VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Coming off Dana White’s Contender Series last summer, UFC on ESPN+ 27’s [autotag]Aalon Cruz[/autotag] rode a wave of momentum.
His viral flying knee knockout over Steven Nguyen at DWCS 22 earned him an automatic contract from UFC president Dana White in July. Since that time, however, Cruz (8-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) has been on the shelf, nursing a thumb injury.
“In that fight, I actually partially tore my UCL in my thumb and a strained two other ligaments,” Cruz told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “It was at the point where I couldn’t turn a doorknob. I couldn’t open a bottle of water. I couldn’t do anything.”
The injury even prevented Cruz from fighting in his hometown of Tampa, Fla. this past October. It was frustrating, Cruz said, but he had to do what was best for his body and defer.
“There was a fight in Tampa – in my town,” Cruz said. “It was really hard for me not to have that fight, because it’s rare they even come to Tampa. They come to Tampa like once every three years. I was really contemplating, ‘Maybe, I just go in there and hope I don’t hit my thumb. I’ll try to finish the fight in 30 seconds.’ Obviously, that’s really hard to do. We just took our time and we wanted to be prepared for the debut and really make a statement my debut fight.”
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Despite it being almost seven months since his highlight-reel knockout, Cruz thinks momentum is back behind him. Although it may have faded over the past few months, the UFC’s recent re-promotion of the finish has rebuilt what was lost, according to Cruz.
“I definitely probably lost some of the momentum,” Cruz said. “For one, I told the (UFC social) media guys, ‘When you first posed that flying knee, I didn’t get tagged in it.’ It’s not really like I got anything from that. Then, Tired to repost it on my Instagram and I got blocked for seven days, so that was tough. They just reposted it this week on all of their social media and they tagged me and everything. Now, I am getting all that hype back. Everybody is hitting me up and everyone is ready to see me. They’re reminded, ‘I remember that fight.’ Now, they’re ready to see me make my debut. I think the hype is back.”
Cruz takes on short-notice replacement and fellow promotional newcomer Spike Carlyle (8-1 MMA, 0-0) on the UFC on ESPN+ 27 prelims. The card takes place Saturday at Chartway Arena in Norfolk, Va. The card streams on ESPN+.
Check out MMA Junkie’s full UFC on ESPN+ 27 pre-fight interview with Aalon Cruz in the video above.
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