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For over a decade, Dominick Cruz has been a thorn in the side of Urijah Faber and Team Alpha Male. Learn the history and see all the best smack from their long and petty rivalry in this new video from SBN MMA.
It’s been over three and a half years since Dominick Cruz has stepped into the Octagon for a fight, yet on Saturday he looks to recapture his old bantamweight belt from Henry Cejudo at UFC 249. The battle is a late replacement one as Cruz fills in for Cejudo’s original opponent, Jose Aldo. And while the odds are against Cruz on this one, you can’t forget that he ruled over the 135 pound division for several years, defeating all comers until Cody Garbrandt finally dethroned him in December of 2016.
That loss to Garbrandt marked Cruz’s first defeat at the hands of a Team Alpha Male member since Urijah Faber beat him in their first meeting back in March of 2007 at WEC 26. Between those two fights, Cruz would periodically defeat their camp, taking out Faber twice, Joseph Benavidez twice, and TJ Dillashaw once. Over the years, it became something of a Team Alpha Male obsession to figure out Cruz’s style and defeat him in the cage.
In this latest edition of SBN MMA’s Beef Wars, we take a look at the long history of smack unleashed by Dominick Cruz against Team Alpha Male, the origins of the beef, and where the feud stands today. With Team Alpha Male continuing to pump out some of the best fighters under 145 pounds and “The Dominator” returning from injuries to competition, Dom’s 5-2 record against the team isn’t a final score at all, but certainly constitutes more than enough smack talk for a pretty wild video ride.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 249 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+/Fight Pass “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining undercard balance on ESPN+/ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
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