Dominick Cruz has not let go of his title loss to Henry Cejudo.
Cruz was knocked out by Cejudo in their bantamweight title fight at UFC 249 in May 2020. Cruz immediately protested the stoppage to referee Keith Peterson, and later accused him of smelling like alcohol and cigarettes.
The now retired Cruz (24-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) says the Cejudo rematch is the one fight that got away, and unloaded on Peterson as he reflected on the loss.
“I’m on my feet, I’m up, and there’s one second left on the clock and ‘all nonsense’ Keith Peterson is a complete f*ck up for that,” Cruz said in an interview with Demetrious Johnson. “It’s the only sporting event in the world going on, there’s one second left on the clock, I’m on my feet. I did my job as a fighter, and he failed as a referee. A complete failure, and on multiple occasions he’s kept doing it. So yes, that fight got away from me, and it taught me that yes, I got hit. I shouldn’t have got clipped. 100 percent, I took responsibility for that, and I told Keith Peterson that.
“I get dropped almost every fight, get back up, and whoop your ass after that. I knew this was going to be part of it. I knew the first three rounds was going to be a war with Henry. He’s not a chump, but I knew after that was my timing, and he knew that, too. There’s a game we’re playing, so you’ve got to let me play the game, and Keith Peterson took that opportunity away from me, took half of my check from me, because he wanted to look at Henry and listen to Henry. Dude, you are a weakling. You are a weak human for that. So get your life together and come back and get in and ref.”
Cruz hung up his gloves in February after a shoulder injury forced him to withdraw from his UFC Fight Night 252 matchup against Rob Font. The two-time UFC bantamweight champion is widely regarded as the greatest 135-pounder of all time.
