“Any athlete who left the sport undefeated, I question: Are you really undefeated,” Dominick Cruz poses a question to retired undefeated fighters

“Any athlete who left the sport undefeated, I question: Are you really undefeated,” Dominick Cruz poses a question to retired undefeated fighters

Dominick Cruz and Khabib Nurmagomedov

The former two-time UFC Bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz has been a lot throughout his MMA career. Cruz has faced multiple injuries over the course of his career, he torn both ACLs and stay out of the game for three years and then made a comeback and won the world title.

After that, he stayed out of the sport for almost four years due to multiple injuries and then come back again and competed with top ten ranked athletes in the division.  ‘The Dominator’ is still competing at an age of early 30s and he has a different viewpoint of looking at this thing as compared to former UFC Lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In his latest interview with Ariel Helwani for MMA hour, without mentioning Khabib’s name, Dominick Cruz asked a question to retired fighters who left the sport without any defeat in their record. Cruz says, “I look at this whole sport from a completely different frame of mind these days than I ever looked at before. Because I’ve had to rewrite my belief systems as I’ve won and lost, won and lost.”

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“That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I’d never felt that much loss two years in my life. And then to come back and win again after feeling that loss… there’s no understanding of yourself like that. So any athlete who left the sport undefeated, I question: Are you really undefeated? Or did you not challenge yourself as hard as you could’ve? And if you did, what would it look like on the other side?”

Dominick Cruz continued, “Anybody who leaves undefeated in this sport, I get it, you’re undefeated. But are you undefeated? Or could you have just pushed a little harder to get that next level? And get that loss and then come back and reclaim the loss with a win and see what your next level, what your next evolution in life is.” {H/T BloodyElbow}

Dominick Cruz explains the importance of loss in a fighter’s career

Dominick Cruz

Dominick Cruz lost his UFC Bantamweight title to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207, after that he lost against Henry Cejudo at UFC 249 for the vacant Bantamweight title fight. But he came back to the win column with his latest win against Casey Kenney at UFC 259 and Cruz further explained the importance of loss in a fighter’s career.

He added, “It’s not all about just winning and being perfect. Nothing in life is that. You can’t dodge loss. You can’t dodge pain. You can’t dodge any of it. So what’s the point? You might as well just go right through it.”

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“Because when it happens… the question is when it does happen, what are you gonna do with it? Are you gonna just give up and say, ‘I’m retired, I didn’t quit’? Or are you gonna get back on the horse and see what else you can be? See what you can get through. See what it looks like on the other side.”

In the end, he concluded, “I was fortunate enough to have that experience and be that, and I’m still on that ride. And let’s see what comes next.”

Also Read: Dominick Cruz vs Pedro Munhoz is in works for UFC 269.