Dominick Cruz expects the WEC to give him his title shot verses Brian Bowles.
MMAMADNESS.COM: How did you get started in MMA?
DOMINICK CRUZ: I wrestled my whole life. My whole life was based around wrestling growing up. I got through high school because I wanted to be on the wrestling team. That kept my grades up and everything. After I got done with high school, I really had to stop because I had to move out of my house. I had to start being an adult like everybody else in the world does, and do all of the jobs I had to do to pay rent. I didn’t have a chance to be on a college wrestling team, so I was just going to school, and coaching wrestling is what I ended up starting to do. I started coaching at a local high school, and then I started boxing at a local gym called Boxing Incorporated, which is in Tucson, Arizona, owned by a guy named George Castro, and I still go back to my home town to train. I went there and I went to train and I fell in love with boxing, started learning how to box, and a local guy from around there said he had a couple MMA fighters. They came in and I put it on them pretty good, they said hey, you should try doing MMA. So I trained for my first fight for about six months, and went out, took my first fight, won it, and I was addicted since then.
MM: What’s your first memory as a mixed martial artist?
DC: My first fight. I just wasn’t expecting to get choked as badly as I did. I definitely won the fight, but I really was just a wrestler at that point. I had no jiu jitsu skills whatsoever, just how to get out of some submissions, and I almost got put to sleep on several occasions. The only thing that got me through it was that I had a big heart and very stubborn. I made it through the fight and from then on I made the decision that I wasn’t going to let that be a problem anymore.
MM: What’s the best part of being a mixed martial artist?
DC: Being able to live every day doing a job that I love. I’m one of the few people that, I’m young and I’m able to do something that I love to do every single day. Waking up every day isn’t a chore, saying, ‘aw I’ve got to go work that nine-hour shift today,’ because I’ve done that, an it’s terrible, and it’s horrible, and everyday sucks. I get to wake up now and say, ‘oh I get to go train,’ and after I’m done training I take a little rest, and ‘oh, I get to go train again,’ and I just love what I do so much that it’s just great. I just feel blessed that I’m lucky enough to get to do what I love every day.
MM: Is there anyone in the sport that you look up to?
DC: I wouldn’t really say looked up to, since I didn’t know him at all, but one of the fighters that I wanted to fashion myself around was Tyson Griffin. He’s got a relentless pace, every single fight he comes out consistently looking the same way, and while he might not have the title at 155, I believe that he has all the tools.
MM: Is there a dream location you’d like to fight at?
DC: I love fighting here in San Diego, but I would love to fight in Phoenix, because I’m from Arizona. One of these days I’d love to be able to get a fight out in Phoenix and fight. All my home town could come out and watch me.
MM: So why don’t you have a nickname?
DC: I do! I’ve written it on every piece of paper and document I can to get them to say it, and the announcers don’t say it.
MM: What is it?
DC: The Dominator.
MM: That’s a great nickname. They won’t say that?
DC: No dude. I don’t know why. I write it on everything. I wonder sometimes, I’ve been thrown to the wolves since the beginning of my career in the WEC, I don’t know if people really realize that. I’ve fought nothing but the best guys in my weight class from the beginning, starting with Urijah [Faber]. I wonder sometimes what their deal is with me, if they hate me or something. I’ll just keep fighting my heart out and hopefully I’ll win them over.
MM: So why The Dominator?
DC: It started in high school. I was on the high school football team. When I was in high school I was very athletic, I loved sports, period, not just wrestling. I played baseball, basketball, everything. When I was on the football team I was just so little, I was 140 pounds, and I was trying to play on the varsity football team. I wasn’t fast, I was not the fastest little guy ever, and that’s what you need to be if you’re my size. I’m quick, so it’s different. I used to call myself the scrub team badass. All the starters would play against my team, the second string, in practice. All the starters used to like me because I just had balls. I would stand in there and I knew I was going to get ran over, because these guys were twice my size, and I would try and tackle them while they were on top of me. I’d trip them. It’s almost like the oxymoron because I wasn’t really the dominator back then, I was just a tiny guy that had a lot of heart and was tough.
MM: So what’s next for you in the sport? Do you start thinking title shot?
DC: From what I understand, I’m getting a title shot. I don’t think they can deprive me of that. I guarantee that if [Joseph] Benavidez had beaten me they would have given him a title shot, because that’s where they wanted him. I would hope that the WEC will grant me that wish and I’ve heard that they will. In my mind I’m preparing for a title fight against Brian Bowles, hopefully sometime in the near future.
