UFC 132 is nearly upon us, and with so many great matches on tap, it’s tough to refrain from getting excited about the present without wondering what this weekend’s festivities mean for the future of MMA‘s most popular circuit.
In previous years, fights involving Wanderlei Silva and Tito Ortiz would easily have carried the day, though current fans might only scoff at such antiquated names and wonder whether UFC president Dana White is partying like its 2003.
Nowadays, monikers like “The Axe Murderer” and “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” have made way for a new generation of budding superstars who have flooded the UFC’s ranks from other, smaller organizations that have either drifted to the margins or gone defunct entirely.
Among that batch of new blood are the two names adorning the marquee at the MGM Grand Garden Theater in Las Vegas—Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.
The two became part of UFC back in October of 2010, when World Extreme Cagefighting merged with the UFC and brought along with it all of its fighters, including Cruz and Faber, who happened to be two of its top prospects.
Cruz, who is 17-1 in his MMA career coming into Saturday’s bout, has yet to fight since joining UFC, thereby making his rematch with Faber something of a first. At 5’8″ and 134.5 pounds, Cruz, a native of Tuscon, Arizona who now fights out of San Diego, California, tends to switch between boxing while on his feet and traditional wrestling when he’s grounded, and judging by his record, which includes six knockouts, the man known as “Dominator” has done quite well with it.
Faber, on the other hand, is slightly shorter, at 5’6″, but is almost identical in weight at 135 pounds, with significantly more fighting experience than his young challenger. “The California Kid” has emerged as a star for UFC since he defeated former WEC Bantanweight champion Eddie Wineland by unanimous decision in his UFC debut at UFC 128 back in March of this year.
The two former WEC fighters do have something of a history to fall back on in this bout. In March of 2007, Faber and Cruz fought as Featherweights, though truth be told, it wasn’t much of a fight at all. Faber forced Cruz into submission by guillotine choke at the 1:38 mark of the first round, thereby successfully defending his belt for the second time without even going into the second round.
So who’s to say the outcome will be any different this time around? What’s there to suggest that Faber won’t simply toss Cruz aside like yesterday’s news as he marches onward into UFC stardom? After all, this will mark the second time that Cruz will have faced Faber just after joining a new promotion company, as Faber was also Cruz’s first opponent after joining WEC.
And I’ve already told you how that one turned out.
However, to say so flatly that the result will be the same on Saturday simply because the circumstances are similar neglects the fact that Cruz hasn’t lost a match since that fateful day four years ago and would certainly deny that Cruz, now at 25, is a much more mature fighter just entering his prime, while Faber, albeit still considerably more experienced, would appear to be somewhere on the tail-end of his best years about to fade into the twilight of his career at 32 years of age.
If that were the case, then wouldn’t it make much more sense for UFC to promote Cruz as the next big thing, given his potential for greater longevity?
Sure, of course it does, but again, Cruz hasn’t even competed in a UFC fight yet, much less claimed victory in one, even though UFC was kind enough to promote Cruz to Bantamweight Champion after carrying over his belt from WEC. Thus, if Cruz proves his mettle against Faber at UFC 132, he’ll not only have exacted revenge for himself personally, but also established his brand in the UFC world professionally while defending a crown that he seemingly owns by default.
Then again, if Cruz loses, particularly in the rather rapid way in which he did last time, then the spotlight will shine that much brighter on Faber, who already has some prime face time in the television advertisement for UFC’s Personal Trainer video game for the XBOX 360 and won’t soon lose any luster if he adds the league’s Bantamweight Championship to his resume.
Either way, there will surely be at least one star borne from the slate of fights at UFC 132 this weekend. The question remains: Who’s it going to be?
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