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Collector profile “The Dominator”

Dominick Cruz

Cruz spent the whole of his WEC run without a card, so his cardboard starts only after WEC 53 in December 2010, when he beat Scott Jorgensen for the inaugural UFC bantamweight belt: the earliest issue traced here is 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127. Everything else arrives in one burst in 2011 — Finest #66 and Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DC, Moment of Truth #39, Title Shot #41 and his first relics — before the injury years stall the run for most of 2012 to 2015. No source consulted puts an RC flag on any of it, which is why sellers keep attaching the letters to whichever 2011 card they are listing.

2010First card year
#127Earliest card
10Key cards
  • UFC debutJuly 2, 2011 · UFC 132
  • DivisionsBantamweight · Featherweight · Lightweight
  • FromSan Diego, California
#127
01

The earliest card

#127
Earliest card Rookie disputed

2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127

The earliest Dominick Cruz card found in this research. Topps UFC Knockout was a 150-card set released in December 2010, the same month Cruz beat Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53 to unify the WEC belt with the inaugural UFC bantamweight title — which is what got a fighter who had spent his whole career in WEC onto a UFC checklist at all. Topps' other 2010 UFC product, Series 4, has no WEC fighters on its checklist.

Where sources disagree

Sellers commonly attach 'RC' to 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #39, while SportsCardsPro marks every Cruz card 'Is Rookie Card: No'. No checklist consulted shows an RC logo on any Cruz card, and the sites that normally settle this (TCDB, COMC, PSA, Beckett) could not be consulted or offline during this research.

Commonly misidentified

Parallels are regularly sold as 'the rookie' — the Moment of Truth #39 Onyx and the Finest #66 Refractor both turn up in listings headed 'Cruz RC'. They are parallels of the 2011 base cards, and neither is his earliest card.

02

Key Cruz cards

10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.

03

Card history

Cruz spent his whole rise without a card. He fought Urijah Faber at WEC 26 in March 2007 and held the WEC bantamweight title from March 2010, but WEC never ran a trading-card programme of its own and Topps' 2010 UFC Series 4 checklist carries no WEC fighters at all. The earliest Cruz card catalogued anywhere is 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127, from a 150-card set that shipped in December 2010 - the same month he beat Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53 to unify the belt with the inaugural UFC bantamweight title, which is what put a career WEC fighter on a UFC checklist in the first place. It has a Gold parallel numbered /288, though no second checklist confirms the number.

No source designates a Cruz rookie card, which is why the letters float. SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No' on every Cruz card checked, from the 2010 Knockout base through 2011 Finest, Moment of Truth and the 2021 Prizm; Collectibles.com says only that he debuted as a rookie in 2010, naming no card. Sellers attach RC to 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #39, helped by the fact that the set genuinely does carry first cards for fighters new to the checklist, and parallels get the same treatment - the Moment of Truth Onyx and the Finest Refractor both turn up in listings headed 'Cruz RC'.

Almost everything else from his first reign arrives in one 2011 burst. Finest gave him base #66, his first card on chrome stock, behind X-Fractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octa-Fractor /8 and a Red Refractor 1/1 - the Refractor tier itself is unsettled, with one catalogue calling it /888 and Jeff Allender's checklist listing it unnumbered - plus Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DC, his first certified signature. Moment of Truth followed on 30 November 2011 with #39 in a 220-card base and Gold, Onyx, Ruby /8 and Diamond 1/1 parallels, along with Certified Signatures, Elite Skills and dual-autograph appearances. Title Shot #41 and the Fighter Relics #FR-DC, with a Black version /88, close the window; a run of knee and groin injuries then held him to a single fight between October 2011 and January 2016, and his card run thins to almost nothing across those years.

Taking the belt back from T.J. Dillashaw at the start of 2016 put him into Topps' high-end products for the first time. Museum Collection gave him base #27 and the Framed Autographs #MCC-DCR, with a Black Framed version, and Knockout that year carried him on a six-signature SixSigs card. The tightest-numbered card of his championship years is the 2017 Topps Chrome UFC Tier 1 insert #UT-DC, from a 25-fighter set, with the Refractor at /99, a Pulsar Refractor /50 and a Superfractor 1/1 above it - and note that Topps and the price guides file that product under slightly different names.

Panini's licence gave him flagship base cards again: 2021 Prizm UFC #2, a low and memorable number in the most collected product of that era, with Select UFC #42 and Chronicles #346 alongside it and Immaculate dual autographs pairing him with Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw. Topps' return brought the Chrome UFC Representing insert #REP-8, whose Superfractor 1/1 is the modern Cruz chase card, and 2025 Royalty added Regalia Relic Signatures #RRS-DC. His 2026 induction into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing has sent collectors back to the thin 2010 and 2011 run, which is where the scarcity actually is.

Sources for every paragraph

04

Autographs

2 certified autographs in the archive.

05

Card eras

2007–2010
A champion with no cards

Cruz fought Urijah Faber at WEC 26 in March 2007 and held the WEC bantamweight title from March 2010, but WEC never had a trading-card programme of its own and Topps' 2010 UFC Series 4 checklist carries no WEC fighters.

2010
First card, as the first UFC bantamweight champion

2010 Topps UFC Knockout, released in December 2010 alongside WEC 53, is the earliest set found with a Cruz card — base #127, with a Gold parallel numbered /288.

2011
The one big year

Topps put him in everything: Finest base #66 and Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DC (his first certified signature), Moment of Truth #39 with its Onyx and Ruby parallels, and Title Shot #41 plus Fighter Relics #FR-DC.

