Dana Dana White glad former UFC champ Dominick Cruz retired

UFC CEO Dana White fully supports Dominick Cruz’s decision to retire from MMA.

Former UFC and WEC champion Cruz (24-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC) was scheduled to compete in his final fight on Feb. 22 against Rob Font, but sustained another serious shoulder injury that forced him to pull the plug on his career sooner than planned.

It’s a sadly poetic end for Cruz, who, despite his many accomplishments, had his potential career successes reduced by an endless string of layoff and health issues. Still, he is likely to find himself in the UFC Hall of Fame one day, and White thinks it was the right call to stop pushing.

“I’m blown away that he hung in there as long as he did,” White told reporters at Saturday’s UFC 312 post-event news conference. “Who’s been more injured than this guy in his career? It’s fascinating. And the mental drive to just want to keep coming back and trying again and again and again after so many surgeries and so many injuries, you’ve got to give it to him. But I’m glad that he finally hung it up.”

Set to turn 40 on March 9, retirement was the inevitable conclusion for Cruz. He didn’t get the send-off fight he wanted, but already has a post-career infrastructure in place with his position as a UFC commentator, analyst and coach at the UFC Performance Institute in Mexico.

“When you have the type of experience and type of career he’s had, and you can sit in the booth and talk fights, it’s awesome,” White said. “He’ll have a great career after his career.”