"The referee gave him a nice gift" - Dominick Cruz reflects on his loss to Henry Cejudo at UFC 249

Dominick Cruz lost to Henry Cejudo via a second-round TKO at UFC 249. Cejudo delivered a vicious knee to put the former bantamweight champion on the ground and landed a barrage of punches before referee Keith Peterson stepped in. Triple C then went on to announced his retirement after his third successful title defense in the bantamweight division at the event.

Dominick Cruz was extremely disappointed with the fight being stopped and deemed it to be an early stoppage. Cruz has repeatedly been critical of the way the match was officiated and even accused referee Keith Peterson of reeking of alcohol and cigarettes.

In a recent interview, Dominick Cruz once again expressed his reservations about the decision. Dominick Cruz told Ariel Helwani of ESPN MMA:

"If you talk to the rest [the referees], you have a couple of things you need to do in order to keep the fight going. You need to be defending yourself and you need to be working into a better position. I was doing both of those things when the fight got stopped," said Cruz.

"You can’t be knocked out while you’re standing up on your feet, while somebody is hanging on to you. Like… I was okay. So it was hard for me to get stopped when it was a premature stoppage, one hundred percent. I don’t believe I lost that fight, I believe Keith Petersen took that fight," Cruz added.

Dominick Cruz has a great MMA career

Dominick Cruz has had arguably one of the best careers in UFC history although he lost almost a decade during his prime due to various injuries. The former two-time UFC champion has victories over Ian McCall, Joseph Benavidez (twice), Urijah Faber (twice), Demetrious Johnson, Takeya Mizugaki and TJ Dillashaw.

Talking about the importance of putting the title on the line, Dominick Cruz told Ariel Helwani:

"That’s why you have to commend Usman who’s been holding it the way he has, he's cleaned out the division. I’ve done that before, whether new fans know that or not. I’ve been that guy, and to me, that’s the sign of a real champion."

"It isn’t if you can win the belt, it’s how long can you hold it. How long can you stay at the top with that target on your back and keep it flowing and keep defending and defending and defending?" Cruz added.