Dominick Cruz wants Takeya Mizugaki in return

[The Great Cochrane]

It's been more than two and a half years since we last saw Dominick Cruz inside the octagon. The former bantamweight champion was scheduled to face then interim champion Renan Barao to merge the championships at UFC 169 after recovering from two ACL surgeries, but a groin injury forced him out of action and Cruz was stripped of the title.

But now he's finally healthy and ready to finally make his return to action, and The Dominator has an opponent on his mind - Takeya Mizugaki. On UFC Tonight, Cruz's camp made it known that he believes a win over Mizugaki will put him right back in the title picture.

Cruz was last seen defending his title against Demetrious Johnson at UFC on Versus from the Verizon Center in Washington DC, his only other UFC bout was a closely contested bout against Urijah Faber and also defended his title in the WEC against Joseph Benavidez and Scott Jorgensen.

Takeya Mizugaki is currently riding a 5 fight win streak with wins over Bryan Caraway, Nam Phan and most recently Francisco Rivera, who he fought at UFC 173.

Author: Alex Cochrane
Source: BJPenn.com

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I'm itching for a third Urijah Faber fight, it'd be interesting to see if Cruz beats Mizugaki then regains the championship only to defend against Urijah again. Oh.. the possibilities. I could also see Cruz getting reinjured though, which would suck 'cause he's an awesome fighter.

 

[Swinny]

I think this is a fight that makes sense. It's a winnable fight for Dominick after the long layoff but not a gimme fight and a huge win for Mizugaki if he could get it that would earn him a title shot.

 

[The Great Cochrane]

Yeah it definitely has title implications written all over it. I just hope Cruz doesn't pull a Chan Sung Jung and get injured in the middle of the fight.. that would suck donkey dick.