Cruz sees himself when he watches UFC champ Dillashaw

Dominick Cruz, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight champ, sees a lot of similarities to himself in the style of current champion T.J. Dillashaw.

Cruz says it's no accident.

"People are comparing us because T.J. Dillashaw himself says he took a lot of the things I do and used them for himself," Cruz said. "He said it out of his own mouth. That being said, what are people supposed to think? He's been pretending to be me for all his training partners for how long? He had to do that. He can't even deny that. He had to do it to help (Urijah) Faber get ready for me, he had to do it to help (Joseph) Benavidez get ready for me twice. He can't deny he took a lot of those things because obviously he was beating up his teammates when he was pretending to be me and using my style against them."

Dillashaw, who like Cruz has a wrestling background, has indeed implemented much of the approach that made Cruz a champion before a series of injuries led to a stripping of his belt and just one fight in the past four years. Both fighters are in constant motion in the standup, using horizontal and vertical movements to create striking angles.

Now they will see who does it best when Dillashaw defends the belt against Cruz in the main event of a Fox Sports 1 card on Jan. 17.

Cruz has battled through several knee injuries in the past few years. He finally returned in September 2014 after almost three years out of action with a spectacular first-round knockout of Takeya Mizugaki, only to suffer another knee injury in training weeks later.

Now that he has a set date to again fight for the title, Cruz no longer feels like a forgotten former champion.

Cruz admits there was a time when he had trouble dealing with the setbacks.

"For someone to say there wasn't a part of my life where I was depressed and at a low would be silly," said Cruz, who has won 11 straight fights. "It would be dumb for me to not admit that. Of course I had those moments, I'm human."

The key for him was learning to deal with the adversity. He said it's important to give yourself time to grieve and then letting it go when it's time to get back to work.

For Cruz, that was about one week. Another factor that helped him get through the past four years was the realization that fighting is just a job.

"I've been enjoying my life outside of fighting," he said. "Fighting is just a small part of what I do, it's not my life. When I blew my knee out, I focused on other things, I wasn't just focused on when I could get back to fighting or feeling sorry that I didn't get to compete. Instead, I focused on being a championship (TV) analyst for lack of a better term and focused on other people in my life, building relationships and evolving as a man. There's so many things bigger than fighting, so many things. It's just a tiny part of what we do. I've been focusing on all those other things, and it's just going to make me a better man when it's all said and done."

Despite the time away, Cruz looked as good as ever in beating Mizugaki. He scoffed at naysayers who said the injuries could severely impact his style, which is so reliant on speed and agility.

"Remember that when people say you're going to lose something, they're speaking from their own insecurities," Cruz said. "They're not speaking about you. People are making a judgment upon their own thoughts of themselves, and they portray it onto you because everybody wants to see you do great but never better than them. I believe that very much. When people said I'd never be great again, I'd never have the speed I had before, all of that was them putting their own stipulations on to me. I don't listen to other people or what they think their own capabilities are, or even worse, what they think my capabilities are. It's so silly and insignificant what other people's mental weaknesses are. I don't have those. I'm very confident that I'm going to go out there and do my job, and I'll be prepared when it's time."

No location or other fights have been confirmed for the event.

UFC MOTION DISMISSED — A request by UFC parent company Zuffa to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed by a group of former fighters was denied Friday in a Las Vegas courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware ruled the case can proceed after lawyers from both sides represented their arguments for almost 90 minutes.

Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Kyle Kingsbury, three of the 11 fighters named as plaintiffs, were present. The suit alleges the UFC is a monopoly, citing restrictive contracts and the organization's acquisition of several smaller fight promotions among several reasons.

The UFC issued a statement after the ruling.

"The court correctly explained that on a motion to dismiss it must consider all the factual allegations in the complaint as true, and the complaint must be liberally construed in favor of the plaintiffs," the statement read. "Using that standard, the court denied the motion to dismiss. As we have consistently stated, UFC competes in a lawful manner that benefits athletes around the world and has created a premier organization in the sport of mixed martial arts. We look forward to proving that the allegations in the complaint are meritless."

UFC 192 ON TAP — Daniel Cormier will defend the UFC light heavyweight belt against Alexander Gustafsson in the main event of UFC 192 on Saturday in Houston.

The pay-per-view card will also feature a welterweight bout between Tyron Woodley and former champion Johny Hendricks.

Former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans will return after almost two years out of action because of knee injuries to fight Reno native Ryan Bader.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj