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Retiring undefeated in MMA is one of those mythical occurrences that don't happen regularly. Dominick Cruz has had a long stay in the UFC and knows how hard it is to do so.
Dominick Cruz has bounced back from losses and injuries in his career and he has always felt that it made him stronger as a result. The UFC bantamweight has big questions for fighters that chose to call it while still having a ‘0' in the losses column.
“I look at this sport from a completely different frame of mind these days than I ever looked at it before, because I’ve had to rewrite my belief systems as I’ve won and lost, won and lost,” UFC bantamweight Dominick Cruz said on The MMA Hour. “That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I’d never felt that much loss in two years of my life. And then to come back again and win again after feeling that loss, there’s no understanding of yourself like that. So any athlete who left the sport undefeated, I question: ‘Are you really undefeated, or did you not challenge yourself as hard as you could have? And if you did, what would it look like on the other side?’”
Dominick Cruz understands the appeal of bowing out early with a pretty record. Former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov was one of the rare ones to do so successfully.
“I get it, you’re undefeated — but like, are you undefeated, or could you have just pushed a little harder to get that next level and get that loss? And then come back and reclaim the loss with a win and see what your next level, your next evolution in life is? It’s not all about just winning and losing and being perfect. Nothing in life is that.
“You can’t dodge loss. You can’t dodge pain. You can’t dodge any of it. So what’s the point? You might as well just go right through it. The question is, when it does happen, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to just give up and say I’m retired and quit, or are you going to get back on the horse and see what else you can be?”
Dominick Cruz has always been a good example of how to handle yourself coming off of a loss. Many UFC fighters remain classy in defeat, even though losing is one of the sport's toughest aspects.
