UFC Fight Night: Dan Hardy previews TJ Dillashaw vs Dominick Cruz
This week, British UFC welterweight and UFC commentator, Dan Hardy, takes a look at the long awaited title fight between current Bantamweight champ, TJ Dillashaw and No 1 contender, Dominick Cruz
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.It’s always disappointing to see an athlete side-lined with an injury when they are nearing the top of their game, especially when it’s as serious as a torn ACL. Questions of their return are as frequent as they are frustrating, and Dominick Cruz has been trying to answer them for a long time now. At the height of his career, he was the UFC bantamweight champion. Back in 2011 he battled old rival, Urijah Faber, over five rounds and walked out the undisputed UFC champion.
Cruz followed that up with another unanimous decision victory, this time over Demetrious Johnson. Johnson has not lost since that defeat, and has in the five years since become one of the pound-for-pound best in the world. Shortly after his successful title defence though, Cruz tore his ACL in training. That was the start of an infuriating number of years for the champ, who was forced to give up his belt as his injury woes persisted.
As this was all happening, another story was unfolding in the same division. A couple of months after Cruz secured the win over Johnson, a young fighter by the name of TJ Dillashaw made his debut in the UFC. A contestant on the UFC’s reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter, Dillashaw had looked impressive, but facing John Dodson on December 3rd 2011, turned out to be a little too much. After that loss though, he went on a tear winning five of six fights, three of them within the distance. That impressive run got him within kicking distance of the reigning title holder, Renan Barao.
By this time, Barao had the division on lockdown. He secured the interim title by beating Urijah Faber, and filled the void left behind when Cruz stepped away. Everyone expected Cruz to return to face Barao for the title but injury issues lingered on preventing that match-up. The timing was perfect for a surprise contender and Dillashaw had been chipping away and climbing the ranks. What made this more interesting was that Dillashaw was a protege of Faber who had, at this point, lost twice to Barao and was one-and-one with Cruz.
The showdown with Barao was booked for UFC 173 and Dillashaw shocked the world. Looking like a more evolved and better adapted version of his coach and team mate, he took the fight to Barao, beating him convincingly and leaving the champ sitting on his stool between rounds wondering what was happening. His footwork was different to anything we had seen from the Alpha Male camp, but almost ‘Cruz-like’ in its style. Using unpredictable movement patterns and a constantly shifting cadence, he was all over Barao, finding a clean head kick in the fifth round to close the deal.
Immediately there were calls for a rematch, and just over a year later Dillashaw proved that the first time wasn’t a fluke, stopping Barao again, this time in the fourth round.
A few months before the Dillashaw Barao rematch, Cruz was finally cleared to fight, but after such a long layoff the UFC decided that a warm up fight was necessary. Dominick ran through Takeya Mizugaki in 61 seconds confirming his place as number one contender, however, his injury issues returned. Shortly after that fight, he tore his ACL tendon in the other knee which put him out of action again… until now.
So now, after several years of surgeries and rehabilitation, and little more than a minute inside the Octagon, it is finally time to see Dominick Cruz try to take back the belt from TJ Dillashaw. So much is at stake for both fighters. For Cruz this is redemption and a chance to put his struggles behind him and get back to competition. For Dillashaw it’s an opportunity to get the upper hand in a long-standing rivalry with Cruz, who has chalked up wins against both his mentor, Faber, and friend, Joe Benavidez. It would also validate his controversial decision to leave the Alpha Male team, a move that was publicly discussed after McGregor used it whilst playing mind games with Faber on the recent season of The Ultimate Fighter (McGregor and Faber were the two coaches on the most recent TUF season).
Needless to say, this is going to be a fascinating encounter. Whatever happens, fans will be in for a true spectacle of Mixed Martial Arts. Both fighters have a fast and dynamic striking style, strong but fluid wrestling ability and footwork that could make this look more like a breakdancing contest. It’s hard to predict what might happen. Will the Dillashaw saga come to a swift end at the hands of the true king, or has the sun already set on the Cruz empire? This event is taking place in Boston on Sunday night, so fans in the UK can tune in to all the action on BT Sport 2 from 1am on Monday morning, to find out.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments