Dominick Cruz

“This is a game where if you don't have people who dislike you, then you don't know what it is to be liked. I've had a lot of dislike thrown at me in this game, but I've also had a lot of love.”

“I don't need to beat Faber, because his ego will always beat him. He's got excuses for every loss he's ever had.”

“At a certain point, when I let go and was done - when I stopped and could say I was blessed and thankful to be a champion, when I finally enjoyed life from this different perspective - that's when I healed. Letting go healed me.”

“Regardless of how tough you think you are, regardless of how good you think your chin is, we're all only one connected punch away from being hurt, and you've just got to hope your chin holds up and your body holds up.”

“I kill hype for a living.”

“If you want to be that world champion, you have to be willing to beat anybody on this planet - no strings attached.”

“I'm not always 'Dominick Cruz, Tough Guy.' Depression runs in my bloodline.”

“I think we are here to challenge ourselves and make ourselves better people and not just sit around in the world simply floating through life. You should be trying to do something great and making yourself better. You should be trying to evolve. That's what I'm trying to do, and that is very important to me.”

“I've never not owned a stick shift. There's something about manual transmissions that I really appreciate and enjoy. And besides that, I like driving; I enjoy driving.”

“Even when I was hurt with triple ACL reconstructive surgeries, there was a target on my back. I had to come back and fight through it.”

“You have two choices: You can take what you're given or build with what you've got. I choose to build with what I've got and try to make the best of it because I've still been given a stage. I've still got cameras in front of my face when I want them, and I plan to run with it.”

“What good is power if there's no connection point? My entire style's built around that actual basis.”

“At five years old, I became the man of the house. When he left, my dad let me know that. It put a certain drive in me that I can't explain.”

“When I'm done fighting, I want to look to get some sort of driving career somewhere. My goal is to eventually get into the Mint 400 and do the trophy truck stuff.”

“Once I dedicated my time to mixed martial arts, I became careful about what I let into my mind. I made a goal of being the best on Earth in mixed martial arts and fighting. I wanted to build my mind into something good, not just of the world. I wanted to be different.”

“I didn't grow up with a lot of money, so my mom didn't have random money to buy me a car, and I didn't have money to have a car unless I worked, so I didn't get a car until I got my first job at 18.”

“I feel that I fell somewhat under that category where I was using fighting to kind of run from my own self to an extent, to kind of numb the things that I thought about myself. When I had fighting taken away, I was forced to look at myself in the mirror and say, 'What are you without fighting?'”

“The whole point of this game is that everything flows together in one simple movement... it should just flow and be fluid. And that's what I want to bring to the table every single time I fight. And I enjoy making it look, you know, like an art.”

“There's more to the sport than just fighting, and you either understand that, or you don't. And if you don't, then I promise you the guys that are worth money don't want to fight you, because you don't get it.”

“Loss is part of life. If you don't have loss, you don't grow.”