Dominick Cruz reveals UFC Seattle will be his final fight

Dominick Cruz will soon be making the walk to the Octagon for the final time.

Cruz is set to return in the co-main event of UFC Seattle against Rob Font on February 22. It will be the first time the former bantamweight champ fights since August of 2022 and he says it will be the last time he competed.

“For me, it is,” Cruz said when asked if he thinks this will be his last fight. “(It’s) not because of my mentality, not because of my skillset. Yeah, I lost my last fight, but I was in that fight every minute of the fight. When I got finished, I was going for the kill, which got me hurt. It wasn’t one of those situations where I was bowing out of the fight. It was that I was in the fight trying to kill the guy, and I hurt myself, and that led to the finish eventually.

Dominick Cruz says injuries plays a factor in decision

“I looked at that fight. I go, ‘Okay, don’t be too harsh on yourself. This is part of the game. You get hit. You get caught. These things happen.’ But I was in the fight. I wasn’t slower, I wasn’t looking behind a step,” Cruz added. “I wasn’t not choosing the good techniques. Those are all things I add to my mindset before moving into this last nine months as well. The skills are still there. It’s just a matter of all the injuries and stuff. Can I keep them together to get through the camp? The camp is the hard part. We all know that. It’s not really the fight.”

Even if Dominick Cruz wins and turns back the clock, he believes UFC Seattle will be the final time he fights.

Cruz is 24-4 and will turn 40 years old in March, so he’ll retire just before he turns 40. Cruz is the former bantamweight champ and has notable wins over Demetrious Johnson, Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, and TJ Dillashaw among others.