Dominick Cruz sees a hard lesson in Conor McGregor’s UFC injury
The UFC Hall of Famer told TMZ Sports that McGregor’s setback could become a turning point beyond fighting.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Dominick Cruz thinks Conor McGregor’s latest injury setback could end up doing more than keeping him out of the Octagon.
The newly inducted UFC Hall of Famer told TMZ Sports that McGregor may find a bigger lesson in the recovery than in any fight camp. Cruz, a former bantamweight champion who dealt with serious injuries during his own career, framed the situation as a personal test for the Irish star.
“I think that at the end, he’s going to learn that this happened for him, not to him,” Cruz told TMZ Sports. He added that the injury could make McGregor “a better man” if he chooses what Cruz described as the direction God wants for him.
McGregor has been dealing with the fallout from a UFC injury, and Cruz said he hopes the damage is not a full ACL tear. Cruz did not claim to know the final diagnosis in the TMZ Sports interview, but he said McGregor has the tools to get through the setback regardless of what the injury turns out to be.
Cruz speaks from a long injury history
Cruz’s message came with a résumé full of scars. He told TMZ Sports he hurt himself across three straight years while trying to return to the form that made him a champion. Among those setbacks, Cruz said, were two blown-out knees.
For Cruz, the hardest part of that stretch was not the training room or the fight itself. He said the injuries forced him to examine what was going on away from competition.
“As somebody who hurt myself three years in a row, back to back to back, that’s where I learned the most that it wasn’t the training or my body that was the problem,” Cruz told TMZ Sports. “It was my mind, my heart, and my soul that were creating the physical problems in my body.”
Cruz said he believes McGregor will come to understand that kind of lesson only by living through it. His point: recovery can test a fighter in places the cage cannot reach.
Fighting as the bonus, not the whole life
Cruz also told TMZ Sports that McGregor’s path back is not only about athletic ability. He said his own recovery improved once he handled the rest of his life first.
“Once I got my things sorted in regular life, which is 90% of what we live,” Cruz said, “fighting becomes the gift, the cherry on top. It’s not the thing you need to save you.”
The comments came during a big moment for Cruz himself. TMZ Sports also spoke with him about his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame, an honor the outlet said was especially meaningful for the longtime MMA standout.
For McGregor, Cruz’s advice lands as a veteran’s warning and encouragement in one package: heal the body, but do not ignore the rest.
This story draws on original reporting from TMZ.