Dominick
Cruz redefined the bantamweight division with a style that was
all his own.
The former
Ultimate Fighting Championship and
World Extreme Cagefighting titleholder has experienced higher
highs and lower lows than the vast majority of his contemporaries,
with significant injuries having knocked him off his pedestal more
than once. Nevertheless, Cruz was a pound-for-pound mainstay at the
peak of his powers, even as his inability to stay healthy cost him
considerable chunks of his career. He last appeared at UFC on ESPN
41, where his record fell to 24-4 in a fourth-round knockout loss
to
Marlon Vera
on Aug. 13.
As the mixed martial arts world awaits word on Cruz’s next move, a
look at some of the numbers that have accompanied him to this
point:
38: Years of age for Cruz, who was born in Tucson, Arizona, on
March 9, 1985. “Witness” was the No. 1 movie at the domestic box
office and REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling” was the No.
1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the time.
7: Cruz wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for 29%
of his career total. His list of UFC and WEC victims:
Takeya
Mizugaki and
Brian
Bowles. Cruz holds one other win by submission (4%)—he took
care of
Juan
Miranda with a rear-naked choke under the Total Combat banner
in 2006—and 16 more by decision (67%).
72: Rounds completed by Cruz as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on 17 different occasions and
carries a 16-1 record in those bouts.
56: Seconds needed for Cruz to put away
Tom
Schwager at a Rage in the Cage show on Aug. 6, 2005. Nearly 18
years later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
4: Organizations for which Cruz has plied his mixed martial arts
trade. He has gone 7-3 in the UFC, 7-1 in the WEC, 6-0 in Rage in
the Cage and 4-0 in Total Combat.
275,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Cruz across his 10
appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Fight of the Night”
four times and “Performance of the Night” once.
28: Takedowns completed by Cruz as a UFC bantamweight, tying him
with
Rani
Yahya for sixth on the promotion’s all-time list at 135 pounds.
Only
Merab
Dvalishvili (61),
Ricky Simon
(39),
Tony
Gravely (33),
Aljamain
Sterling (32) and
Brett Johns
(29) have recorded more.
117: Significant strikes landed by Cruz during his five-round
unanimous decision over
Scott
Jorgensen in the WEC 53 co-main event on Dec. 16, 2010,
establishing a personal high-water mark that stands to this
day.
13: Straight victories for Cruz between March 22, 2008 and June 4,
2016. It remains the longest such streak on his resume.
.754: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—Vera,
Henry
Cejudo,
Cody
Garbrandt and
Urijah
Faber—who have beaten Cruz. They sport a combined record of
84-27-1.