Dominick Cruz Isn’t Looking Past Urijah Faber

Dominick Cruz spoke with MMAjunkie about his fight with Urijah Faber at UFC 199. Some highlights are below:

On his injury spate: “Not being able to compete no matter how bad I wanted to, getting my belt stripped, tearing my ACL three times and my quad afterwards, all these things really took complete control of my life from me. And I learned a lot from it. I learned tons from it. Because the biggest addiction that 95 percent of the world has is control. They want control of things. Once you let go of things you can’t control, you find peace and you can live in the present. And that’s my goal every single day.”

On putting his focus on the fight: “All I can do is prepare myself for each thing that comes out of me. Right now, it’s a five-round title fight with Faber. I put in a 12-week camp. I never skipped a training session. I never skipped a strength and conditioning session. I never skipped a round. I never quit in the middle of practice. I did all my rehab in between. I ate good food. I drank good water. Every single thing that I’ve done, that was under my control, I took advantage of. And what that does is that it puts percentages in my favor. And that’s the only thing I can control. Other than that, how can I ever be disappointed in myself if I know deep down in my heart that I put every ounce of everything I have into this situation?”

On Faber: “You can never count out a guy with championship experience. He’s got five-round style. He knows how to survive. That’s his biggest gift, understanding how to survive in that cage and not be finished. In his eyes, as long as he doesn’t get finished, he has a shot to win. So his goal is to not be finished or try to get the finish. But that’s why he loses decisions so much. Because he doesn’t understand how to win fights through beating people up decisively, combinations, mixing things up. So he moves backwards, he takes minimal damage and he throws haymakers one at a time in hopes that he can land that big shot and get the finish he wants. That makes him a dangerous guy throughout the fight. He’s staying alive, he’s always looking for those big shots. He’s always just surviving, other than that. It’s like putting a cat in a corner. They’re always dangerous at all times. So you’ve got to respect that. I don’t look past Faber on this fight, and that’s why you’re going to see the best me.”

On the fight: “I’ve done all the things I can control to put the numbers in my favor. All arrows are pointing in the right direction. Now the rest is just keeping faith, having belief in my abilities and letting my instincts take over. I have faith in my instincts. So that night you’re going to see a good me.”