VIDEO | Dominick Cruz reflects on loss to Cody Garbrandt with Joe Rogan

https://youtu.be/yLb6b7Cyyfw

Dominick Cruz has been plagued by injuries in the prime years of his career but came back to capture the UFC bantamweight title for the second time against TJ Dillashaw UFC Fight Night 81 last year. Cruz sucessfully defended his title against longtime rival Urijah Faber at UFC 199 but was unable to overcome Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 in December.

Following the loss, Cruz took the loss like a true champion and did not make any excuses for his performance. Speaking with Joe Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast this week, Cruz maintained the same frame of mind from the moment Garbrandt was declared the winner.

“Well, my thoughts are… I pretty much laid it all out right away, because I wanted to do just that, which was at the post-fight press conference,” Cruz said to Rogan. “I wanted, I literally laid every ounce of every thought I had out there, for everbody to hear at a point where I’m vulnerable. And I did that on purpose, to show that we’re not all the same. Some people don’t want to show their vulnerability. Some people just wanna be seen as only perfect, only tough, only strong and really, the truth of what makes people strongest people in the world is their vulnerability or until they learn how to be tough. Losing is part of that lesson, unfortunately, for everybody. And being unsuccessful is part of that lesson for people just as much as losing. You do what you can with it and that’s what I feel now. I do what I can with it.”

“The only way to make the best of it is to accept it right the second it happens, Cruz continued. “Understand that’s just the way it is. That’s the way that this has been slated for this portion of my life and just move forward. As long as you embrace it and don’t make excuses for it, then you can actually look at what you did wrong and take it in.”

The former champion stressed that when you accept the actual outcome of what happened regardless of the circumstances and throw all excuses out the window, that is when you will be able to address and remedy the problem.

“What’s the point of a loss if you’re not going to grow from it and get the most out of it? It’s just useless if you don’t accept it.”

This article first appeared on 2/24/2017.