Stacked UFC 178 Card Sees Dominick Cruz Fighting On The FOX Sports Prelims

Former UFC and WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will make his long-awaited return to fighting, after a near three-year absence from the sport. ‘The Dominator’ last competed at UFC Live: Cruz vs Johnson, where he defeated the current flyweight champion ‘Mighty Mouse’ to make the second defense of his unified 135-pound title.

Cruz was expected to return earlier this year against Renan Barao, but was forced to vacate the title due to yet another injury. Now scheduled to face Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178, it seems the former championship headliner will have to really work his way back up. The September 27 card has taken a big hit with Jon Jones pulling out of his grudge match against Daniel Cormier, but the line up is looking pretty damn stacked right now. Lest we forget, DJ vs Chris Cariaso for the flyweight belt now headlines the event.

With the recent addition of Eddie Alvarez vs Donald Cerrone as co-main event, Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier, and many other big names, the former champion Cruz has been relegated to the prelims section of the card. Unbeaten since 2007, and holding notable wins over pretty much everybody in the lower weight classes (TJ and Barao aside), ‘The Dominator’ has quite a hill to climb.

Indeed, the UFC 178 card is looking like the best offering of the year, even with “DC” vs “Bones”. Check out how the card is shaping up:

PPV Main Card

Champion Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso – for flyweight title

Eddie Alvarez vs. Donald Cerrone

Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier

Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero

Amanda Nunes vs. Cat Zingano

FOX Prelims

Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki

James Krause vs. Jorge Masvidal

Patrick Cote vs. Stephen Thompson

Brian Ebersole vs. John Howard

Fight Pass Prelims

Kevin Lee vs. Jon Tuck

Manny Gamburyan vs. Cody Gibson