UFC 178 in Las Vegas on September 27th is the new target for injury-plagued former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz’s long-awaited return where he’s scheduled to face Takeya Mizugaki.
By the time his fight comes around it’ll have been three years since Cruz last fought, largely due to a severe ACL injury. He attempted a comeback earlier this year, but was then forced to vacate his title earlier after another injury setback resulted in him pulling out of a title fight with Renan Barao.
The hope is that Cruz can now stay healthy and finally set foot in the Octagon again, though nobody knows quite what to expect from the once-dominant fighter who once ruled the roost at 135lbs in both the WEC and in the UFC with wins over the likes of current flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez (twice), Brian Bowles and Ian McCall.
He’ll certainly not have it easy against Mizugaki who’s in excellent form in the UFC at this moment in time with five victories in a row leaving him placed at No.5 on the UFC’s official rankings.
Mizugaki has actually fought in the UFC seven times since Cruz’s last bout which puts into some kind of perspective just how long he’s been out for.
UFC 178 will be headlined by potentially the biggest fight of the year as current UFC Light-heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones against the man who’s gave him the toughest test in his MMA career to date last year, Alexander Gustafsson.
