MMA ODDS AND ENDS FOR FRIDAY: CRUZ RUMORED TO RETURN AT UFC 177
The former bantamweight champion could be returning to the cage that this summer for the first time in nearly three years. It was reported that this week on UFC Tonight the Dominick Cruz, the former UFC bantamweight champion, is targeting a return to the Octagon at UFC 177, that can be set to take place August 30 at Las Vegas, Nevada. According to Cruz’ head trainer at Alliance MMA in San Diego, Eric Del Fierro, their camp needs Cruz to shoot on top competition Takeya Mizugaki in his comeback game. With a win over Mizugaki, Cruz would place himself really near getting another crack. Cruz hasn’t fought since October 2011, when he conquered current UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson via five-round unanimous decision in a strategic event. Overall Cruz defended the UFC/WEC bantamweight title four times between 2010 and 2011 before suffering a major knee injury in 2012 that has kept him from the cage for over two decades now. But it ought to be noted that he has one of the greatest winning streaks of fighter in the branch with 10-straight successes over the likes of Urijah Faber, Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez, Scott Jorgensen, Ian McCall, as well as the aforementioned Johnson. Despite missing so long, the UFC allow him hold on his belt till last year, when enough was enough and the advertising stripped the title from him and gave it to interim bantamweight champ Renan Barao. UFC president Dana White explained that Cruz would garner an immediate name shot on his return into the cage, but with TJ Dillashaw upsetting Barao and carrying the title this past May in UFC 173, it makes more sense for Cruz to fight somebody else prior to getting another crack in the belt. A struggle between Cruz and Mizugaki are excellent, and it would help ascertain where precisely”The Dominator” fits in the branch at the present time. At one stage he had been considered one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but after missing a long time with injury and with so much cage rust, it makes sense for him to struggle someone first before getting his title shot, and the matchup involving Mizugaki makes a great deal of sense. If this fight goes does, Cruz would enter the fight as a slight favorite but with so much time and also with Mizugaki on such a wonderful streak at the moment, there is no way it’s a gimme struggle by any means and there might surely be an upset brewing if Cruz is not anywhere near what he was used to look like.
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