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Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz can relate to Conor McGregor's injury woes.
McGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) tore his right ACL and meniscus just 69 seconds into his comeback fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329. McGregor returned from a five-year layoff after breaking his left leg in July 2021.
"The Notorious" tried to compete earlier when he was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler in June 2024, but a broken pinky toe forced him out of that bout. Cruz went through a slew of leg injuries during his prime and is hopeful that McGregor can get back to his feet.
"I have nothing but positive energy to put toward him in his healing," Cruz said on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "An ACL, meniscus tear is what I heard it is, and I knew in my gut it was an ACL. You just don't know to the extent. Sometimes you can tear the ACL and everything else, but he just tore a meniscus and ACL, which is very repairable.
"The good news is because it's an ACL and meniscus – meniscus, that doesn't stop you. If it was MCL, he'd be stuck for a little while, like frozen for I think two to three months before you can even start bending the leg. He should be able to start moving that leg right away, which will really quicken the healing process for him."
Cruz was able to emerge victorious after multiple injury setbacks – which included three ACL tears. He came back from a three-year layoff in 2014 to knock out Takeya Mizugaki in just one minute at UFC 178. However, Cruz would find himself on the sidelines again after tearing the ACL on his other knee. After 16 months off, Cruz challenged T.J. Dillashaw for the bantamweight title in January 2016 and dethroned him in what is considered as one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history.
"I know what it takes, and it took a lot of looking at myself and realizing that martial arts was the only thing keeping me alive," Cruz said. "When I was injured, I was dying. I was not happy. I was not a good human to myself. I didn't enjoy myself. I didn't appreciate myself. I don't know how everybody in the world goes through life without this sport, without these things. You wake up every morning and you get in a fight, and you get punched in the face, and you get dropped, and you get up, and then you finish the round, and you do three more rounds, and you win the next three rounds, and you know who you are the rest of that day.
"That can go to anything. ... Nothing really can get to you after a day like that. When that gets taken away, you kind of lose like, 'OK, how do I create a measuring tape for myself on who I really am?' It's easy to get lost for a guy like me without that reference point. So, I can only imagine Conor because he has more access to – if he wants to go on a super yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean and get picked up on a helicopter and go somewhere, he can do that. I didn't have access to that. I got to work while I was injured because I had bills to pay and my sponsors left. I hadn't made my $100 million or whatever you want to call it. So, that saved me in a way."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dominick Cruz optimistic about Conor McGregor's 'very repairable' knee injury
