Dominick Cruz won back the bantamweight belt that he never lost when he defeated TJ Dillashaw at UFC Fight Night 81 on Jan. 17 in Boston, but didn’t emerge unscathed.
Cruz landed a 180-day medical suspension after the fight. While the governing body in Massachusetts does not reveal the medical reasoning behind a fighter’s suspension, Cruz publicly noted that he had an injured foot heading into the fight.
Luckily for Cruz, his injury had nothing to do his knees, which were a large part of the reason he was eventually stripped of the bantamweight championship. He had to spend a lengthy amount of time on the sidelines due to recurring knee injuries that kept him out of the Octagon.
“I did not re-injure my knee. My knee’s good. It’s my left foot,” Cruz noted at the UFC Fight Night 81 Post Fight Press Conference. “I had a foot injury before I came (to the fight), plantar fascia tendinitis. It’ll heal. It’s just really sore.”
Several other fighters, including Anthony Pettis and Travis Browne, joined Cruz with 180-day medical suspensions.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Safety on Friday released the medical suspensions to MMAWeekly.com.
UFC Fight Night 81: Dillashaw vs. Cruz took place Jan. 17 at TD Garden in Boston.
UFC Fight Night 81: Dillashaw vs. Cruz Medical Suspensions
Dominick Cruz: 180 days
Anthony Pettis: 180 days
Travis Browne: 180 days
Matt Mitrione: 180 days
Ross Pearson: 30 days
Ben Saunders: 180 days
Tim Boetsch: 45 days
Maximo Blanco: 30 days
Sean O’Connell: 30 days
Kyle Bochniak: 180 days
Joey Gomez: 45 days
Elvis Mutapcic: 30 days