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News Dominick Cruz Officially Retires

Absolute legend. People who didn't see prime cruz will never understand why many still to this day consider him the best BW to have ever done it. Despite always getting injured, he still created one hell of a legacy.

Also, in a broader light, he largely popularized unorthodox stance switches/ blitzes and heavy feints in MMA. These things have become so damn common in modern MMA, but Cruz was looked at as an oddball when he was doing it on the biggest stage 15 years ago. Then people started copying him, and so on and so on.

The dude left his mark on MMA and changed the game for the better.
 
mkt said:
Yep. While Merab is now the cardio king, pre-ACL injury Cruz had great footwork and impressive cardio himself. He could stick and move for 5 rounds with very unpredictable movement and pretty good grappling to go with his striking.
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A really good case study of how to amplify the effectiveness of striking and grappling entries by attacking from favorable angles.

While I believe that TJ figured him out in R3 and essentially wrote the blueprint for how to beat him (regardless of the final decision,) Cruz's ability to position himself at angles that were extremely difficult to defend/attack should (IMO of course) be studied by every coach and upcoming fighter.
 
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Tweak896 said:
I thought he was going to retire years ago. He really didn't have much for the division now at his age. Glad he can focus on other things. Wish we had Aldo vs Cruz before he left though.
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They really need to start having conversations with those guys about letting go of dreams of title contention and fighting other legends.
Gotta believe it'd sell with the fans; and could easily (co?) headline a FN and leave everyone all happy/nostalgic/whatever...
 
jitzmonkey said:
They really need to start having conversations with those guys about letting go of dreams of title contention and fighting other legends.
Gotta believe it'd sell with the fans; and could easily (co?) headline a FN and leave everyone all happy/nostalgic/whatever...
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Agreed. The window was open for only so long for them to cross paths and UFC gave Aldo Bautista and Cruz Vera.
 
Great career even though he lost so much time. Only 10 fights in 14 years in UFC. Someone like Holland has 24 fights in half the time. He missed out on probably 15-20 fights atleast, all those paydays and chances to build his legacy even more. We might be talking about him having most title defenses if he doesnt get hurt.
 
Dude had some of the best footwork the sport had ever seen. I know he can rub people the wrong way but I think he's hilarious. What a career.
 


Cruz was the fucking man. Sucks he went out on another injury. His comeback to beat Dillashaw for the title was all time stuff. From trouncing Bowles, who was on a ridiculous run at the time, into a corner stoppage; beating Jorgenson's ass at WEC 53; and shutting out Faber in all their rematches, Cruz had a very memorable career in my eyes. One of the best to ever do it, if you didn't see the early part of his career, you missed an opportunity to see a master tactician ply his trade to great effect. Cruz will never be appreciated as he should be.
 
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Like him on the mic or not, Cruz is one of the GOATS of the division.

Guys like Dillashaw emulated his style, and Garbrandt spent his early career training specifically to beat Dom alongside all of Team Alpha Male that had already lost to Dom.
 
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