Dominick Cruz returned from a three-year injury layoff to claim a spectacular first round TKO victory over Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178 on Saturday night, and then rekindled an old feud with the Team Alpha Male fight camp.
Following his 61 second destruction of Mizugaki, Cruz stated in his post-fight interview that, “Nothing’s changed. I’m just looking forward to beating up more Alpha Fails”.
Cruz has a long-running rivalry with Team Alpha Male leader Urijah Faber who he’s fought twice in his career already, going 1-1, as well as coaching opposite him on The Ultimate Fighter: Live, a show that made it perfectly clear these two just don’t like each other.
Immediately following the fight Faber offered some half-hearted respect for Cruz while taking a subtle jab at his finishing record, writing on Twitter, “1st finish for @TheDomin8r not too shabby.”
However, after watching Cruz’s post-fight comments, Faber had more to say for himself.
“Negativity continues 2 boil over 4 Dom. Guys itching 4a whoopn, if @TJDillashaw gets 1st whack DC will only have losses 2 one team.”
““I think Faber needs to keep coaching, trying to do his thing,” Cruz responded on the UFC 178 post-fight show. “Because obviously he didn’t listen to Dillashaw’s coach, and he hasn’t gotten any better. The record I know Faber has is the most consecutive (UFC) title tries and losses. What are you talking about Faber? Settle down.”
Despite Cruz and Faber’s feud building up again it will indeed be another Team Alpha Male fighter and current UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw who will be getting the first crack at Cruz with a title fight between them being confirmed by Dana White in the aftermath of Saturday night’s event, though a date has not yet been announced for the showdown.
