Naw Cruz isn’t the best bantamweight but he does have great wins and a peculiar style, while being very knowledgeable in all aspects of the sport, he just doesn’t have the finishes and never really put a beat down on anyone. Most of his fights were close as he didn’t have the power to force guys to back off and while movement made up for it. He’d make them swing at air but he wasn’t a particularly intimidating champion.
He was great don’t get me wrong, but I still think TJ was a better Cruz with KO power in all of his weapons. Almost every DC fight is very close all the way back to the WEC. I’m not sure how much his style had to change due to constantly being out due to injury, and that may have lessened his power and changed his fighting style while also denying his chance to mount a large streak of title defenses.
He had a great but unfortunate career, and the things he was able to pull off with incredible amounts of ring rust with several multi year breaks is pretty remarkable. I honestly can’t think of one time Dom subbed someone and the only KO I can remember was that Japanese dude (and that fight was also a comeback fight)
A legend no doubt and the #2 BW ever, but I think TJ is better (which is kinda crazy because in their only head to head Dom has the W and was also coming back from another couple years off knee surgery and TJ has that positive test results)
If I had to choose between fighting Dom or TJ I’m choosing Dom every time simply because he’s just a less dangerous person to fight. That’s kinda my thought process here-and I wouldn’t even call TJ a BW goat but it also certainly isn’t Merab, Sterling, or Barao, for sure ain’t Cody, can’t be Henry he left too fast and screwed up his career.
The problem is everyone at Bantamweight is so good and the matchups are so dynamic that almost any of them can beat eachother
I think it’s probably Miguel Torres lol
his WEC title run was pretty nuts and very fun to watch. (I’m joking about this last part)
And I know that this last statement doesn’t really have anything to do with this subject but…..The WEC Belts ARE the UFC Belts, they are the same titles and were brought in from the WEC 135, and 145 weight classes to me that means Urijah is certainly a former Champ and should always be acknowledged as such. He was a Zuffa Champion, the only reason he isn’t a “UFC” Champion is timing. To me Urijah should be mentioned as a former Featherweight Title Holder.
Idk how Mike Brown had his number so bad.
