{"id":96545,"date":"2014-05-07T15:37:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T22:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=96545"},"modified":"2022-02-06T11:42:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T19:42:51","slug":"cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruz Not Asking For Immediate Title Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/dana-white-thinks-dominick-cruz-has-kind-of-been-stalling-his-fight-with-barao\/cruzpng\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-74775\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-74775\" title=\"cruzPNG\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cruzPNG.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cruzPNG.png 390w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cruzPNG-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cruzPNG-361x250.png 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Renan Barao got to the UFC title without going through the real UFC champion, Dominick Cruz.<\/p>\n<p>An unfortunate string of injuries made that an impossibility and forced Cruz to give up his belt, without a fight.<\/p>\n<p>Close to healed, Cruz tells <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2014\/5\/7\/5691874\/dominick-cruz-wont-ask-for-an-immediate-title-shot-but-he-still\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAFighitng.com<\/a> that he will take any fight the UFC gives him upon return and will not request an immediate shot at the belt he never lost.<\/p>\n<p>Check it:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I never chose my fights in any part of my career, and even when I was going for the title fights (at UFC 169), that was because I was a titleholder. I felt that, being a titleholder, why would I ever, ever take a step back and not fight for the title? Even if, let&#8217;s say I was to go in there and just get mopped up (against Barao), that was the place that I was in. That was where I deserved to be, that title shot. I don&#8217;t believe I would&#8217;ve gotten mopped up and I believe, still, in my heart, that I&#8217;m the best 135-pounder in the world when I can get back to full health. But I&#8217;ve never chosen my fights, and I&#8217;m not going to start now.<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n<em>&#8220;Whatever they give me, I&#8217;m going to do. Things are going to fall into place. I&#8217;ll be right back in the position as long as I deserve it, and I&#8217;ll work my way through however I need to. I&#8217;m not stressing about it because my first love is fighting, and if I need to fight, I don&#8217;t care who I gotta fight. I just can&#8217;t wait to get back in there, to be honest.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renan Barao got to the UFC title without going through the real UFC champion, Dominick Cruz. An unfortunate string of injuries made that an impossibility and forced Cruz to give up his belt, without a fight. Close to healed, Cruz tells MMAFighitng.com that he will take any fight the UFC gives him upon return and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2616,"featured_media":74775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[291,11,649,755,15,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cruz Not Asking For 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-not-asking-for-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 Not Asking For Immediate Title Shot | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Renan Barao got to the UFC title without going through the real UFC champion, Dominick Cruz. An unfortunate string of injuries made that an impossibility and forced Cruz to give up his belt, without a fight. Close to healed, Cruz tells MMAFighitng.com that he will take any fight the UFC gives him upon return and [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-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=\"2014-05-07T22:37:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-06T19:42:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/cruzPNG.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 name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BJPENN.COM News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BJPENN.COM News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/c76eda1459929ee246658565d177d029\"},\"headline\":\"Cruz Not Asking For Immediate Title Shot\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-07T22:37:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T19:42:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/\"},\"wordCount\":281,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Dominick Cruz\",\"mma\",\"MMA NEWS\",\"renan barao\",\"ufc\",\"ufc news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"UFC NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/\",\"name\":\"Cruz Not Asking For Immediate Title Shot | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-07T22:37:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-06T19:42:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/cruz-not-asking-for-immediate-title-shot\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UFC NEWS\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Cruz Not Asking For Immediate Title Shot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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