Can Cruz realistically get back to the title?

bolly32

bolly32

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After the 5 round pwnage Cody laid on him, do people still believe he can regain the belt? He's a fantastic analyst/commentator and its not like he has anything left to prove, one of the GOATs of Bantamweight.

Could easily retire and make a living as an analyst, but seems he's still set on getting back to the title. Would likely be TJ or Cody with the title, who are both very tough rematches for him.
Thoughts?
 
Sure he could. He beat TJ once, and would probably fight Cody a bit differently this time around. Again...he COULD. Not saying he will, mind you.
 
Maybe but without PEDs ... the older you get ... the easier the younger fighter takes the rematch.
 
Injuries are his biggest problem getting back to the championship, not any of the potential foes standing in its way.
 
<{cruzshake}>

but actually yes.
 
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Well he beat TJ within the last two years so he certainly stands a shot to get his belt back and he is within contention.
 
Can Cruz beat Dillashaw, a person he already beat before??

Tricky question.
 
If he comes back like he did against Mizugaki, hell yeah. He just has to come back looking better than he ever has. That's the hard part at that stage of his career.
 
Against TJ? Yes if he comes in with a good enough game. Won't be easy.
 
Dillashaw and Cody have taken Cruz' style to the next level. They have his level of technique but also have power that needs to be respected. Cruz doesn't have that and it limits what he can do, and forces him to dance around and waste energy. Which is also why he gets injured too much.
 
I'd have to see him fight again, hopefully against Jimmie Rivera. I thought TJ beat him and I'm not sure if Dom got worse, TJ got better, or is Cody is just a horrible matchup for him but he looked really bad in that fight. It's hard to do MMA math but I have a very hard time believing that Dom could ever beat Cody. Dom didn't look rusty and did his gameplan exactly how he always does using different angle and Cody was dodging his strikes like they were in slow motion. He took him down pretty easily and rocked him. Basically proved there was no road to victory for Dom. I'm sure he can get there again but not sure if he could win it. He could beat Rivera and everyone not named Cody and likely TJ at this point. Maybe he'll be like Uriah was and be able to beat everyone but the champ for a bit but Cody and TJ seemed to be far ahead of the rest of the division and I'm not sold on Rivera quite yet.
 
He beat TJ and Grabrandt had a great night but still didn’t finish him. Don’t know how you can look at that and Doms career and think he is Rich Franklin now.
 
If he had to fight his way to the title, I doubt it. However, he has been grandfathered as a perennial number 1 contender, so, he is always one fight away from becoming champion again.
 
It remains to be seen how much he has left, but I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to earn a title shot in the near future. Whether he becomes champion again is a different matter, I don't think he'll be able to defeat Cody or TJ regardless if he starts to slow down or not.
 
bolly32 said:
After the 5 round pwnage Cody laid on him, do people still believe he can regain the belt? He's a fantastic analyst/commentator and its not like he has anything left to prove, one of the GOATs of Bantamweight.

Could easily retire and make a living as an analyst, but seems he's still set on getting back to the title. Would likely be TJ or Cody with the title, who are both very tough rematches for him.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

He beat TJ.

No reason why he can't beat him again.
 
Cruz can beat any of the top guys, its not like his last match he was completely outmatched. He just needs to fight more often and stay healthy to get some momentum.
 
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