The UFC's long awaited return to Seattle has taken shape this week where a few surprise announcements took place.
In the co-main event at the Climate Pledge Arena, the former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will step back inside the Octagon for the first time since August of 2022.
Cruz is considered to be one of the best 135-pounders of all time but injuries have played a major factor in his career.
"The Dominator" has come through many periods of inactivity over the years with his latest run of bouts coming after a four-year hiatus.
Following his loss to Henry Cejudo in 2020, Cruz recorded back-to-back wins over Casey Kenney and Pedro Munhoz before he was stopped by Marlon Vera in the fourth round of their main event clash.
He's now set to compete once again when he takes on Rob Font on February 22 in what Cruz recently admitted will likely be the final fight of his career.
He appeared on ESPN MMA's Good Guy/Bad Guy show with Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen where he said that whilst he's still confident in his skill set, his body is ready to lay the gloves down for good:
“For me, it is,” Cruz said. “(It’s) not because of my mentality, not because of my skillset. Yeah, I lost my last fight, but I was in that fight every minute of the fight. When I got finished, I was going for the kill, which got me hurt. It wasn’t one of those situations where I was bowing out of the fight. It was that I was in the fight trying to kill the guy, and I hurt myself, and that led to the finish eventually. I looked at that fight. I go, ‘OK, don’t be too harsh on yourself. This is part of the game. You get hit. You get caught. These things happen.’
“But I was in the fight. I wasn’t slower. I wasn’t looking behind a step. I wasn’t not choosing the good techniques. Those are all things I add to my mindset before moving into this last nine months as well. The skills are still there. It’s just a matter of all the injuries and stuff. Can I keep them together to get through the camp? The camp is the hard part. We all know that. It’s not really the fight.”
Watch the full episode below:
