It’s feast or famine for a lot of MMA fighters, as explained by former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz in a new interview.
“The Dominator” won the WEC 135 pound title in 2010, defending it three times before the promotion was folded into UFC. Things changed quickly for Cruz then: he fought the ultra-popular Urijah Faber and then future flyweight GOAT Demetrious Johnson within a span of three months.
The UFC, grateful for his service, gave him a ridiculously expensive car that did not match the humble lifestyle he was living.
“From 2010 to 2014 I lived in a one bedroom studio,” he told Johnson. “And I remember I fought you, and Dana gave me a GT-R for that fight.”
“I had to fight you on one month’s notice, after fighting Urijah Faber, back to back,” he continued. “They were like ‘All right, we’ll give you a GT-R if you do this.’ The car itself was more money that anything I had near my [bank] account my entire life. The car was worth about $125 grand. And I’m like … do I sell it? This is a lot of money! Is it stupid to keep this?”
“I’m pulling it up to a one bedroom studio, I’m in the back house behind somebody’s house, I’m using their laundry machine. I share laundry with this family. I pull up in a GT-R, they see me and they’re like, ‘Uh, we’re upping your rent!’ I was paying $700 a month, I couldn’t leave.”
A foolish fighter might decide to keep the car and bank on a future payday to fill the coffers, but you never know what’s coming in MMA.
Cruz would suffer multiple injuries back to back that left him unable to fight after the “Mighty Mouse” fight for three years. He’d get one fight in before another 2 year injury stretch, then three fights and another four year injury hiatus.
That’s just the unpredictable nature of the sport. One day you get a surprise six figure supercar, the next you get a surprise ACL tear. Unfortunately for Cruz, he got more surprise injuries than supercars.
