Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz was taken by surprise when a man he once considered among his biggest enemies recently showed him some love.
Cruz (24-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) decided to retire after a recurring shoulder injury forced him out of his UFC Fight Night 252 co-headliner vs. Rob Font, which was slated for this Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
Cruz revealed that T.J. Dillashaw reached out to him with some advice shortly after. Cruz edged out Dillashaw in 2016 to reclaim the bantamweight title after returning from a more than three-year layoff due to injury.
“I’ve gotten a few notes from some big names. One of the ones that stood out to me was T.J. Dillashaw. He actually reached out to me,” Cruz said Monday on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I was shocked. He gave me a recommendation for a shoulder doctor, and he said he was looking forward to watching me compete and was sorry that I couldn’t. T.J. obviously, Faber obviously, Danny Ricardo from F1.
“(Ricard) recently retired, and so he shared some of his sentiments, what he was going through, and obviously I can relate to that because he’s in a very dangerous sport, too. Just people who have been through a lot in their life and continue to keep moving forward, those are the ones I can resonate with. …When they reach out, it shows that there’s some strand of connectivity that we’re all on.”
Former two-time UFC bantamweight champion Dillashaw himself decided to call it a career in 2022 after undergoing multiple surgeries on his shoulder.
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