It was announced last week that former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz was finally set to return to action after yet another lengthy injury layoff. He is set to fight incumbent champion T.J. Dillashaw on Jan. 17 in Boston in a fight that represents more than a mere title fight.
Cruz is undefeated as a bantamweight and was the division’s inaugural champion. The 30-year-old was a peerless champion and has defeated the likes of former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber and current UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson among others. His unorthodox movement, crafty footwork and powerful wrestling cemented him as a rising force about to hit his peak and then it all went south in 2012. He tore is ACL, underwent multiple surgeries to fix it, then tore his quad and after a nearly 2 1/2-year layoff UFC president Dana White announced Cruz was vacating his title.
After vacating the belt, then-interim champion Renan Barao was promoted to full-time champ and looked to establish himself as the new king of the weight class. Enter Dillashaw. The Team Alpha Male fighter demolished Barao at UFC 173 in one of the UFC’s greatest upsets. Dillashaw used a combination of fleet footwork, swift head movement and furious striking combinations to put away Barao twice and reign supreme.
Dillashaw defended the title against Joe Soto last August before soundly beating Barao again this past July. Meanwhile, Cruz made a triumphant comeback last September when he finished Takeya Mizugaki in 61 seconds in a non-title fight, but a few months later he suffered yet another ACL injury (this time in his other knee) and hasn’t competed since.
Finally, though, the current and former champions will get the chance to meet in the Octagon and fans can’t wait. The two have exchanged some insults based mainly on the fact many have compared their fighting styles. Both Cruz and Dillashaw focus on footwork and movement to disorient their opponents, both are nearly unhittable, both have solid wrestling, the same reach and are just one year apart in age. However, despite all the similarities, the two couldn’t be further apart in the grand scheme of things because Cruz and Dillashaw are two fighters from two different eras in MMA.
The UFC’s landscape had changed dramatically since Cruz was the king. It was Oct. 1, 2011 when Cruz last fought as a champion. At that time, the faces of the company were Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. There were only seven UFC divisions and the seven champions were Cain Velasquez, Jon Jones, Silva, St-Pierre, Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo and Cruz – Aldo is the only champ from that list who still has his belt. Ronda Rousey and the women’s bantamweight division were still in Strikeforce, the UFC had yet to make its network TV debut on FOX and the UFC’s digital subscription service, UFC Fight Pass, wasn’t available.
In the cage, Dillashaw was competing on The Ultimate Fighter 14 and the bantamweight division’s top contenders at the time were Faber, Johnson, Barao, Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland.
Flash forward to the present era: Rousey and Conor McGregor are the UFC’s biggest stars; there are 10 divisions including not one but two women’s weight classes; Lesnar and St-Pierre no longer compete in MMA and Silva is serving a one-year suspension after testing positive for steroids; Jones was stripped of his title for an out-of-cage incident; Strikeforce was absorbed by the UFC and the promotion has nearly doubled the amount of events it holds in a calendar year.
Cruz has been working as an analyst for FOX Sports and the top bantamweight contenders now include Raphael Assuncao, Aljamain Sterling, Bryan Caraway and Thomas Almeida.
Suffice it to say, a lot has changed in between Cruz’s and Dillashaw’s reigns as champions. The two men may be close in age but they come from different eras. On Jan. 17 in Boston those two eras will collide.