Dominick Cruz recounts the marketing advice he received from Conor McGregor: “Those are moments in time I look back at”

Dominick Cruz is recounting the marketing advice he received from Conor McGregor.

Cruz (24-4 MMA) last fought and was defeated by Marlon Vera (23-8 MMA) in a bantamweight bout in August of 2022.

‘The Dominator’ spoke on the ‘Anik & Florian’ podcast, reflecting on his career in MMA.

In doing so, the 38-year-old shared a conversation he had with Conor McGregor back in 2014:

“I’ll take you back to one story in particular that I haven’t talked about that I was thinking about the other day. I had just beat Takeya Mizugaki in a minute after a long lay off that everybody said I was doing something that nobody could ever do, ring rust exits blah blah blah all this stuff.”

Dominick Cruz fought and defeated Takeya Mizugaki (23-14 MMA) by KO at UFC 178 in September of 2014.

Continuing, Cruz said:

“I get done and I win and I come up to the top and I’m sitting next to Conor and he’s got his pearl white suit and his hair up with a viking look going on at the time. He shakes my hand and he goes ‘very nice fight, you’re a legend, OG in the sport’ like whatever, like very kind.”

The former two time champion shared the advice the Irishman gave him:

“He goes ‘man, you should go up there and grab those belts, just stand up with them right on your shoulders and just tell everybody that you’re here and that you’re the champion’.”

As for that advice, Dominick Cruz decided to remain ‘humble’:

“I remember looking at him and thinking well he’s really good, he’s gonna rise right up and this is what up and comers look like but I’m just going to keep quiet. I’m gonna sit here and I’m gonna do my job and I’m gonna be respectable and humble because I don’t know what comes next, I just don’t know what comes next and that’s not marketing.”

Concluding, Dominick Cruz reflected on that decision (h/t MMANews):

“Marketing is do it, apologize later if you need to, maybe. I just went the respectful route and those are moments in time I look back at and think that’s the difference in marketing versus not. It’s do you get up there and while I believed in myself, I also just had a different direction in mind whereas Conor would’ve gone up there, grabbed the belt and threw them over his shoulder.”  

What do you think of Cruz’s decision to remain ‘respectful’ back in 2014? Would you like to see the ‘The Dominator’ back in the cage this year?

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