Urijah Faber’s big moment came and went on Saturday at UFC 132 against Dominick Cruz with him falling just short in his quest to become the bantamweight championship. He did have moments where he looked good, like he could steal three rounds and win the fight, but it was not meant to be.
He lost a unanimous decision on scores of 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47. The judge who scored the fight 50-45 should be stripped of their license because they have no idea how to score a fight, because there is no way that Cruz won all five rounds but that’s another story.
It was clear to everyone watching the fight that Cruz had won. He did more over the course of five rounds to earn a decision in the fight. It wasn’t one-sided by any means, but he was the winner and the judges made the right decision.
Apparently the decision wasn’t as clear if you were standing in the cage because “The California Kid” thinks that he did more than enough to earn the win.
“Things that worked for me – I think we’re both reaction fighters,” Faber said at the post-fight press conference. “I was trying not to react too much to his movement – just kind of stalk him and take his best shots and land the heavier shots.
“I know I landed some heavy shots in there and rocked him a couple of times, and apparently it wasn’t enough, so I’ll have to see exactly what happened.
“He used the kicks quite a bit, but I was blocking a lot of them. Even the high kicks – not one connected. A couple of the low kicks connected, but I think the main factor must have been the amount of punches because that’s the only thing that I can think of.”
If you look at the stats from the fight, they do tell an interesting story. According to Compustrike, Cruz landed 99 total punches to Faber’s 74. Faber landed 45 power strikes to 38 for Cruz.
But that’s just one part of the story. Even when Cruz got knocked down he didn’t look to be in trouble. He just got up and reset himself. Neither guy was close to ending the fight, so you have to judge based on skill and technique. In doing that you will see that Cruz clearly won. You could have made a case that it was three rounds to two, but it looked more like four rounds to one.
Faber might think that he did enough to win the fight, but when he does back and looks at the tape he will see that Cruz was the better man.