UFC 132 will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 2. The fight card will be headlined by a UFC bantamweight bout between the champion Dominick Cruz and challenger, former WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber.
The two fighters have met before, with Faber (25-4) defeating Cruz by first round submission. That loss, in 2007, remains the only blemish on Cruz’s record (17-1).
Since that time, the two have developed a mutual dislike for each other.
“Me and Urijah don’t really get along very much, needless to say,” Cruz told Heavy.com’s Fight Day. “It goes all the way back to the first time we fought about four years ago I’d say. I fought him at 145 pounds for the world title. I did some stuff that made him angry. He did some stuff after the fight that made me angry.”
“It just stuck in my head and just gave me a bad taste in my mouth. I never really just had a good feeling towards him since then. It just makes it that much easier to get in there and punch him in the face.”
Faber had the following to say about the animosity between the two.
“I don’t really like Cruz very much. You keep hearing about it, because everybody keeps asking about it,” Faber said in a recent UFC media call. “The bottom line is I think the guy kind of chose me as an enemy, and I accept. We fought once, and we’re going to do it again.”
The main card will also see the return of Wanderlei Silva to the Octagon. Silva, who has been rehabbing from knee surgery, has not fought since defeating Michael Bisping by unanimous decision in February of last year.
Silva will face Chris Leben on the Las Vegas card. Leben is coming off a TKO loss to Brian Stann at UFC 125.
Tito Ortiz will be facing Ryan Bader and his possible release from the UFC when he steps into the cage on July 2. UFC president Dana White has made it clear that Ortiz has run out of chances with the UFC and if he does not deliver a win in this bout he will be released from his contract. Ortiz has not won a fight since defeating Ken Shamrock in 2006.
Standing in Ortiz’s way, Bader will look to get back in the win column after suffering the first loss of his 13 fight MMA career to Jon Jones at UFC 125.
Rounding out the main card which will be shown on pay-per-view at 9:00 pm ET:
Dennis Siver vs. Matt Wiman
Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Preliminary fights that have been made official:
Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller
Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Aaron Simpson
Tickets for UFC 132 will go on sale on Saturday, May 7 at 10 a.m. PT and will be priced from $75-$800.
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