Jimmie Rivera claims that he had worries about Dominick Cruz’s propensity for injury ahead of their scheduled match-up on Dec. 30
Unfortunately for Rivera, Cruz’s broken arm sustained in training justified his concerns.
Cruz has had a torrid time with injury in his professional career which has seen him have more of his fair share of time out of the sport. Although Rivera had reservations about taking the fight, the likely prize of being next in line to face bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw was too much to pass up (via MMAJunkie.com):
“At the beginning I was like, ‘I hope he doesn’t get hurt,’” Rivera told MMAjunkie. “Then day after day, I forgot about it because I have to focus on getting ready for a fight. I can’t train and have it in the back of my mind – ‘What if he gets hurt?’
“I have to train balls to the walls and assume he’s not going to get hurt and we’re going to fight Dec. 30. Now about five weeks out this happens.”
Rivera believes that it is Cruz’s unique style, one which has brought him major success over the course of an illustrious 17-year professional career:
“I’m not trying to be a dick about it or anything like that, but he’s out, he’s hurt, and he’s really accident-prone,” Rivera said. “He always gets hurt; it’s always one thing or another. It comes down to his style of fighting. My coach and I sat down and studied it getting ready for this fight, and it’s not practical. He’s more injury-prone than he realizes with his style of fighting.”
Despite his disappointment in losing Cruz as an opponent, “El Terror” wishes the former 135-pound king a “speedy recovery”:
“I have nothing against him,” Rivera said. “It’s a game, and I know I have to go out there and talk smack on Twitter, but I hope he has a speedy recovery.
“No one likes to be hurt. It sucks to be hurt, and I’ve been there. It sucks. Hopefully, he has a speedy recovery.”
