News Dominick Cruz Officially Retires

[Oscar Madison]

Thought he'd never leave.

At least he's still in the UFC family and has some place to go during the day.

 

[NextGen]

The GOAT bantamweight in my books. Although prime Cejudo has a case too.

Congrats on a great career.

 

[AL-Tappo McSnappo]

Retiring in an injury w/o a fight. :/

Only Aldo & Jones left from Famous 2012-13 champ crew.
Which both may retire this year.

Best BW Of All Time? Thoughts?

happy retirement

 

[JoeganMoldberg]

What a blue balls of a career. Always depressing to think what he could've done without half of the injuries he suffered, but im glad i was around in his prime anyways.

That movement was something

I think the way he trained is what caused the injuries. The same intense training that helped him hone that unique movement is what made him so injury prone.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

No Aldo fight.

If he was training for the Aldo fight I would be quite upset. Been hoping that matchup would happen for 10 years.

But now, not even knowing or caring who he was scheduled to fight, my reaction to his retirement is...



He should have retired long ago.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Well wishes for Dom. The way things played out for his career leave a lot of questions and what ifs, but what we received has still left many believing he's among the best 135ers the sport has seen, if not the greatest. Hope he enjoys sun rays and surfing when he's not in the booth.

 

[Papasmurf45619]

Peace out champ

 

[Kraysla]

Man, tough way to go out. Dom is the best BW. Saw him fight once and he was awesome. Sucks that he had so many injuries, he could have accomplished so much more. He deserves a proper send off. Included a pic i took when he won the belt back.

 

[krelianx]

Amazing fighter. In his prime he was damn near untouchable. Considering how much he had to deal with serious injuries, and even at older age, he still performed admirably against present day contenders in Chito and Munhoz.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Can’t believe he stuck around as long as he did

His style in his prime was def goat shit, always was a fan since he fought Faber the first time in WEC

 

[Rataria]

He'll be back in 2-3 years. He let go, and will now begin reap the rewards of "letting go", detaching from outcome, enjoying the journey
.

 

[Hymen Crusher]

Enjoy watching cant stand hearing him

 

[jeff7b9]

That style and those movements are what made him a puzzle that nobody could solve for quite awhile. They're also what likely led to the amount of injuries he had.

One of the more unique fight styles ever. Was always interesting to watch him operate in the cage.

Agree. He ran it til the wheel came off. But in his case the wheels came off pretty quick because he was dance fighting and shuckin and jiving every which way like a tweaker on a meth binge

It was fun to watch though, and back before his fight with TJ I did a film study on him which was fascinating and lead me down a rabbit hole of great bits of boxing history. Because of Cruz I found out about Willie Pep and his v step technique, which I then began to spot in Mike Tyson highlights and Vasily Lomachencko fights.

In my opinion Dom still has the best footwork in MMA history. Some of the ugliest punches I have ever seen, but pretty amazing and intelligent footwork.

 

[mkt]

What a blue balls of a career. Always depressing to think what he could've done without half of the injuries he suffered, but im glad i was around in his prime anyways.

That movement was something

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.

 

[jitzmonkey]

Probably for the best all things considered.
He still seems quite lucid.
No point in taking more unnecessary damage.

 

[Laheys'Liquorland]

Should've gave us the Edgar fight instead of Dom thinking he can still win the belt.

 

[mkt]

Tragic to say, but really kind of the expected type ending of his career. One of the most injury plagued careers we've ever seen.

Cain Velasquez is the other fighter who comes to mind. They ironically fought in pretty much the same era. Both were plagued with injuries during their primes.

 

[Mmmmmmma1234]

Was never the biggest Dom fan and even less of his commentary.
Still he's a great champion and goat bw and I feel bad he couldn't get a big send-off fighting in the cage. So much of his prime was taken by injury too.

 

[Gamer007]

Legend, people tend to ignore how incredibly tough Dom is/was.


Hopefully he made enough money over the years to live comfortably.

 

[Tweak896]

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.