Former UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz recently underwent successful surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee, an operation that Cruz says will likely keep him on the shelf for up to nine months.
“It went well,” Cruz said regarding his surgery on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I’ve obviously done this more times than I’d like. I’ve become pretty used to the sequence of events that take place. Right now, I’m in a machine that kind of bends my leg and I get to move it 10 degrees each day. I’m on 80 degrees today, 90 degrees tomorrow then I go see the doctor on Thursday and then rehab starts.”
Cruz continued, “I’m right on track, surgery was very successful and I am absolutely optimistic. I am looking at probably nine months. A typical ACL surgery is six to nine months, minimum. I’m just going to say nine months, because that’s what the doctors say. That can be later or a little bit sooner. There is no way that it will be faster than six months.”
In the meantime, Cruz will sit on the sidelines with vested interest as current UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw defends his title against Renan Barao in a rematch at the upcoming UFC 186 pay-per-view on April 25th.
As far as the Dillashaw-Barao rematch is concerned, Cruz is going with the Team Alpha Male member to prove his first victory was no fluke.
“I got to go with Dillashaw again,” said Cruz. “I like Barao, but after watching his last fight, watching Dillashaw, his self-confidence and mind is in a different place. I think Barao having that loss definitely shook him. Getting the last win, it really put some wind underneath his sails. It gave him a lot of confidence and let him know that he is as good as he was in his mind. But, it really comes down to Dillashaw, who went out there and beat him. The beating he took from Dillashaw like that, isn’t easy to get your mind past. He got knocked out and beat down for four rounds before that. Plain and simple.”
Talk about this on our official FACEBOOK page, or on our official TWITTER page. You can also talk about it in our popular FORUMS.
