Lifelong Struggle Prepares Cruz for Title Shot

Dominick Cruz has one word for all the kids he went to high school with who laughed at him when he told them he was going to be a world-class athlete.

“There.”

The wrestler-turned-mixed martial artist will leap into the limelight Saturday when he takes on bantamweight champion Brian Bowles in Columbus, Ohio, at WEC 47.

It will be the culmination of untold hours, days and years of sacrifice for the 24-year old title hopeful, who has been scrapping since he became the man of his household at just 8 years of age.

Cruz, along with his brother, Derek, grew up in a small trailer in Tucson, Ariz., under the watchful eye of their mother, Suzette, who was separated from their father. The brothers watched their mother walk away from a full-time job because she couldn’t bear the thought of sending her boys to daycare.

Though her decision meant they would all be forgoing the creature comforts so many of us take for granted, it was a life lesson that continues to resonate for the championship hopeful.

“She gave up everything in her life to make things more comfortable for me and my brother,” said the once-beaten Cruz. “It’s not something to cry about. Like I said, it’s something I am actually thankful for because it made me such a strong person today.”

He will have to be the strongest he has ever been when he steps in against Bowles. The 29-year old champion, like Cruz, comes from an impoverished background and has climbed to the top of the 135-pound division on the strength of his anvil-like hands and an underrated ground game.

Bowles starched Miguel Torres last August to take the belt in just his eighth fight. The Georgia-based fighter has finished all of his bouts and has been to the third round just once.

Cruz acknowledges this will be one of toughest battles of his life. As always, though, he feels his life experience will give him that little edge.

“Life is a fight for everybody,” Cruz said. “I think life is one of the hardest things to deal with, and it breaks a lot of people. I’ve always put forth the effort info fighting that I put forth into my life just to get out of the harshness and the hard times of it. Every hard time I’ve been through has prepared me to be in the cage, and I think that people on a general basis can agree with me that life is tough and that anything you get through in life can go ahead and translate straight into fighting.”

Many of the principles he learned while growing up poor continue to play a big part in the way he lives today. Cruz has begun to earn a decent living as a fighter yet he still lives an ascetic lifestyle devoid of the trappings so many fighters get caught up in. Though his clothes have gotten a little nicer, Cruz still chooses to live in a small 10-by-10 foot studio. He says it helps keep him humble.

“I live my life to be great,” he said, “not just to live for myself but to do great things. MMA has become the avenue for me and given me the opportunity to do that. I always wanted something big for myself.”

For a bantamweight, it doesn’t get any bigger than the WEC title.

And though it could never come close to being an even exchange in Cruz’s eyes, giving the belt -- the symbol of his hard work and determination -- to his mom would surely be an appreciated gesture.

“This will be the biggest thing I will accomplish in my life come Saturday, and I’m speechless about the excitement and amount of work I’ve put in for this.”