UFC announces Dominick Cruz's return for September against Takeya Mizugaki

D. Cruz (photo) was bantamweight champion between 2010 and 2013. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC

The long awaited return of Dominick Cruz to the UFC Octagon finally has a new date set. It will be on September 27th, in Las Vegas (USA), when he will face Takeya Mizugaki on the UFC 178 card.

At 28 years old, Cruz, former UFC bantamweight champion, has been out of activity since October 2011, when he defended his title against Demetrious Johnson – now Ultimate flyweight champion. Since then, Cruz suffered a serious injury to his left knee, which forced him to stay away from fights for a long time. He even tried to return in February, when he would face Renan Barao, but suffered another injury (this time to the groin) and was stripped of his title.

Two years older, Mizugaki is enjoying a good moment in the UFC, with five consecutive victories – the last of which was against Francisco Rivera, in May. The sequence of positive results placed him in fifth place in the official bantamweight rankings, seven ahead of Cruz.

This was the third fight confirmed for UFC 178. In the main fight of the night, Jon Jones will put his light heavyweight belt on the line against Alexander Gustafson. The attraction will also feature a confrontation between middleweights Tim Kennedy and Yoel romero.