(The truth is, Ronda walked into the gym and Dominick’s knees buckled on their own. / Photo via @RondaRousey)
In light of the sly gamesmanship in that recent Urijah Faber video, UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz went on MMAFighting’s The MMA (After) Hour to explain how his knee injury came about, and that it wasn’t the result of being beat up by a girl. Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by MMAMania:
“I was in training camp, I had just gotten done with TUF, and I usually get done about 11. I got to practice at 11:30 and I was sparring that day with kickboxing and takedowns and a guy got behind me in a scramble and he went for a trip, the trip, his hips went in on my knee and it just buckled my knee right then and there. I sat out the rest of the round, threw some ice on my knee, it was pretty painful. I was just kind of hoping for the best to be honest. I was hoping and praying that it was nothing crazy because it was a very, very loud pop. I kind of went into denial mode for the rest of that day saying ‘Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine.’ So I took some ibuprofen and that night I went in to get my normal workout in and I go to move around and get my shadowboxing going to warm up and me knee just pops right out. And I just knew right then and there that I needed to go get an MRI and get this checked out because me knee wasn’t stable and it kind of felt like I was walking on ice. I went in and got an MRI that day and got the bad results, the bad news…
Just to shut down some rumors that Faber thinks is funny to start and makes jokes about an Olympic bronze medalist and her taking out my knees. To me it’s not really funny, it’s just another way to know, for the world to know why me and Faber don’t get along. I wasn’t training with her at all. I brought her in to help my team on TUF…
Cruz went on to say that he regretted having to pull out of his title fight at UFC 148, but still wished that Faber didn’t have to act like such a Faber:
“Well, you know, he did say that he doesn’t wish that injury on anybody, and I believe that. Nobody wants an injury like this to happen and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody either. To be perfectly honest, I somewhat have to apologize, not just to my fans out there, but to Faber because of this situation taking place. It’s frustrating for him as well so I can understand that. But at the same time, trying to make jokes about it and starting rumors about Ronda Rousey you know, busting my knees, that’s putting questions on her that are not necessary and putting questions on me that are not necessary, with this injury that’s already enough. So he is being very Faber-esque in the situation…I want to be training back in four to six months so that I can start to get back on the path of going in there and competing and winning.”
Urijah Faber‘s new opponent for the July 7th event has still yet to be confirmed.