Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz hasn’t been seen in the Octagon since a loss to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 in December of 2016.
Cruz has been dealing with a broken arm as of late that has now been surgically repaired, but the fighter blames himself for not getting the injury fixed sooner.
“What happened is broke my arm and the bone didn’t shift, so since it didn’t shift I didn’t get surgery right away,” Cruz said on The MMA Hour. “They said, ‘The bone will fill in the gap on its own, it will heal and everything will be okay.’ Three and a half months later, that did not take place. The bone did not fill in and since I did not get surgery, the bone was not strong. Three months into my arm breaking, when it initially took place, I now have to go to the doctor and they say, ‘Well, on second thought you do need surgery.’ So that four month injury turns into now a seven, eight month injury. Now that I’ve had the surgery, I’m finally healing and I’m finally training again and doing my thing. But I still have time before it’s cleared by the doctor from that surgery. It seems like forever because the first three months I was waiting to heal and it didn’t heal.”
The former bantamweight champion has been with the UFC now for over seven years, but has only fought six times within that time span.
UFC Bantamweight Champion TJ Dillashaw defends the gold against former champion Cody Garbrandt in the main event of UFC 227, a fight that Cruz believes will get won by Garbrandt.
“I think it’ll go a little bit longer, this one, but I also think that Cody gets it this time and they’re going to end up having a rubber match or something somewhere down the line,” Cruz said. “I don’t care either way, I’m going to end up fighting both these guys, so it doesn’t really matter how their fight goes for me personally. For the world, I think Cody gets it done this time, probably. It’s hard to get that title and then to keep it is a whole other thing. It’s a good thing for these guys that they’ve had long breaks in between their defenses, so that’ll really help because they’re probably much more healthy since they had the break.”
There is no word yet on when Cruz will get back into the Octagon, as the fighter still needs doctor clearance before returning.
