Former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (24-3 MMA, 7-2 UFC) recently revealed why he did not have a manager. He said it made no sense to pay someone to set up fights for him.
“In the UFC, we’re signed to a six-fight contract,” the former two-time UFC Bantamweight Champion said. “Are we not? Four-fight contract usually at the lowest. So why would I pay somebody for four fights when it’s set after one? That doesn’t make sense to me,” Cruz said in an episode of The MMA Hour on Monday.
“And then on top of that, with a manager, how are they supposed to be bringing in sponsors if the UFC dictates the sponsors? So now the UFC dictates the sponsors, and UFC dictates the contract, so what is the manager actually doing? They’re just talking and creating the communication.”
Cruz said he used the services of a manager as an intermediary to renegotiate a new multi-fight contract. Apart from that, “The Dominator” said he prefered to run his own show.
“I’ve had to learn,” Cruz said. “I’ve been in the game for 16-plus years, so it’s like, after a while, you’ve built some relationships with people and you understand. I’ve got a good relationship with [UFC matchmaker] Sean Shelby in the sense of communication.
“If he wants to talk to me, he can reach out to me. And I think a lot of us fighters can do that with Sean Shelby whenever we want. You’ve just got to have the huevos to do it because he’s a good talker and he knows how to get under your skin, and he knows how to throw this guy at you.”
Advice for fighters
Cruz said having a direct line of communication with UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell and UFC matchmakers had been beneficial to him.
“They’ve always been willing to work with me,” Cruz said. “I just don’t talk [to them] like a prick. It’s really easy if you just talk to them—talk to Hunter, talk to Sean Shelby. They’re very open to listen to you if you can create the conversation from a neutral place.”
“It’s when you come at them all crazy [is when things go wrong], ‘I deserve this.’ You’ve just got to come from a neutral place. Nobody deserves anything. You earn everything get in this sport, so you’ve got to understand they’re running a business.”
Returning to cage
The No. 8 UFC bantamweight fighter will return to action this Saturday at Pechanga Arena in San Diego against fifth-ranked Marlon Vera (21-7-1 MMA, 13-6 UFC).
After losing to Cody Garbrandt at UFC 207 in 2016, the 37-year-old did not fight again until 2020, when he faced Henry Cejudo at UFC 249. From 2008 to 2016, Cruz recorded a 13-fight winning streak, but he was injured frequently.
In August 2020, Vera became the first fighter to defeat the rising star Sean O’Malley. Vera won three of his last four fights, including two over former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and fellow 135-pound contender Rob Font.