As a fairly unexposed commodity, Dominick Cruz isn’t bothered by the fact that his bantamweight title fight this Saturday will be on Versus rather than pay-per-view.
The UFC has in only one other instance premiered a championship on free TV, but that particular UFC 75 card in England aired on tape-delay. Cruz’s fight at UFC on Versus 6 will be live.
Some might consider the idea of a champion fighting on cable TV discouraging. Not Cruz.
“What the UFC is doing is they’re putting me on free TV,” Cruz said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I can [make it] known to the casual fan the champion that I am, go out there and have an outstanding performance on TV and really I get myself out there and represent the 135-pound division to a wider audience for free.”
And Cruz (18-1)’s title defense is in the midst of three straight weeks of UFC title fights, not an ideal position to command attention, especially by a fledgling division. But the champ understands why the UFC’s marketing efforts have been primarily directed towards last Saturday’s UFC 135 with Jon Jones vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and UFC 136 with Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard in two weeks.
“While those fights get more marketing muscle you got to think of how many times I’ve fought in the UFC and how many of the casual fans know who I am and have seen me,” the 26-year-old Cruz admits. “The people who sell the most pay-per-views are the people in the UFC that are known by the casual fans.”
Cruz has only made one UFC appearance, successfully defending his belt against Urijah Faber at UFC 132 in July. After the Faber win, the UFC offered Demetrious Johnson to Cruz instead of another worthy challenger in Brian Bowles. Cruz figures the UFC picked Johnson since Cruz already holds a win over Bowles and the promotion tends “want to wait on rematches.”
Johnson brings to the fight a 10-1 record and coming off a big win, though a bit controversial, over former WEC champ Miguel Torres. In the fight, Johnson was able to score takedowns, but Torres was the one threatening to the end the fight with submissions. With the unanimous nod in favor of Johnson, the judges clearly valued Johnson and his top position. Cruz agrees.
“Miguel Torres didn’t want to be on his back,” Cruz said. “Whether he was going for submissions or not. It doesn’t mean anything. A submission doesn’t count unless you finish it.”
Cruz is five inches taller and holds a two-inch reach advantage against the five-foot-three Johnson. Size and style-wise, Johnson is comparable to Cruz’s WEC 53 challenger Joseph Benavidez.
“I think Benavidez might be even a little more powerful than Demetrious and Demetrious might have the edge on the takedown and timing. So there’s little adjustments I have to make, but for the most part I see it very similar to the Benavidez fight and that’s how I see it playing out,” Cruz said.
Despite not having the notoriety of the other UFC champions, Cruz out of Alliance MMA and Team Lloyd Irvin has come a long way from his days fighting in the WEC. A lot of progress has already been made in his UFC debut when he headlined the card over future Hall of Famers in Tito Ortiz and Wanderlei Silva.
“It gives the casual fans a reason to respect when you put on a show like me and Faber did and take on the main event role and headling the card. It’s a different level of respect and at the same time I’ve been recognized a lot more. It’s been a great ride, it’s been a lot of fun and I’m just riding it until the wheels fall off.”