Dominick Cruz: IQ Fighter, Einstein Trash Talker

Leading up to UFC 207 the hype and media attention has focused massively on Ronda Rousey. Taking away that spotlight, especially during fight week, has been bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. Just last night he forced Cody Garbrandt to storm out of an interview, picking apart his Team Alpha Male foe with his surgeon-like trash talk. Giving himself a mental edge before his fights, ‘The Dominator’ has proven to be a proficient talker since coming back to the fight game. Defending his title against ‘No Love’ tomorrow (Friday December 30), Cruz once again puts much more than just the belt on the line.

Paying tribute to the champion’s elite striking and footwork, we’ll also break down what makes him such a great trash talker. Here it is, Dominick Cruz: IQ Fighter, Einstein Trash Talker!

IQ Fighter

Displaying some of the most technical footwork in combat sports history, Dominick Cruz’s movement is truly beautiful to behold. The secret of his dance is to slide just out of reach from his opponent’s attacks, and half step inside the range to land his own strikes clean. Against strikers from Team Alpha Male, this works almost to perfection. Defensively, Cruz is the most adept fighter in the division by far. Avoiding 76% of his opponent’s strikes, ‘The Dominator’ is as frustrating inside the cage, as he is when talking trash to his foes during interviews.

Stats

Although his strikes landed aren’t high up in the accuracy, with his elite defense they don’t need to be. Make no mistake, Cruz’s footwork only gets better with every fight too. Unbeaten in nine years, Cruz’s sole career loss came to Urijah Faber, one which he has since avenged twice over. Comparing Cruz to any other style of fighter from sports history is difficult, perhaps defensive boxing legend Willie Pep is a good fit. Pep, a two-time featherweight champion, was reported to have won the third round in his fight against Jackie Greaves in 1946 without throwing a single punch.

Here’s Cruz, in his own words, breaking down his striking and footwork as per MMAFighting back in 2014:

Expression

For me, it’s just an expression of how I fight because every step that you take to hurting somebody, to trying to win a fight, the first step taken has to be with your foot. It has to be a movement with your steps, where you move your feet. It has nothing to do with what your arms do, your hands, your head, nothing. It’s all about where your feet go to set you up for punches, kicks, everything else.

What I figured out with footwork that’s so difficult for people to understand is in order for footwork to be effective, you have to know what the other person is coming with next. In order for footwork to even have a part to play, you have to know your opponent’s next step.

I guess the answer to the question, though, is speed and plyometrics. Once I started learning the main gist of what I wanted to do, where I wanted to do it and how fast I wanted to do it, I started working on how to make it faster. The way to make any kind of footwork faster is plyometrics, jumping rope and tons and tons of drilling.

Einstein Trash Talker

Cruz’s defensive movements, much like Pep’s, are by design a guide to his attacker. They not only allow him to evade punches, but also leave him the perfect opportunity in offense. In truth, Cruz’s footwork, head movement and striking can be broken down to the purest of pugilistic fundamentals-to hit without being hit. This basic but perfected art is only effective when practised and honed to the nth degree. The very same can be said for his genius trash talking.

When slating his opponents pre-fight, Cruz has trained his verbal game mainly against TJ Dillashaw and Urijah Faber. In doing so, ‘The Dominator’ keeps things simple with his verbal onslaught, but uses his opponent’s unwillingness to commit as his own weapon. Just check out this snippet from the lead up to his Janiuary clash against ‘The Viper,’ it shows exactly how well Cruz can talk:

Simple But Hurtful

That basic but brutal method of breaking down fellow fighters before combat is far different from anything we’ve seen before. Looking at guys like Conor McGregor or Chael Sonnen, they utilize outrageous predictions and violent insults to get in their opponent’s skulls. Keeping to his overall methodology, Dominick Cruz asks simple questions, questions he already has the answers to, and forces his victims to face reality head on. This is something they have not been able to stand up to yet.

Watching last night’s interview with Cruz and Garbrandt was as entertaining as it was revealing. Observe as ‘The Dominator’ breaks down ‘No Love’ with a series of very basic, but extremely poignant questions and statements. Will Garbrandt prove to be the next victim of the IQ Fighter/Einstein Trash Talker of MMA?

Stay tuned.