Former two-time undisputed UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz has distanced himself from talk of a potential retirement from professional mixed martial arts and active competition, claiming he just needs to sharpen up on his defense following a high kick knockout loss to Marlon Vera last time out.
Cruz, a former WEC bantamweight titleholder and former two-time UFC bantamweight pacesetter, is regarded as one of the greatest division features of all time – and currently occupies the #7 rank in the official division pile.
Headlining UFC San Diego back in August in a California homecoming, Cruz featured against Ecuadorian-born favorite, Vera, suffering a brutal fourth round high kick knockout defeat against the Jason Parillo-trained contender.
Dominick Cruz has distanced himself from an MMA retirement
Seeing his run of two consecutive victories halted in his defeat to the Chone finisher, Cruz, who was both linked with a potential clash with the recently retired, Jose Aldo, as well as his own respective retirement, insists there is still significant tread left on his tires.
“Right now, it’s been a month-and-a-half, I’m running again,” Dominick Cruz told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I’ve been lifting, getting the body strong. I’m still top-10 level. I don’t look at myself after that loss and go, ‘I’m not there anymore.’ I do the opposite. I go, alright, speed’s still there, power’s still there, all this stuff’s still there. We’ve just got to tighten up some defense.”
“You either retire, or you lose, and those are your choices,” Dominick Cruz explained. “I think a lot of people who retire, they didn’t lose because they retired. You can just keep going, but there’s a point where you’re just going to stack up too many losses because you’re not there anymore.”
“I don’t really look at my last fight and go, ‘Ah, you’re not really at the level, these guys are just outclassing you.’” Dominick Cruz said. “It wasn’t really that. So, just take my team, fix the fundamentals, and take it a day at a time. Get my body strong, and just train and love training.” (Transcribed by Bloody Elbow)
In the midst of a two-fight winning run before his KO loss against Vera, Cruz defeated both Casey Kenney, and most recently, Pedro Munhoz with a unanimous decision win in the featured preliminary clash of UFC 269 back in December of last year.