10 MMA Fighters Who Never Reached Their Full Potential

There may be none more tragic than Dominick Cruz, and it's through no wrongdoing of this own. A simply incredible athlete, Cruz has a great wrestling background, was tactical whenever the fight hit the floor and had some of the best boxing paired with footwork in MMA. Cruz ripped his way through the regional scene, compiling an impressive 9-0 victory before facing WEC and UFC mainstay Urijah Faber in the WEC, who held a brilliant 17-1 record at the time. 

Faber won that fight via guillotine choke in the first round, however it was a lesson for Cruz who then went on an 11 fight win streak. 7 of those in the WEC, winning the Bantamweight title from Brian Bowles who defeated Urijah Faber, defending it against Joseph Benavidez and again againt Scott Jorgensen. Due to the UFC absorbing the WEC divisions and fighters, the title defence against Jorgensen also won him the very first UFC Bantamweight title. Cruz would go on to dominate Urijah Faber in a rematch for the UFC Bantamweight title and then current UFC Flyweight Champion and top 5 P4P fighter Demetrious Johnson. In December 2011, Cruz was selected to coach the The Ultimate Fighter: Live against opposing coach Urijah Faber. The rubber match between Cruz and Faber was expected to take place on July 7, 2012 at UFC 148. However, Cruz was forced to pull out of the bout citing a torn ACL. On December 3, 2012 it was revealed that Cruz underwent another ACL surgery after complication from the inital surgery, he was expected to be around for around another 9 months. Finally Cruz was scheduled to make a return in February 2014 in a title unification bout with the interim champion, Renan Barao. However in January bad luck struck again and it was announced Cruz had torn his groin and was out of the fight. At long last Cruz finally made it back to the cage, beating Takeya Mizugaki easily and impressively in the first round at the end of 2014.
The nightmare had ended, so it seemed. Cruz was to face current Champion T.J Dillashaw for the title. You couldn't write it, Cruz tore his ACL in his other knee this time as was sidelined until 2015. Cruz' career may not yet be over, everyone hopes for a return, but there is no doubting all these injuries have plauged his career and he will not reach the levels he would have before. Which is sad, considering we may have been looking at the best fighter of all time.