Urijah Faber came within a few measly points on two scorecards in dethroning Dominick Cruz at UFC 132. But it will be a different story when these two meet again for a third time.
I’ll admit Cruz is pretty darned good. Correction, Cruz is straight-up impressive. He not only scored a razor-thin decision against what many believe to be one of the greatest fighters in the UFC, but he’s been able to make guys like Scott Jorgensen, Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson look amateur. And if you know anything about MMA, you know that those are all great fighters.
Cruz has had close bouts in the past, but none have been as challenging as the five-round war that he had against Faber at UFC 132. I believe Cruz will admit that, too. These two are just so closely matched, and Cruz knows that Faber is capable of defeating him on any given day.
Heck, Faber is the only guy that has been able to beat him. He scored a submission victory over Cruz at WEC 26 with a one-armed guillotine choke. But that was nearly five years ago, and both fighters have evolved since then and that was evident in their second fight on July 2 earlier this year.
Faber gave what many believed to be his best shot and came up short against Cruz, so this brings up the question—how can he dethrone Cruz this go-around?
Lord knows it’s not going to be easy, but he’s got to try and catch Cruz. It’s that plain and simple. I firmly believe that Cruz has the best footwork in MMA, and he mixes up his striking and combinations with the best of them.
Because of this, scoring a decision won’t favor Faber. The judges will look at Cruz’s movement and give him the decision victory just about every time, so Faber has to stop this guy. The good thing for Faber is that his hands are really coming on. His Muay Thai training with Master Thong has really paid off for him in his last couple of fights.
He was able to drop Raphael Assuncao back at WEC 52, out-strike Eddie Wineland at times at UFC 128 and sent Brian Bowles to the canvas with some lethal strikes started by a punishing uppercut in his last fight. The proof is in the pudding, and it’s becoming evident that he’s developing knockout power.
Faber’s starting to see that size advantage at bantamweight pays off in the exchanges on the feet, and that doesn’t bode well for Cruz. Even in their rematch, Faber was able to drop Cruz on multiple occasions; but he wasn’t able to capitalize.
So we know that Faber has the ability to put Cruz flat on his back, but the only problem is connecting with the elusive fighter. Like I said earlier, Cruz can move in and out of range like an expert and Faber is going to have to time it just right if he wants to catch him.
I suggest Faber throw more strikes and attack Cruz. Instead of waiting on Cruz to charge in, if Faber gets on the offensive and pushes the pace on Cruz, he’ll have more opportunities to catch Cruz. I think Faber can throw the wrestling out of the window for this fight, because Cruz proved in the last fight that he can stuff the takedown and get back onto his feet.
Cruz has great strikes, but he lacks the knockout power to cause Faber to doubt rushing him.
So there really should be only one game plan going into this third match with Cruz, and that should be to look for the knockout. If Faber wants to walk away with the belt in the rubber match, he has to stay on the offensive and throw more strikes.
Should he stick to that game plan, the California Kid will live his dream and return to Sacramento with some UFC gold.
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