Did Cruz get old or was he figured out?

[TerraRayzing]

His style was always going to suffer once he started getting older but do you think the game figured him out and other fighters found his weakness or was it a combo of age, slowing down and injuries that led to Cruz slowing down?

 

[Royce's Gi]

Just like Fergy Tonuson, their styles were always going to suffer once they started getting older and less athletic , slower etc

 

[El Fernas]

I think its everything, fighters are getting better trained now and that combined with his own decline, also he isnt loosing left and right to chumps, he is still good imo.

 

[Barteh]

Tearing an ACL is rough enough in itself but when you combine it with his fighting style it's basically a career death sentence.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

Inactivity while aging certainly didn’t help matters. You can’t train and improve with bad continuous injuries. You can’t even train to just stay sharp in those circumstances.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

The guy spent his entire prime on the shelf...

 

[MindGamingMantis]

He got old. His entire style was based on speed. Easier to telegraph your entire style and get backed up to the cage when your speed isn't there. His speed helped him get his takedowns, as well. He was also studied for years as he got older, so it's a little bit of him being figured out. But a prime Cruz would beat everyone at the weight class, except O'Malley. If O'Malley's TDD has improved enough to help Cruz get off his nuts, I think he could have beaten Cruz.

 

[jeff7b9]

Unsustainable style.

Ran it til the wheels came off.
Which was quick with all the dance move angle change shit he did to avoid getting hit in the brain.

 

[Streeter]

his fighting style demands constant moving all fight. He aged out an the injuries made worse. Was rather BW goat when in prime and 100% no bsntamweight today beats a prime and healthy Dom..

 

[BigOlJeet]

tHe fIgHt gAmE eVoLvEd no it hasn’t, he’s just getting old.

 

[Neck&Neck]

he figured out he was old

 

[Black Blood]

His style required a lot of movement and speed. That is the sort of thing that knee injuries and age will really hamper.

 

[Rorschachxx]

I'd day both. His style required a certain type of athleticism. He got older, slower and his injuries negatively impacted his abilities.

Watch his performances against DJ or the second Faber fight for example. He looks very different in comparison. He actually got a bit of that back in his most recent run but spending so much time recovering from injuries probably stood in the way of evolving and adjusting his style further.

Still BW GOAT imo.

 

[Elvis.]

Everything contributed, but you Can’t tear the Acl in both knees and your groin and still hope to be able to change directions so dramatically like some kind of a human joystick.

 

[nostradumbass]

Hard to be the herky jerky footwork guy at 135 lbs when your knees are made of crap.

Not like he was suddenly getting dominated by everyone though. He was doing a decent job hanging with the top of a new generation of fighters. He was beating Chito through 3 rounds before the head kick.

 

[DanAndroid]

both, team alpha male had basically been training for a decade to beat cruz in particular. Cody's performance was as close to a flawless victory as we get in mma. But had cody not beaten him dom would have, of course, lost to somebody else. You can't last forever and dom's knees and ankles were already on the outs.

 

[BOTTICELLI]

injuries

 

[RonDante]

He has the worst injury record in mma history, even before the ACL tear on TUF he had broken his hands twice, once against Joe B and then against DJ

 

[Neck&Neck]

That DanceDance Revolution style doesn’t cut it against the New Breed of Dana Whites Contender series

 

[Uber_Noober]

He got figured out then Cody shared the cheat code with the world.