2012–2015
The injury gap

A run of knee and groin injuries kept Cruz to a single fight between October 2011 and January 2016, and his card run thins out to almost nothing across the Topps UFC releases of those years.

2016–2017
Second reign, premium cards

Winning the belt back from T.J. Dillashaw put him in Topps' high-end products: Museum Collection base #27 and Framed Autographs #MCC-DCR, the Knockout SixSigs six-signature card, then 2017 Topps Chrome UFC Tier 1 #UT-DC Refractor /99.

2021–2023
Panini era

Panini's UFC licence gave him flagship base cards again — Prizm UFC #2, Select UFC #42, Chronicles #346 — plus Immaculate dual autographs paired with Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw.

2024–2026
Retirement and the Hall of Fame

Topps' return brought Chrome UFC Representing #REP-8 (Superfractor 1/1) and 2025 Royalty Regalia Relic Signatures #RRS-DC; his 2026 UFC Hall of Fame induction into the Modern Wing has renewed attention on the thin 2010–2011 run.

06

Parallels of this card

Base
Unnumbered
Gold
/288
Probable
07

Sets

Where Cruz's key cards come from.

08

Buying & wanted

Wanted by FightCardboard
  • 012010 Topps UFC Knockout #127 Gold /288 — the parallel of his earliest known card
  • 022011 Topps UFC Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DC, especially the Gold Refractor /88 or Octa-Fractor /8
  • 032011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #39 Onyx, or the Ruby /8
  • 042017 Topps Chrome UFC Tier 1 #UT-DC Refractor /99

Offer one

Available here

Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?

Sources & research High confidence×9Probable×5

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

Probable

Dominick Cruz's earliest card: 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127 — Dominick Cruz.

No source consulted designates an official Dominick Cruz rookie card. SportsCardsPro's data field reads 'Is Rookie Card: No' on every Cruz card checked, including 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127, 2011 Finest UFC #66, 2011 Moment of Truth #39 and 2021 Panini Prizm UFC #2. Collectibles.com states he 'debuted as a Rookie in 2010', which matches the Knockout card's December 2010 release but names no specific card. Because he fought his whole pre-title career in WEC, which had no card programme, and because Topps' 2010 UFC Series 4 checklist contains no WEC fighters, 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127 is the earliest Cruz card found anywhere — so it is filed as his earliest card rather than as a rookie card. TCDB, COMC and PSA are not reachable and Beckett's database was in maintenance, so an RC flag on one of those sites cannot be ruled out.

High confidence

Cruz spent his whole rise without a card. He fought Urijah Faber at WEC 26 in March 2007 and held the WEC bantamweight title from March 2010, but WEC never ran a trading-card programme of its own and Topps' 2010 UFC Series 4 checklist carries no WEC fighters at all. The earliest Cruz card catalogued anywhere is 2010 Topps UFC Knockout #127, from a 150-card set that shipped in December 2010 - the same month he beat Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53 to unify the belt with the inaugural UFC bantamweight title, which is what put a career WEC fighter on a UFC checklist in the first place. It has a Gold parallel numbered /288, though no second checklist confirms the number.

High confidence

No source designates a Cruz rookie card, which is why the letters float. SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No' on every Cruz card checked, from the 2010 Knockout base through 2011 Finest, Moment of Truth and the 2021 Prizm; Collectibles.com says only that he debuted as a rookie in 2010, naming no card. Sellers attach RC to 2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth #39, helped by the fact that the set genuinely does carry first cards for fighters new to the checklist, and parallels get the same treatment - the Moment of Truth Onyx and the Finest Refractor both turn up in listings headed 'Cruz RC'.

High confidence

Almost everything else from his first reign arrives in one 2011 burst. Finest gave him base #66, his first card on chrome stock, behind X-Fractor /388, Gold Refractor /88, Octa-Fractor /8 and a Red Refractor 1/1 - the Refractor tier itself is unsettled, with one catalogue calling it /888 and Jeff Allender's checklist listing it unnumbered - plus Finest Fighters Autographs #A-DC, his first certified signature. Moment of Truth followed on 30 November 2011 with #39 in a 220-card base and Gold, Onyx, Ruby /8 and Diamond 1/1 parallels, along with Certified Signatures, Elite Skills and dual-autograph appearances. Title Shot #41 and the Fighter Relics #FR-DC, with a Black version /88, close the window; a run of knee and groin injuries then held him to a single fight between October 2011 and January 2016, and his card run thins to almost nothing across those years.

High confidence

Taking the belt back from T.J. Dillashaw at the start of 2016 put him into Topps' high-end products for the first time. Museum Collection gave him base #27 and the Framed Autographs #MCC-DCR, with a Black Framed version, and Knockout that year carried him on a six-signature SixSigs card. The tightest-numbered card of his championship years is the 2017 Topps Chrome UFC Tier 1 insert #UT-DC, from a 25-fighter set, with the Refractor at /99, a Pulsar Refractor /50 and a Superfractor 1/1 above it - and note that Topps and the price guides file that product under slightly different names.

High confidence

Panini's licence gave him flagship base cards again: 2021 Prizm UFC #2, a low and memorable number in the most collected product of that era, with Select UFC #42 and Chronicles #346 alongside it and Immaculate dual autographs pairing him with Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw. Topps' return brought the Chrome UFC Representing insert #REP-8, whose Superfractor 1/1 is the modern Cruz chase card, and 2025 Royalty added Regalia Relic Signatures #RRS-DC. His 2026 induction into the UFC Hall of Fame's Modern Wing has sent collectors back to the thin 2010 and 2011 run, which is where the scarcity actually is.

Probable

2011 Topps UFC Title Shot #FR-DC — Dominick Cruz.