Dominick Cruz warms up with the use of a Stroops Python Striker resistance belt at Alliance MMA in Chula Vista, California, as the UFC bantamweight champion regains his fitness ahead of his coaching role on season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter.

Cruz goes up against old nemesis Urijah Faber on TUF, when the world’s leading 135lb fighters will coach teams of lightweights and welterweights before going head-to-head in the season finale at the start of summer.

The coaches’ clash will not only be for the UFC bantamweight gold, but also final bragging rights over the other after two previous encounters have left them level pegging on one win apiece.

For Cruz, at least, the rubber match can’t come soon enough, as he told Fighters Only.

“Yes, we don’t like each other. Yes, we see each other all the time. Yes, we’re professionals. We don’t hate each other, but we don’t like each other, and we’re going to beat the crap out of each other at the end of the season.”