takedowns over the course of the fight will greatly benefit Cruz if the fight goes into the hand of the judges.

His cardio, while seemingly adequate, may not seems sufficient to go full 5 rounds with a cardio machine like Cruz. Still, it can be argued that it was a pacing problem, as he seems to have caught a second wind in the fourth round of that fight. If he can fight Cuzin his pace, this may not be a problem at all, but honestly, given his penchant of being the aggressor, and the fact that almost none of his previous opponents possess the kind of feints and footwork that Cruz is so well known for, I feel that Conor might be frustrated by all those movements enough to be lured into dance off, in the hopes of a better chance to land that left of his. Therefore abandoning the stalking style which he had currently adopted, playing into Cruz’s pace and gassed out within the first three rounds instead, if he doesn't land that fight ending punch while he is still fresh.

Cruz; On the other end of the spectrum, we have Cruz, who has essentially dominated the bantamweight division with his superior skills and adaptability. To be honest, I truly have no idea how brilliant his game was until I watched some of his skill breakdown videos by experts of the game. He has literally been my favourite fighter ever since I saw him dominated Scott Jorgensen back in the WEC, and even after putting his fight replays on repeat for years on now, I still can’t explain to you how amazing he is on the feet. I will let this video by bjjscout do its job instead:



*For a more in depth breakdown of Cruz’s fighting style, you can check out their 4 part video on this subject on their facebook page.

Now, the only person he didn't exactly took apart was T.J. Dillashaw, but it's worth noting that he was suffering from plantar fasciitis starting from the halfway point of the 4th round, and was also suffering from a little bit of ring rust, despite his frequent claims of its nonexistence. Still, even after a long 1.5 years of layoff, he can back after another ACL surgery on top of his other 2, and still manage to make TJ looks bad at times during their bout for the title.

Now it could be true that his genetic blueprints may not be the most suited for battle, but his mind certainly is, for he is now one of, if not, THE best analyst in the game alive today. The way he that he approach the game is exceptionally intelligent, as can be seen from the above video. Now, that sort of fight IQ is especially dangerous for his opponents, as he can adapt to his opponent on the fly much faster than a normal fighter would. When he realises that his standup would lose to Demetrious’s one, he immediately switched into a more grappling oriented offence. More subtle examples are quite evident here, in Dan Hardy’s breakdown of Cruz vs Faber 3 on UFC 199. While Cruz’s performance against Faber in UFC199 is amazing, let us not forget that Faber, while still dangerous, is now just a shell of his former self.

One thing I would like to add to this is, even with all the negative emotions that he had for Faber, he still fought with a clear and tactical mind. This proves that he won't be underestimating Conor’s movement or power, unlike Aldo. Conor, in his first fight with Nate, shows that his chin is not totally uncrackable, and from the Mizugaki and the Faber fight(not forgetting the Jorgenson one as well), Cruz does have finishing power, or at the very least, enough power to crack chins. So while it won’t be huge possibility, Cruz might be able to knock Conor out if they would met in the middle of the octagon one day.

For Cruz, I believed that this matchup pretty much boils down to if his unique style of fighting would work against a bigger pressure fighter with a longer reach that him. It's plausible that he might be able to catch McGregor with a strike of his own and finish him off with a flurry, or of course, he might also try to mix it up and possibly try to take him to the ground instead. However, we have only seen him effect his ground game on a smaller opponent, so I am not too sure about his chances here. Cruz might be a real good wrestler, but against a smaller opponent before, and like Faber’s and TJ’s, McGregor's scrambling ability might proves to be too much for him, given his poor track record of holding a fighter down. Still, I feel that with Cruz’s mind, he, unlike Conor, will be able to readjust mid-fight and then proceeds to cruise to an unanimous decision.

Media

This does seems to be a bit more of a wildcard to me. Cruz does sounds more educated, his trash talks are usually spontaneous and witty. The way he triggers TJ in this interview in one of the funniest things that I have ever seen in UFC history.

Whereas Conor sounds more rehearsed, but at times he would be at a lost of what to say, especially when his opponent doesn’t responds the way he wants them too. Still at times, he can be really hilarious when he is on point.

Still, they both talk trash with the truth, and are both really entertaining to watch in a press conference. Cruz more than Conor now though actually, the latter seems to have lost some of his mic skills after the Diaz fight. So here’s hoping that he would find some of that shine back(or to prepare extensively), or this would really be a one sided beat down comes fight time.

However, I believe that whatever the outcome of this aspect of the game is, both fighters will be fighting with a clear head comes fight time, as they both has shown before. So this is really only a battle for the fans.


TL;DR? I pick Dominick Cruz to win via UD.

What about you?

P.S. if anyone would be so kind as to assist me with setting up a poll, you would be greatly appreciated.

Completely agree, I'd kill to see this fight. I have no idea how it'd go, though I believe the odds will be stacked against Cruz. I hope the UFC wise up and make the fight soon :D
 
You guys can hate all you want on Conor, but no other champ has the balls to challenge a heavier champ. Dominick would never step up to challenge Conor.




Conor via stiff left.

Uhh pretty sure Cruz said he would love to fight Conor. He wants and deserves super fights be it against MM or McGregor.
 
im a huge fan of connor, but Cruz is just a nightmare match up for him.

hard to hit, faster than him, strong chin, great wrestler.

i think the fight goes the same way if Connor fight edgar, with connor lossing by ud
Cruz couldn't hold him down like Edgar or Mendes or Alvarez, I think. I see a striking war with Cruz landing many strikes, and Conor getting a KD or two with powerful, precise punches. Idk how it'd go. If Cruz survives, he'd probably take it, but that's a great challenege in itself.
 
If Faber can land on Cruz and knock him down. Imagine what Conor would do...
 
What incentive does Conor have to fight a points fighter not even in his division? I think Conor could knock him out, but it's just a bad match up with no real benefits.
 
Domnick would get killed by Conor.

First, Conor is way bigger than him

Second, because Cruz's footwork is terrible and he throws so many punches off balance, there is zero chance of him knocking out Conor. Less than zero. Conor would have a field day with him.

Maybe if someone had Cruz's skills but they had some size and clavicles bigger than a 13 yr old girl we could talk about that matchup.

Conor has his hands full at both 145 and 55. 145 is not full of bums anymore like the first time he ran through the division.
 
Would be a great fight. I'd give Cruz a slight advantage if he uses takedowns to help assist in winning rounds.

Both will struggle to knock each other out since they're both equipped with great footwork and defense
 
I think Cruz is too small. his frame is rail thin.
 
You guys can hate all you want on Conor, but no other champ has the balls to challenge a heavier champ. Dominick would never step up to challenge Conor.




Conor via stiff left.
Dominick has said that he wants that fight very recently. What makes you think that he wouldn't want it?

BTW Conor never challenged a heavier champ. BJ and Randy are still the only ones to do so.
 
You guys can hate all you want on Conor, but no other champ has the balls to challenge a heavier champ. Dominick would never step up to challenge Conor.

Cruz has been begging for this fight for a long time now. He knows that the con artist McTapper has nothing for him. Easy decision win for Dom
 
Cruz gets finished.

By what? Conor's slow telegraphed seen from a mile away straight left hands? By Conor's non existent grappling?

Conor won't land a significant strike in this match.
 
Conor if nothing else is a great counter puncher. I could see Cruz getting KO'd early in an Aldo-esque fashion. Cruz has nothing for Conor. He destroys midgets.
 
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