Athletes
Bantamweight Legend Dominick Cruz Announces Retirement
Dominick Cruz Calls An End To His Remarkable Career, Built On Perseverance And A Relentless Pursuit Of Greatness
Dominick Cruz was hoping to make the walk to the Octagon one more time later this month in Seattle, but it wasn’t meant to be. On Thursday afternoon, the 39-year-old former bantamweight champion announced his retirement after suffering a separated shoulder for the second time in eight months.
“I gave everything I had and put it into preparation and training for this fight — focusing on my cardio and my body for the past year,” Cruz wrote on social media, referencing his bout with Rob Font that was meant to take place on the main card of the February 22 Fight Night event at Climate Pledge Arena. “But sometimes, the body just doesn’t cooperate.”
UFC SEATTLE: View The Card | Buy Tickets | Vip Experiences
That final sentence doesn’t just sum up the current situation for Cruz, but also feels like a statement that encapsulates the whole of his UFC career.
The San Diego native was the inaugural UFC bantamweight champion, bringing the title with him from the WEC after earning a unanimous decision win over Scott Jorgensen in the penultimate bout of the promotion’s history at WEC 53 in Glendale, Arizona.
To the fans worldwide,
— Dominick Cruz (@DominickCruz) February 6, 2025
I have poured every ounce of myself into this sport for the last 25 years. I was really hopeful for one final fight but unfortunately, two shoulder dislocations in 8 months calls an end to this guy’s career.
I gave everything I had and put it into… pic.twitter.com/2X5fB6NXnZ
He was 17-1 at the time and unquestionably the top 135-pound fighter on the planet, and, at 25, it felt as if Cruz was primed to become one of the cornerstones of the UFC, especially as the featherweight and bantamweight divisions were poised to flourish. He was ahead of his time with his movement-based style, combining quick movements with unique stance switches and entries to keep opponents off-balance and often swinging at air.
In a sport where one of the core offensive ideas is to hit and not get hit, Cruz was a virtuoso; his conditioning and wrestling working in concert with his striking to allow him to craft masterpieces inside the cage.
Order UFC 312: Du Plessis vs Strickland 2
But it wasn’t just his skills that made him stand out.
Cruz was telegenic and articulate, with just the right amount of no-nonsense to his personality to make you either love him or hate him, which is the promotional sweet spot when it comes to combat sports. He also came equipped with a ready-made rival and it didn’t hurt that he was a bigger star at the time, either.
Urijah Faber was the only man to defeat Cruz at the time the two men and countless other future UFC champions and standouts transitioned from the WEC’s blue cage to the spacious confines of the Octagon. They faced off against one another for the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 132 on July 2, 2011, with Cruz earning a unanimous decision victory and a measure of revenge.
Another successful title defense against future flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson followed before Cruz and Faber were tabbed to serve as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: Live, with a rubber match between the two penciled in for the annual Fourth of July pay-per-view event in Las Vegas in July 2012.
How To Watch UFC 312 In Your Country
That’s when the injuries started coming.
Two months before his trilogy bout with Faber, Cruz tore his ACL and underwent ligament replacement surgery. Seven months later, news broke that the Alliance MMA representative had undergone a second ACL surgery after his body rejected the cadaver ligament used in his initial repair.
He was slated to return in February 2014 in a title unification bout opposite interim champion Renan Barao, but a torn groin forced him out of the contest and back to the sidelines, resulting in Cruz relinquishing the bantamweight title.
On September 27, 2014, at UFC 178, after nearly three years on the sidelines, “The Dominator” lived up to his name, returning to action and running through Japanese veteran Takeya Mizuhaki in 61 seconds, registering the second-fastest victory of his career and a statement win that cemented his claim to the bantamweight throne.
FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X
Three months later, Cruz tore his other ACL, putting him back on the shelf for all of 2015.
A little over a year later, he made his next return, marching into the Octagon at TD Garden in Boston to take on TJ Dillashaw, the first member of Faber’s Team Alpha Male squad to earn championship gold, in a battle for the bantamweight title he never lost in competition. After 25 competitive minutes, Bruce Buffer announced the scores, declaring the winner, by split decision, “Aaaaaaaaaaaand… NEW!”
