Just like his bitter-rival Urijah Faber did at UFC 175, Dominick Cruz will headline the upcoming preliminary card opposite Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178, which goes down on Sept. 27, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And though the former bantamweight champion didn't ask to be placed on the prelims like "The California Kid" did, he has no issue with it. Because at the end of the day, there will likely be more "cheapskates" viewers tuning in to catch the free portion of the event, which will air on FOX Sports 1.
One of the very few things Faber and Cruz can see eye-to-eye on.
Plus, fighting on FOX will give Cruz a chance to show all of his colleagues over at the network just what he can do when he takes off his high-dollar suit and dons a pair of UFC gloves.
UFC Tonight has the the details (via MMA Fighting):
"FS1 is in 90 million households. It did 735k viewers on my teammate Ross Pearson's fight. At this point with the last two-plus years off, I'm just pumped to FINALLY be in there fighting again, period. My team at FOX Sports has been with me through this entire injury, witnessing me go crazy watching each and every fight card. Now I get to go show them, alongside the rest of the world, how I can fight. It's not a downfall in any way at this point in the fight world to be on prelims anymore with these kind of views that FOX gets. It's my pleasure, and I'm absolutely PUMPED to just compete again!"
While it's now unlikely to bring in one million pay-per-view (PPV) buys, the main card line up for UFC 178 is pretty stacked (see it here).
The revamped event will be spearheaded by a flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso, while the co-main event will be a tasty one, as recently-signed Eddie Alvarez takes on Donald Cerrone.
Also, Conor McGregor will look to keep his hype train going when he takes on Dustin Poirier, and Tim Kennedy challenges Yoel Romero in middleweight fisticuffs. In ladies action, Cat Zingano and Amanda Nunes will round out the PPV portion of the fight card.
The fight will mark Dominick's return after a lengthy layoff, thanks to a string of unfortunate injuries and setbacks.
And staying true to his word, in his quest to climb back to the top,"The Dominator" doesn't mind taking his time and starting from the bottom when other former champions probably wouldn't be so cooperative.