If anyone knows about returning from catastrophic injuries at the highest level, it’s Dominick Cruz. Unsurprisingly, the new UFC Hall of Famer drew plenty of comparisons from those who witnessed the latest comeback attempt of Conor McGregor.
Unlike McGregor, Cruz’s many knee injuries never occurred mid-fight. But the two-time UFC bantamweight champion was able to make improbable career comebacks multiple times, even reclaiming the title after seemingly career-ending layoffs.
McGregor suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in his 69-second injury loss to Max Holloway, a disastrous result for his first fight in five years. Speaking Monday on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Cruz shared his thoughts on the extent of McGregor’s injuries.
“He’s in the honeymoon phase of his injury, right? So, we’ll see how that goes. I have nothing but positive energy to put toward him in his healing,” Cruz told Uncrowned. “I knew in my gut it was an ACL. You just don’t know to the extent. Sometimes you can tear the ACL and everything else. But just [those two] is very repairable.
“The good news is meniscus doesn’t stop you. If it was MCL, he’d be stuck for a little while, like frozen for I think two to three months before you can even start bending the leg. He should be able to start moving that leg right away, which will really quicken the healing process for him.”
The mental battle can sometimes be the worst part of injuries like these, said Cruz, who pointed to the time factor and being stuck unable to do the one source of your livelihood.
But it’s a bit different for McGregor, Cruz said. The two fighters’ financial factors aren’t comparable, to start, but also the UFC’s overall technology and resources are simply in a different place than they were a decade ago, when Cruz overcame three ACL tears in a four-year window.
“I know what it takes, and it took a lot of looking at myself and realizing that martial arts was the only thing keeping me alive,” Cruz said. “When I was injured, I was dying. I was not happy. I was not a good human to myself. I didn’t enjoy myself. I didn’t appreciate myself.
“I don’t know how everybody in the world goes through life without this sport, without these things. You wake up every morning and you get in a fight, and you get punched in the face, and you get dropped, and you get up, then you finish the round, and you do three more rounds, and you win the next three rounds, and you know who you are the rest of that day. That can go to anything.
“Nothing really can get to you after a day like that,” Cruz continued. “When that gets taken away, you kind of lose, ‘OK, how do I create a measuring tape for myself on who I really am?’ It’s easy to get lost for a guy like me without that reference point. I can only imagine Conor. He has more access to, if he wants to go on a super yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean and get picked up on a helicopter, he can do that. I didn’t have access to that. I got to work while I was injured because I had bills to pay and my sponsors left. I hadn’t made my $100 million or whatever you want to call it. So, that saved me in a way.”
Had McGregor been able to fight a full fight, Cruz may feel different about his peer’s headspace. The Irishman threw a jumping switch kick right out the gate, and his knee was toast for the remaining minute of the bout.
Cruz compares it to his first comeback fight at UFC 178 in 2014: A 61-second starching of Takeya Mizugaki after a three-year layoff. Even though he won and didn’t get hit, it was like a tease, considering Cruz was injured and shelved for another year shortly after.
“He didn’t really get it out, right? … I could see how he had the five years off and came back, and was so amped up, then didn’t get to do it,” Cruz said. “It’s kind of similar, and after I did that, he still knows it’s like a reference point for him. It’s like, ‘OK, I got to feel it. I went through the camp. I felt strong, I felt ready.’ He can use that to get through this next rehab session that he’s going to do, and it’s not the worst one. There’s so much access now to things I didn’t have.”
Ultimately, the 37-year-old McGregor has been adamant in these early stages of recovery that he will make one more go at fighting again, which would be the final fight of his UFC contract. And just going off his own experience, Cruz doesn’t see any way McGregor doesn’t end up staying true to his word.
“I think he definitely will be back because of the injury and because he got that taste and feeling of showing up,” Cruz said. “Everybody doubts him right now, and a lot of people are upset. You get both sides — the people who are pissed and people on his side, saying, ‘Get it done. Yay.’
“Everybody wants a comeback story. So no matter what anybody says, they’re going to watch.”
About the Author
