{"id":105816,"date":"2014-07-21T14:45:45","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T21:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=105816"},"modified":"2022-02-06T09:50:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T17:50:43","slug":"cruz-explains-why-he-doesnt-want-an-immediate-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-explains-why-he-doesnt-want-an-immediate-title-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz Explains Why He Doesn’t Want An Immediate Title Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dominick<\/a><\/p>\n

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz spoke with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour<\/a> about his return to the UFC after nearly a two year absence that came due to a torn ACL and then a torn groin. Cruz opted to fight Takeya Mizugaki instead of immediately fighting champion TJ Dillashaw.<\/p>\n

“You know, it’s a weird thing because I never really lost the belt. But there’s people out there that are holding it and it’s just weird. I don’t really know what to think. I’m just going to fight, that’s literally where I’m at. It’s not that I don’t think I’m not champion, every person in this sport, if you don’t believe you’re of champion essence, then you shouldn’t be doing it. So of course I believe I’m a champion, no question in my mind, but I did have to give up my title. I literally had to beat the crap out of myself until I handed over the belt to somebody else. That’s a weird thing. I’m here now and I’m ready to get back at it.”<\/p>\n

“Mizuaki is up for the title next. He’s on a five-fight win streak and he is looking at a title shot. He is top five and he is up there in the contender’s position. So for me, that is a very tough fight, first of all. Second of all, I didn’t take that fight because when I jumped into that Barao training camp, that’s when I realized that it wasn’t about fighting the fight that’s the problem, it was about doing the workload of a five-round camp. I don’t think anyone in the world understands except for a fighter that when you go from a three-round camp to a five-round camp, the amount of workload just skyrockets. It can’t even be compared, you literally are working, it’s like going from a 35 hour a week job to a 55 hour a week job and you’re not getting any more pay. So it’s like, you’re working your butt off and you’re doing everything you can. For a three round fight, I can work my body back and get myself strong so that when I get to that title contention spot, I’m ready to go and I don’t have to have any guess as to how tough my body and muscle structure is. Everything will be a slow process and I will be back in there. Now, a lot of people might view this as, ‘He’s taking a tune up or warm up fight.’ Well, tune up or warm up fights do not exist in MMA. That’s a boxing thing and it doesn’t happen in MMA. So going against a top five guy right off is big feat for me and I’m excited to do it. It’s a challenge. Mizugaki is extremely durable, tough and has a lot of cardio. It’s a big challenge for and I’m up for it. After feeling by body in that five-round camp I realized that I need to take my time for this camp because that’s the hard part. The fight itself is the easy fun part. That’s why I come out smiling, I’m loving life on the night of fighting. Training camp is a whole other demon in itself.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz spoke with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour about his return to the UFC after nearly a two year absence that came due to a torn ACL and then a torn groin. Cruz opted to fight Takeya Mizugaki instead of immediately fighting champion TJ Dillashaw. “You know, it’s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":100406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[291,9,11,764,2743,7900,15],"yoast_head":"\nCruz Explains Why He Doesn't Want An Immediate Title Shot | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-explains-why-he-doesnt-want-an-immediate-title-shot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruz Explains Why He Doesn't Want An Immediate Title Shot | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz spoke with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour about his return to the UFC after nearly a two year absence that came due to a torn ACL and then a torn groin. Cruz opted to fight Takeya Mizugaki instead of immediately fighting champion TJ Dillashaw. “You know, it’s a […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-explains-why-he-doesnt-want-an-immediate-title-shot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-21T21:45:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-06T17:50:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Screen-Shot-2014-06-08-at-2.52.48-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n<meta 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