Even though I was finished quickly in that fight, I knew what I did during the short time I was in there and took confidence from what I was able to get done in that frantic first round. I knew the only reason I lost was because I made a silly mistake and played into his hands. I had absolutely no grappling going into that fight and everybody knew that would be a problem for me. It was.
After that I fight I came to the realisation that if I had the right coaching and worked on my grappling the way I needed to, I would only come back from that defeat a better fighter. I now had lessons to learn from and I set my mind on using that defeat as the turning point. I was only going to shoot for greatness from that point on.
Also, you take a lot of self-belief from knowing you have seen the best, confronted the best and hung with the best, if only for a short period of time. I knew I wouldn't come up against anybody as good as Faber for a few years, and that provided me with the necessary time to learn, develop, improve and catch up. I believed that, so long as I learnt my lessons, I would get better and better and would eventually reach a point where I'd be able to fight Faber again and be confident of getting the victory. That whole first experience with Faber just lit a fire under my butt and forced me to become the fighter I am today.
He goes onto discuss the rematch against Faber at UFC 132 this past July, a thrilling bout that Cruz won by unanimous decision. He talks about revenge a bit, but it really came down to proving something to himself:After that I fight I came to the realisation that if I had the right coaching and worked on my grappling the way I needed to, I would only come back from that defeat a better fighter. I now had lessons to learn from and I set my mind on using that defeat as the turning point. I was only going to shoot for greatness from that point on.
Also, you take a lot of self-belief from knowing you have seen the best, confronted the best and hung with the best, if only for a short period of time. I knew I wouldn't come up against anybody as good as Faber for a few years, and that provided me with the necessary time to learn, develop, improve and catch up. I believed that, so long as I learnt my lessons, I would get better and better and would eventually reach a point where I'd be able to fight Faber again and be confident of getting the victory. That whole first experience with Faber just lit a fire under my butt and forced me to become the fighter I am today.
I had to prove something to myself in that fight, and that is never easy. I am my own biggest critic, and it's taken years for me to believe in myself and reach a point where I feel I am the best in the world. I am harder on myself than anybody else ever could be. I needed that win over Faber to validate my claims and to prove to myself once and for all that I truly am the number one bantamweight in the world...
The second blog is unnecessarily wordy, just like the first one, but he does make some solid points again.
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