Dominick Cruz recently revealed he plans on taking one last fight before sailing off into the sunset. He has had a storied career in spite of his countless injury problems. His two massive layoffs from 2011 to 2014 and from 2016 to 2020 robbed us of so many great potential matchups, the biggest one undoubtedly being Renan Barão.
With Cruz not booking a single fight since his last loss to Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera back in August of 2022, it wasn’t that surprising to see him depart the UFC rankings two weeks ago. But with that departure from the rankings came doubt about his future. While it’s exciting to learn he plans on fighting one more time, it’s important that the UFC book him correctly.
The UFC has developed this habit over the years of wanting to feed their legends to young fighters in hopes that the up-and-comer will benefit from having the legend’s name on their record. However, this usually only works when the legend is still a relevant contender in their division. A recent example would Joaquin Buckley knocking out Stephen Thompson. Did Buckley beat the best version of ‘Wonderboy’? Absolutely not, but Thompson was still in the top10 at welterweight, so it made sense for him to still be fighting actual contenders. Compare that Frankie Edgar who was barely hanging on to a rankings spot when he announced his retirement fight and had politely asked for a fight with Cruz. He instead got booked against Chris Gutierrez and got kneed into oblivion in two minutes. And for what?
Sure, Gutierrez was on a 6-0-1 run and the KO was nice, but was the UFC so high on him that it was worth giving the fans this sad moment? Gutierrez is 2-2 since then, has fell out of the rankings and at 33 years old, it’s unlikely he will ever truly benefit from that highlight. A nice KO that deserved to be celebrated was instead forgotten by the fanbase because of what it represented, an outcome that goes completely against the thought-process behind the booking.
Was Ihor Potieria such an important rising prospect that the UFC had to have him fight Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in his retirement fight in front of a Brazilian crowd? There are too many of these examples… What is encouraging is that if the UFC opt not to book Cruz’s last fight in the same way, they aren’t lacking in options.
OPTION 1: Henry Cejudo
The two met on the first card held during the COVID-19 pandemic over four years go. Cejudo was the bantamweight champion at the time and Cruz was coming off one of his long layoffs. Triple C got the third-round KO, but Cruz disputed the stoppage. He infamously blamed referee Keith Peterson, saying he smelled like “alcohol and cigarettes”.
Cruz has been adamant that the stoppage was early and he has been engaging in a back-and-forth with Cejudo’s agent Ali Abdelaziz on X about a potential rematch ever since he announced he would be coming back for one more fight.
Usually, booking Cruz against someone who has already knocked him out would go against everything I’ve said so far, but Cejudo finds himself in a similar predicament. The Olympian gold medalist also took a long layoff and has lost both his fights since coming back. Granted his losses consist of a split decision loss to then champion Aljamain Sterling, and another decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili back at UFC 298. I don’t think this is the best option out there, but it certainly isn’t a bad one.
OPTION 2: Cody Garbrandt
Garbrandt was the one to lift the Cruz curse at Team Alpha Male when he finally dethroned him at UFC 207. Though Garbrandt’s career didn’t materialize in the way most people anticipated following that night, it is still one of the most revered performances in recent memory. For one night, Garbrandt looked like a million bucks.
Once again, booking this again over eight years later sounds like a bad idea on paper, but ‘No Love’ isn’t the world beater he was on that night anymore. He probably still holds a speed advantage, but his ability to take a shot has severely diminished since then, making the fight a lot more fair. And despite that performance having been almost mythologized, the actual fight was more competitive than the highlight packages we usually see on social media.
OPTION 3: Jose Aldo
This is my personal favourite option out there. It’s the first one listed that isn’t a rematch and it’s a matchup that fans have been wanting for well over a decade. Fan interest in that matchup can be traced back to when they were both champions in WEC. At this point, we wouldn’t be getting the best possible version of that matchup, but the wonder in how their completely different fighting styles would clash is still present.
In some ways, this is the lighter weight class version of Georges St-Pierre vs Anderson Silva. Just let the two all-time greats go at it.
OPTION 4: Raul Rosas Jr.
If the UFC is stubborn in wanting to feed Cruz to a young prospect, then this is the type of matchup I could be on board with. Rosas has a big enough name to be a legitimate B-side to someone like Cruz. He also hasn’t shown the ability to badly hurt his opponents on a consistent basis the same way other bantamweight prospects like Payton Talbott have. So as far as matchups against notable up-and-comers go, this might be the safest one for Cruz.
With Cruz also being of Mexican descent, this is exactly the type of fight that should be booked at a Noche UFC event.