His win was an undeniably cool moment; a triumph over multiple injuries, countless obstacles, and a fighter that had so soundly beaten Barao on two different occasions that many wondered who would be able to dethrone him.
Six months after winning the title back, Cruz and Faber finally finished their series in the cage, with the champion earning a unanimous decision win and the 2-1 series victory over “The California Kid.” Though no one knew it at the time, it’s quite fitting that his final championship victory came against his chief rival.
Cruz lost the title at UFC 207, getting, well, out-Cruz’ed by Cody Garbrandt, the heavily tattooed, highly skilled next threat to emerge from Team Alpha Male. In an incredible show of class and character, the vanquished champion turned up to his media session following the pay-per-view event, praised Garbrandt’s performance, and reminded everyone that you don’t need to be carrying UFC gold to be a champion.
READ: Where We Stand: Bantamweight Division
He wouldn’t fight again for another three years, as different serious injuries postponed Top 10 matchups with Jimmie Rivera and John Lineker before he replaced Jose Aldo in a bantamweight title fight opposite Henry Cejudo at UFC 249, losing by second-round stoppage.
He’d bounce back with a couple wins before suffering a knockout loss to Marlon “Chito” Vera in his hometown of San Diego in the summer of 2022, which sadly proved to be the final time he would step into the Octagon as an active competitor.
Dominick Cruz went 24-4 in his career, winning and successfully defending the WEC title twice before enjoying two title reigns and a combined three successful title defenses of the UFC bantamweight title. He beat Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez, Faber (twice), Johnson, and Dillashaw in championship fights, and had a nine-year, 13-fight unbeaten run.
He did all that while the spending much of the prime of his career dealing with injuries and setbacks that would have prompted lesser competitors to pack up and move on to something else — and he had the “something else” available to him, as Cruz became an outstanding analyst and broadcaster with the UFC during his time on the sidelines, continuing in that role to this day.
There are a lot of interesting “What Ifs” in this sport, but mapping out how Cruz’s career would look if he wasn’t limited to four fights between October 2, 2011, and May 9, 2020, might be the most fascinating one of them all.
In the time between his twin title reigns, only Barao and Dillashaw held the belt, with the former earning championship victories over Faber, Michael McDonald, and Eddie Wineland, and the latter besting Barao twice and Joe Soto on short notice in between when the Brazilian was deemed unfit to compete the night before their originally scheduled rematch at UFC 177.
He’d already beaten Faber and would ultimately return to topple Dillashaw, and while you can never be completely sure how things would play out, it’s not inconceivable to think that a healthy Cruz could have racked up a couple more successful title defenses and several additional victories during those numerous years lost to injury.
UFC 312: Dricus du Plessis' The Biggest Dog In The Yard | Sean Strickland Is The Same, But Different
While we see athletes utilizing tons of movement, frequent stance switches, and off-rhythm striking to great success today, Cruz was frustrating opponents with his approach more than half-a-decade earlier, and should get far more credit for being at the vanguard of the “footwork and feints” movement.
He should also be fitted for a Hall of Fame jacket at some point in the future.
The latter stages of elite careers often end up tarnishing the lasting image fans and observers have of the men and women that excelled inside the Octagon for numerous years before stumbling towards the end, and it feels like that has been the case with Cruz.
For many, his most high-profile appearances are his losses to Garbrandt and Cejudo, with the way the second of those two has stuck in his craw to this day serving as a constant reminder of the result.
But that’s who Cruz is — a fierce, driven competitor that refused to be counted out, refused to allow injuries to keep him from continuing to chase greatness, and who still can’t tolerate being told he’d had enough when he believed that he still had so much more to give.
Order UFC 312: Du Plessis vs Strickland 2
It’s why seeing his career officially come to an end like this is as heartbreaking as it is fitting, because you know that for the past year, that fierce, driven competitor has been pushing himself to his limits just so he could make one more walk to the Octagon, to step into the arena one last time.
And as it did far too frequently throughout his stellar career, his body wouldn’t allow him to make it to the fight.
Congratulations on an incredible career, Dom.
Sorry it had to end this way.