Did Cruz get old or was he figured out?

He mainly fought wrestler boxers during his run. He also enjoyed a height advantage against a lot of his opponents. Even sherbros ten years ago were saying he was very susceptible to the low kick or left high kick. It just took quite a long time before he fought a kicker that could have reached him. Cruz isn't a bad fighter. He might not be textbook but he made things work for him. He also had an underrated ability to take people down. I think his time is definitely over. His style requires a lot of mobility and he honestly can't maintain that movement anymore.
 
Barteh said:
Tearing an ACL is rough enough in itself but when you combine it with his fighting style it's basically a career death sentence.
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Death sentence?

He came back and won the belt with only having 1 fight in 5 years.

Then lost to Cody in a close fight (score wise), got caught up Cejudo in a fight he was working himself into.

But then he still held up enough to beat two pretty good mid-listers.

He was beating Chito until he got caught as well, but Chito catches most people.
 
I don't think he would do well against Cejudo (in Cruz's prime), Stirling, O'Malley. Stirling probably his best chance for a W. He's basically designed to beat plodding power punching wrestle-boxers.
 
His style relied on being unpredictable and diverse. He would have been a pain in to fight in any era.

That's not the type of fighter to be "figured out" or what a lot of you fucking morons like to say "EXPOSED". The reasons for his decline are well documented.
 
Everyone talks about his footwork but all I ever saw over the past several years was shit footwork. Dude basically just did a figure '8' for his circling and everyone says he some foot god. Don't really remember much of his early fights when he was in his actual prime. Prob same type of movement.
 
I think age and injuries are obvious, but how about the fact he released a video series explaining all his footwork and reactions?
 
TerraRayzing said:
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?
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Cody was in the zone that night. Nobody in the UFC was going to beat Garbrandt that evening. I was fortunate enough to be there live. Henry got a quick stoppage win, not sure what he figured out? He beat Munoz and Kenney and then got KO'd by Marlon. Marlon is a good fighter.

He is now 38 and I would say he is done now as far as title contention. Makes very little sense for him to keep fighting unless its some kind of Legend Fight like against Frankie Edgar (yes I know Frankie is retired and its just an example).
 
This should've been said 8 years ago. For the amount of injuries and time off, I believe he overachieved against father time and Injury god more than anyone else has.
At this point I believe there are more younger and talented fighters for his age.
 
Figured out. He’s still fighting exactly the same as he always tried to. His physicality is around the same but people know what to expect now so he’s getting caught more.

He could be having an Econoreem career easily but he’s not willing to change like Overeem was.
 
El Fernas said:
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.
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Bro he was out for several years due to chronic injuries. From 2011-2014 and 2014-2016 and then 2016-2020...the better part of a decade he was injured and out of competition, several surgeries. Bantamweights primes start to end around 33-34 too and he's fucking 38 now. Implying it's because he was "found out" is moronic, has the division grown in depth and talent? Yes. But its also super overrated, he was clearly better in his prime than most of the current top 10...Chito, Pedro, Yadong, Sandhagen, Simon, Font etc. And there's a real argument to be made he'd beat guys like Merab, Aljo, Cejudo, Omalley etc too. He didn't get found out, his body fell apart and he got old.
 
BigOlJeet said:
tHe fIgHt gAmE eVoLvEd no it hasn’t, he’s just getting old.
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The improvement at 135 in the past 10 years is the most blatant in the entire sport. Hes also getting old but 135 right now is wild. Aldo is unranked and he lost a competitive fight to the number 2 guy in the division and before that was coming off a 3 fight win streak.

Cruz dominated MM in 2011 but MM improved dramatically in the summer of 2013. He was not fighting the GOAT version of MM.
 
father time got him.

both tj and aljo said they emulated cruz. the other champs pay homage to the 135 goat that says enough
 
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Considering his age, his injuries and the fact that he has fought killer competition in quite possibly the deepest and best weight class in mma history he has done remarkably well in his later years.
 
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