Dominick Cruz returned to the UFC Octagon for the first time since October of 2011 on the prelims of UFC 178. No one really knew what to expect from the former bantamweight champ in his return, but he made a very serious statement in a very short amount of time.
Cruz, who was facing Takeya Mizugaki, came out, spent a few seconds feeling things out on the feet and then scored a takedown and unleashed a violent barrage of punches. Mizugaki appeared to be on the verge of knocked out over and over again, but managed to make it slightly more than one minute before the referee had to jump in. Officially the stop came at 1:01 of round 1.
Cruz was in tremendous form after the layoff and in old form on the microphone after the fight as well, saying that he wanted to beat up more “Alpha Fails” referring to Team Alpha Male, the gym that is home to his old rival Urijah Faber.