The first name set to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2026 has been announced.
That honor will go to Dominick Cruz, the legendary WEC and UFC bantamweight champion, whose career famously played out in fits and starts after injuries started to pile up.
Promotion officials announced the news during Saturday’s UFC 324 broadcast.
“Dominick Cruz is one of the greatest bantamweights in combat sports history,” said UFC President & CEO Dana White was quoted as saying in a press released issued in conjunction with Saturday’s announcement. “Dominick was an amazing athlete who set the standard for bantamweights, and it will be an honor to induct him into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer.”
Cruz (24-4) will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame’s modern wing, and will be the 17th fighter there. The modern wing includes names like Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Amanda Nunes and others.
“The Dominator” began his career in 2005, and was a perfect 9-0 when he ran into Urijah Faber at WEC 27, suffering the first loss of his career. Cruz would go on to claim WEC’s 135lb title in 2010, however, defending it twice before the UFC absorbed the smaller promotion.
After being promoted to UFC bantamweight champ, Cruz got his revenge on Urijah Faber, then defeated Demetrious Johnson, a future flyweight great, in 2011. Mounting injuries forced Cruz to vacate the title, but he would win it back in 2016 by defeating T.J. Dillashaw, then defeated Faber a second time to win the pair’s career series.
Cruz would lose the title to Cody Garbrandt later that year, and go 2-2 across his final four fights, a run that ended in 2022 and featured more injury setbacks. A retirement fight in 2025 at UFC Seattle last February, against Rob Font, was also scrapped by yet another Cruz injury. The bantamweight great later retired.
