Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz

Former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has faced some of the most significant injury obstacles of anyone to hold a UFC belt: two broken knees, a failed surgery, a torn quad, and other consequences of a decade in the cage.

They cost him nearly four years of his career. However, when he looks back and forward, he can only feel gratitude for what he has been able to survive.

"Everyone left me, nothing was going right, I was depressed. So I had to find a way to make a difference to get out of my own way."

The comment turned out to be what saved Cruz. Putting all his energy into analyzing the sport was not only a way to stay in the game, but also a way to be part of a community and a way to provide perspective on his own journeys and those of others as fighters. When he finally returned to the sport and won again inside the octagon, he looked differently at those who had been through adversity and those who had left.

"I look at this sport from a completely different state of mind these days than I had seen it before, because I had to rewrite my belief systems as I won and I lost, won and I lost. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. I've never felt so much loss in two years of my life. And then to come back and win again after feeling that loss, there's no self-understanding in that way. So any athlete who left the sport undefeated, I ask, 'Are they really undefeated or did they not challenge themselves as hard as they could have? And if they did, what would it look like on the other side?'"

Cruz, who will face Pedro Munhoz at UFC 269, did not directly mention Khabib Nurmagomedov as the object of his observation, but indicated that the now retired undefeated former lightweight champion was a good example. If a fighter had never recovered from a loss, he said it could deprive them of a valuable step in their martial arts journey.

"I understand, you're undefeated, but are you undefeated or could you have pushed a little harder to reach the next level and lose that defeat? And then come back and reclaim the loss with a victory and see what your next level, your next evolution in life is. It's not just about winning and losing and being perfect. Nothing in life is like that."

"You can't dodge loss. You can't dodge pain. You can't dodge any of that. So what's the point? You better check it. The question is, when it happens, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to give up and say I'm retired and quit, or are you going to get back on the horse and see what else you can be?"

Nurmagomedov, in fact, overcame immense loss before his final UFC fight, a title unifier at UFC 254 against then interim champion Justin Gaethje. The fight was the first time he competed after the loss of his lifelong father and coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, and he endured illness and injury episodes in training camp before stepping into the cage. He overcame it all to submit Gaethje in the second round and achieve his 29th professional victory in MMA.

Technically, Nurmagomedov is not undefeated in competition. In 2005, he was defeated in the Combat Sambo Russian Championship by Magomed Ibragimov, who went on to have a successful amateur wrestling career. Nurmagomedov, of course, did his best work in the cage.

So perhaps Nurmagomedov is not the best example of a fighter who walked away from adversity. But for Cruz, the experience of overcoming massive obstacles is how he judges success.