Most fans look at Dominick Cruz’s skills and abilities with high regard. Few give his opponents a chance of dethroning him, including Demetrious Johnson, who will challenge Cruz for the UFC bantamweight title this weekend at UFC on Versus.
Cruz dominates his opposition. He relies on his quickness, reflexes and unorthodox striking, which leaves many fans questioning the overall competition in his division and requesting that he move up to 145 pounds.
And Cruz might not necessarily rule out that possibility.
“I haven’t really thought about it too much,” Cruz said during a media conference call. “But I will say that I’m not going to turn down the opportunity [to fight for the featherweight title] if it comes up in the future.”
Like Cruz, fellow UFC champions Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, and more recently Jon Jones, have faced the possibility of moving up another weight class. Unfortunately for Cruz, he resides in one of the UFC’s most stacked divisions and it isn’t unlikely he will move up anytime soon.
For fighters like Silva and St-Pierre, the talent pool in their respective divisions isn’t very deep. Along with their experience, they have earned recognition and established reputations as two of the top pound-for pound fighters in mixed martial arts.
And according to UFC vice president of community relations Reed Harris, who also participated in the conference call, Cruz has plenty of competition in his weight class to remain there for the foreseeable future.
“As these guys evolve and come up through the ranks, there will always be guys for [Cruz] to fight,” Harris said.
“We have guys moving from lightweight to featherweight and from featherweight to bantamweight, so there is always going to be competition for [Cruz and current 145-pound champion Jose Aldo.”
Cruz will look to continue establishing his own legacy against Johnson this weekend, live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
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