(Photo via MMAWeekly.com)
It’s been almost four years since the “California Kid” Urijah Faber (25-4) and current UFC bantamweight champ Dominick “Dominator” Cruz (17-1) first stared across the cage from one another. Both fighters were squaring in a WEC featherweight title bout way back at WEC 26 on March 24, 2007.
It was Faber’s second title WEC title defense and Cruz’ first title bout, running a record of 9-0. It was the “California Kid” who would be victorious, handing the “Dominator” a first round submission loss, the only loss of his eighteen professional fight career.
Now both men are set to collide once again, but the shoe is on the other foot as Cruz is the defending champion and Faber is the challenger.
After failing to recapture his WEC featherweight title, Faber dropped to 135 pounds and has rattled off two straight wins, the last being Saturday night in his UFC debut. He earned a unanimous decision over the WEC’s first bantamweight champ, Eddie Wineland, in the co-main event of UFC 128.
After the event, UFC President Dana White confirmed that Faber would indeed be meeting Cruz in a title fight for his next octagon appearance. There had been rumors that both men would coach the fourteenth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series on Spike TV, but white squashed all those rumors confirming that they will not be coaching opposite one another.
Cruz earned the inaugural UFC Bantamweight title, by defending his WEC title at the very last World Extreme Cagefighting event last December. He earned a unanimous decision over challenger Scott Jorgensen at WEC 53, defending the 135 lb title for a second straight time. Since then, the champ has undergone surgery to repair some damage he suffered back at WEC 47, and has been sidelined since then recovering.
No event or date has been hinted at by UFC officials, but the title rematch between these two fighters should certainly take place before the summer is out. An August event seems likely for the two.