Dominick Cruz may have the top analytical mind in all of mixed martial arts.The reigning UFC bantamweight champion has long been recognized as a brilliant tactician inside the cage, and his work behind the desk at Fox Sports 1 is second to none. Cruz’s ability to assess and apply has created a complex puzzle for his opposition to solve, but he’s only recently begun to show other cards he’s holding.Throughout his career Cruz has proven to be quick on his feet in both literal and figurative senses. This has made him a fighter to watch in all aspects in a sport where the majority of those below the 155-pound mark struggle to capture the spotlight.“If people are interested in watching me fight that means I’m doing my job,” Cruz said. “The division wasn’t completely dead when I was gone, but it wasn’t talked about like it is now. Let’s be real. Before, we had guys talking about wanting to be champions but didn’t want to face certain people in the division because they were buddies with them. How do you expect to be the best champion in the world if you’re not willing to face everyone?“If there are people who you’re scared to face or go up against for whatever your reasons are then you are showing you’re not a true champion. A real champion fights anybody and I believe I’ve brought that back to this division. Me being called out five or six times in the past month by five or six different guys kind of paints that picture. That was not happening before.”His technical abilities inside the cage have been heralded for years, but his promotional talents have just recently surfaced. The lead up to his trilogy bout with Urijah Faber at UFC 199 proved his chops in the trash-talking realm, and just as Cruz is game to scrap, he’s also willing to do his part to sell a fight.“I’d like to think I’m doing a good job at it,” Cruz said. “Fans either love you for the way you promote or you talk and then follow up with your actions. That’s something I want to be known for. I want to be known for what I say is what I’m going to do. And I’ve been breaking down fights on the outside for so long that it translated because the things I’ve been talking about I’ve also been able to do.“I’ve been able to showcase the things I talked about inside the cage against the best guys in my division. That shows I can break things down, understand what I’m saying and doing then go use the things I’m talking about. I believe that has helped people understand what I’m doing out there and how I’m doing it.”There’s no doubt a deep-rooted rivalry helps draw attention to the fighters involved, but Cruz’s approach had a broader scope beyond notable soundbites heading into the fight with Faber in Los Angeles. Cruz has the patience and acuity to play the long game, which is a step above most where beef is concerned.“It really comes down to the way you attack the division,” Cruz said. “I’m going to be the best in the division. I am going to have to face all of those guys sooner or later because they’ve all been doing pretty well. Especially when I was out with injury, that Alpha Fail crew built up a lot of momentum. That’s great because I got to go in there and prove they were never as good as I was.“They weren’t better than me. I was just hurt and retired for a bit of time, but even though I was away for awhile I was still able to come back and prove I’m the best. It’s not been an easy road for me by any means. I’ve earned every step and worked to be where I’m at. It doesn’t come naturally to me at all, but the thing is that I knew I’d be facing all of these guys.”His feud with Faber is well documented, but Cruz’s long-running situation with Team Alpha Male as a unit often times gets pushed to the background. Faber may be the face of the outfit, but his ranks run deep at TAM, and Cruz has dispatched every member of the Sacramento-based collective who has stepped up to face him.“They’ve been doing this against me for 10 years,” Cruz said. “They are going to keep trying because they are in the division and they have guys, but when you break down how Alpha Fail is coming at me it all comes down to Faber. It really does. He wants to beat me, but couldn’t beat me and that’s why I fought him. I wanted to attack the head of the snake, but I keep chopping his head off and a new one keeps popping back up.“It was always going to me versus that team because every time I take one of them out another one pops up saying how I got lucky,” Cruz said. “Another one of them pops up and says who they are going to knock me out or that they have the answer to my style and they just don’t.“It’s not true because none of them do,” he added. “They all talk about it but none of it’s true. All they do is talk and they all ride Urijah Faber’s coattails as high as they can. I’m not riding anyone’s coattails. I make my own way and build my own brand. Why join them if I can beat them?”Just as all is fair in love and war, the fight game carries a similar code. The team label is often misleading in MMA as many fighters currently competing are out for self. Being keen to this paradigm allowed Cruz to make strategic plays in the ongoing war with Alpha Male, and elevated him to mastermind level. To be honest, it was damn near Machiavellian.“It could be called masterminding but the reality of the situation is really basic,” Cruz said. “Faber owns stock and is a co-founder of an organization called MMA Inc. When you are a co-founder and own stock that means every fighter that is promoted under that banner you make a percentage off them. Every single fighter he brings under Team Alpha Male there is an unsaid promotion there. Faber agrees to push them and he does.“He’s saying their names but what he’s really saying is, ‘I’m going to make money off of all of you guys for promoting you.’ So when he promotes his guys he’s basically promoting his own brand. That makes sense because he can promote any one of his fighters because he can make money off of every single one of them.”And while Cruz may be exposing the inner workings of Faber’s connection to the management company, he’s also taking his rival’s overall connection to his teammates to task. Cruz is adamant the way he helps to push the fighters at Alliance is genuine where Faber’s motivations are purely financial.