One minute and one second.

That’s all it took for former UFC bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz, to earn his first victory in more than 1,000 days. Cruz was sidelined following two ACL surgeries, but it didn’t show in his knockout finish over Takeya Mizugaki at UFC 178.

“The Dominator” looked better than ever as he took down Mizugaki before finishing the fight, just a tad over the one minute mark of the very first round.

There’s no question moving forward—Cruz is back.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena broke loose in exhilaration, and so did Twitter.

 

More times than not, when Ben Askren speaks, it has some correlation to UFC President, Dana White. Not this time. Askren took to Twitter to congratulate the former champion on his long-awaited victory:

 

Cruz took a shot at ‘Team Alpha Male’ before exiting the Octagon, proclaiming, “I’m ready to beat up some more Alpha Fails”. Long-time rival, Urijah Faber, took to Twitter in reference to Cruz’s inability to finish opponents:

 

UFC heavyweight, Brendan Schaub, was just one of many current fighters to rejoice with Cruz’s successful return to the Octagon:

 

Up-and-coming UFC lightweight, Myles Jury, might be right—The champ is back. And one thing’s for certain, Cruz hasn’t missed a beat:

 

Kenny Florian, among many former UFC stars, took to Twitter in regards to the potential showdown between Cruz and current kingpin, TJ Dillashaw:

 

Team ‘Alpha Male’ member, Joseph Benavidez, congratulated the former champ on his eye-opening return. Despite being teammates with Faber and Dillashaw, Benavidez stayed classy:

 

Stay tuned for the latest updates regarding the return of Dominick Cruz.

 

Follow @GarrettDerr on Twitter.