In what is simply an incredible comeback story regardless of a debatable decision, Dominick Cruz is once again the UFC Bantamweight Champion.
An insanely close five round fight with T.J. Dillashaw ended with scores wildly all over the place to give Cruz the split decision win, with a 49-46 score in Dillashaw’s favor being the dissenting opinion. With the win, Cruz recaptured the title he’d been stripped of two years ago.
Dillashaw attempted to play the aggressor throughout the fight, both struggling and succeeding in finding his range to land strikes. Cruz’s movement was a problem for him at times, as Cruz managed to avoid a lot of significant damage in several very similar rounds. A key difference at times in the fight were Cruz scoring takedowns – something that had never been done to Dillashaw in his career – and even though Cruz did nothing with them, they scored in his favor.
Ultimately, Dillashaw’s damage late down the stretch and his work early in the fight wasn’t enough to convincingly hold onto the belt, and Cruz now once again sits on top of the bantamweight field. He left the fight with a foot injury – one which he claimed to have suffered coming into the event – and now the hope will be that it’s not another 16 months before we see the belt defended.
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TJ got fucing robbed!
Razor thin?? Two of the three judges either need eye exams or were high or weren’t watching the fight the third judge and the rest of us saw.. 49-46 for either guy was/is laughable I’m sorry.. 4rnds to 1 for either guy is egregious judging errors to say the least.
I scored it 49-46 Dillashaw, but those rounds were so close I have no real issue for anything ranging 49-46 TJ to 48-47 Cruz. The 49-46 for Cruz is the only one that doesn’t make sense to me.
I love Cruz. I had it 48-47 for TJ.
4 and 5 are indisputably TJ. I had 1 and 3 for Cruz, but upon rewatch I gave 2 and 3 to Cruz. So, both times I went 48-47 TJ by different methods.