“We’re not talking about friendship,” Cruz said. “That’s a business situation, and that’s what I was pointing out as to why Dillashaw left. I mean he’s the champion and he’s being managed by Faber and sponsored by his company Torque and wearing all their stuff. He was getting pimped out by Faber and Faber acts like he’s their friend and leader but he’s still collecting money under the table. How is that ethical or real? What’s real about it is the money.“These guys can believe what they want about him but facts are facts. I think that’s the reason why the T.J. Dillashaw fallout happened and a little bit of the reason why Benavidez took off. I also believe that’s the reason certain people are here and there with that squad nowadays. It’s all because of that.”While fight fans love beefs and rivalries, Cruz feels there’s an even larger appeal when one of the parties involved takes things a step further. The reigning bantamweight king believes it’s easy to go out and throw insults and loose talk, where the real challenge is calling one’s shot. That is an avenue most fighters avoid because of the pressure it puts on their performance, but that’s precisely the type of spotlight Cruz seeks out.“Something fans are hungry for in my opinion is them hearing you say what you want to do, can do and what you’re going to do before you go in there and do it,” Cruz said. “The reason people want that is because it takes a pair of cojones, man. To go out and tell them world what you’re going to do, then step in there with another capable human being and do the things you talked about.“Then again you could always just go out there and bow to them and say you respect their skills. While that may be true that’s not the person talking in that moment. I’ve never met a single fighter who talked about how much they respect who they are fighting in the middle of the build up of their camp, but you put the cameras in front of them and their tone completely changes. That’s not what you feel so why don’t you let it all out? I think fans can connect with someone who just says it how it is or just be who they really are. Some of the most successful people in this sport are that way.”With the first defense of his second run as champion secure, Cruz will now set his sights on carving out a larger place in the history of his division. And while he’s long been considered the best bantamweight fighter on the planet, Cruz believes the recognition he deserves in the pound-for-pound conversation may never come in a larger sense.That’s not something he’s going to lose sleep over because in his mind it’s always been there. And to him that’s all that really matters.“I don’t honestly know when any of that will ever be validated,” Cruz said. “Before I got hurt I was a four-time world champion. I retired the WEC belt and earned the first-ever UFC bantamweight title. I defended that twice and then had to hand over that belt without ever losing it. And I still wasn’t considered a pound-for-pound great? When do you ever get considered to be that is the real question.“I got hurt and was out four years then came back and did it again. I was always this in my opinion, but other people’s thoughts and opinions is what kept me from it. But I’ve always known what I am. I’ve always thought I’m the best and the top pound-for-pound fighter on the planet is my goal. The only thing stopping that is the opinion of others who don’t actually compete against me or with me. How can I control that? I can’t. How people decide to rate me, rank me or be a fan of me is out of my hands.”Although what Cruz can and can’t control is a topic that occupies his mind, he’s also keenly aware of the effect his personality has on fight fans. In his push to broaden his promotional game, Cruz has accepted that the MMA community will always be divided on how they see him, and that’s a truth that sits fine with the 135-pound king.The only thing Cruz cares about is that he has your attention.“A lot of people may tune in to watch me fight just to see me get knocked out,” Cruz said. “Okay, just make sure you watch. I’m good with that. I can’t control if you hate me or love me. All I can do is be myself and that’s who I am 100 percent. I never hide myself for anyone and I never will. You will either hate me or I’ll resonate with you because I speak my mind and the truth and you’ll be my fan because of that.“It’s going to be one or the other and you’re going to tune in because I go out there and scrap. I give it my all, don’t get tired and I’m going to put on a great show every single time. To me showing up and representing myself as the best fighter on the planet is what’s important to me.”Cruz continues to make strides in every aspect of his career, but those gains were born through hardship. Having to endure the mental stress and physical pain of multiple knee injuries and being forced out of the sport he loves put Cruz one crossroads after the next.Yet, where lesser men would have buckled under the doubt and uncertainty, Cruz found education in the chaos. He found a peace within himself and an understanding the he is, was and always will be his greatest opponent.“Every ounce of my self-realization is because of my injuries,” Cruz said. “A lot of people say how I’m so much different and that I’m cockier now and yeah man, four ACL reconstructive surgeries and a torn quad will do that to you. It will change you, and it’s your choice whether it will change you in a positive way or a negative one. I swore to myself I was only going to let it be a positive thing for me.“The biggest lessons I learned were to let go of the things you can’t control and only to compete with yourself because when you’re going through a knee injury you don’t have an opponent. Your opponent is yourself. In learning those two things through the injuries, which no one else in this sport has had to face the way I’ve had to, I learned that I’m actually never facing my opponent. Ever.“If you can do something for you and compete for yourself then all of the other avenues get handled simultaneously,” he added. “My goal every day is to be just a little bit better and more evolved than I was the day before. It’s baby steps, and if I do those baby steps things are going to come together really well and it’s always going to be a win for me.”