By Gareth A Davies, The Daily Telegraph
After wrapping up a final sparring session ahead of this Saturday’s fight with Takeya Mizugaki, an emotional Dominick Cruz began to cry.
Right there and then, after three years of pain and heartache, it hit him all at once. Tears crowded his eyes. He bowed his head. And relief, more than anything, was the overriding emotion, for somehow, following injury upon injury, he had finally made it through camp and reached fight week. He’d done it. The comeback was all but complete.
“I genuinely believe I’m a stronger person as a result of the things I’ve been through,” he said. “The circumstances you go through, whether a blessing or a curse, are things you have to learn from. It’s been my decision to make all these setbacks a blessing and for them to make me a stronger person.
“It hasn’t been easy and I’ve definitely had my lowest low points ever in these last two years. If I didn’t express that and tell the truth about it, I’d be lying to everybody. So I do say it. It’s been tough but also amazing.”
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Cruz’ last appearance in a UFC Octagon could be dated back to Oct 1, 2011, the night he danced rings around a game but outclassed Demetrious Johnson in Washington DC. That was his fourth straight defence of his UFC world bantamweight champion and, at the time, he looked about as invincible as any champion out there. He was that good.
But the tide started to turn for Cruz. First he was forced to pull out of a scheduled fight against Urijah Faber in July 2012 citing a torn ACL. Two surgeries followed. Then, in January 2014, a month away from his comeback in February, Cruz tore his groin and was forced to sit out again. Alas, his title became vacant.
“I’ve hit rock bottom and I’ve had to rebuild and find out what kind of man I really am,” he said. “If I didn’t share all that now, I’d feel like all that time away had been wasted. This whole thing has been a learning experience and a blessing to me. It’s given me the chance to change into a different and better human being.
“The key to that is to focus your attention on helping others around you. You have to change your focus to be of use to others who aren’t so fortunate. I’ve been able to help other fighters and do charity work and be there for other people. I needed to do that to help me not think about my own negative circumstances.”
His title reign may have stalled and then evaporated, but one gets the impression everything else in Cruz’ life has been on the up and up. Certainly, when taking the bigger picture into account, that of life, he seems to have evolved as a human being.
“When you go through your ups and downs in life, and when you go from a world title holder to not even being in the fight game, you find out really fast who your friends are,” he said. “You find out who cares about you. You find out who is in your life to make you a stronger person during your weakest points.
“I’ve definitely lost some people who were very close to me over this time. And I’ve also built up relationships that I didn’t realise were so close. I’ve learnt who will stick with me when I’m at my lowest point. That’s an important thing to know.
“For two years I felt like the average working-class man who had been laid off and now had to support his family and didn’t know what to do. He’s got no work, no income and he loses himself as a man. I definitely lost myself for a period of time. I didn’t know who I really was or what I was really made of. But now I know fighting does not define me as a man and the title does not define me as a man. I have a lot of skills and a lot of things I can offer to a lot of people away from fighting. That’s great to know.”
Cruz’s fight this weekend with Mizugaki offers him the opportunity to remind the bantamweight division what it’s been missing for the past two years. But that’s not to say it will be a walkover. The Japanese star has won five fights in a row, all by decision, and is renowned for his ability to grind out victories in tough, gruelling fights.
“Mizugaki is definitely a test,” said Cruz. “He stays heavy on his back foot ready to fire anytime you take one step towards him. He also knows how to win rounds – steal rounds. He’s smart. He knows that a lot of these fights are close when you’re out there striking. He keeps his defence real tight early in the round and then he’ll take the risk needed to enable him to win the round at the very end.
“I hit and I do my best not to even be touched. That’s something that has to stay true in this fight. But he is definitely a challenge for me. He’s on a five-fight win-streak and he wants that belt as badly as I do. It won’t be an easy fight, but I’ll be ready.”
A win on Saturday night against Mizugaki will put Cruz immediately back into title contention. UFC gold will again be within touching distance. And TJ Dillashaw, the man who currently occupies Cruz’ old throne, will start to look over his shoulder with greater regularity and concern.
“After I vacated the title, Renan Barao went ahead and put his mind to it and got it done, and then Dillashaw did the same,” said Cruz. “He went ahead, put his mind to it and got it done. When I moved away from that position due to injury, other people stepped in and took the bull by the horns. That’s expected. I’m not surprised that that happened. I’ve just been sat on the outside watching patiently. Now here I am ready to get back into it.”
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