UFC 132 – Dominick Cruz says a hard training camp has set him up nicely to take out Urijah Faber in Las Vegas

UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz has been giving further food for thought on his upcoming fight this weekend at UFC 132 in Las Vegas, Nevada, explaining a hard training camp has set him up nicely to take out bitter rival, Urijah Faber inside the octagon.
Speaking via UFC.com, Cruz said:

“It’s something that’s sat with me for sure. I’ve been thinking about this fight for four years. When I first fought him, I thought I could beat him and I wanted to beat him. It didn’t go that way, but I’m getting my shot at redemption and I’m definitely excited for it, without a doubt. I was either hoping that we would be a main event or we would be coaches on the TUF show, and we got the main event, so I’m a happy man.”

“If anybody goes back through the years and watches me fight against Charlie Valencia, which was my first bantamweight fight after my loss against Urijah, they can see the development from that fight up until now in my fighting style and it’s definitely changed over the years. I focus very much on improving every single fight and trying to come out looking like a different fighter in every single fight. And that’s exactly what’s stumping people, that I never look exactly the same for any fight.”

“What gives me the confidence is knowing what I go through in my training camp. My training camps are so, so difficult, and I know with every ounce of my heart that everybody that I’m fighting hasn’t trained harder than me. They might be training just as hard, but there’s no way they’re training harder than me, and that gives me a lot of confidence. And the fact that I know I can’t get tired in five rounds of fighting gives me even more confidence, because in my opinion, if I don’t get tired, I can’t get beaten. It has nothing to do with being cocky. I know the skill set of the opponent that I’m fighting, I know what they bring to the table, but the things that I do in camp prepares me for every skill set and everything that they have to show me. And I’m confident in that, and definitely far from cocky.”

“Somebody who’s had as many fights as him (Faber), you know he’s a threat. He’s in the upper echelon of the weight class, and the things that he’s done over the years in MMA gives him the right to get a title shot. And the bottom line is that I’m excited to fight somebody that is in the top of the weight class because I want to fight the best guys in the world. And on top of that I get to kill two birds with one stone and beat the guy that gave me my only loss. There are a lot of people who could only pray for the situation that I’m in. I’m excited to go out there and prove what I can do.”

Cruz is on an impressive eight fight winning streak after defeating the likes of Joseph Benavidez and Scott Jorgensen in his last two bouts inside the WEC cage. This fight will be his first inside the UFC octagon. Stay tuned to MMABay for more build-up to this one as we get it.
By Michael Pepper.