UFC 132 was the most important mixed martial arts event of the year. Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, two longtime WEC veterans, were headlining the card in the first ever bantamweight championship fight, and their performance would go a long way to determining the fate of the weight class for a long time to come.
And all things considered, they did a fantastic job of selling the 135-pound division to all the casual MMA fans who were watching this show.
Cruz retained the championship in a fairly one-sided fight, but the atmosphere was absolutely electric for all five rounds. Cruz was a hated man because of his brash, cocky attitude and Faber was a star playing the perfect babyface.
If things had gone bad in this fight, UFC would have had a difficult time trying to market this weight class to fans for a long time. Dana White and Joe Silva would have to stack the undercard just to pop a decent buyrate for pay-per-views.
Now, UFC has two new stars on its hands with Cruz and Faber. Cruz is an exciting and charismatic fighter who the fans love to hate. Faber has a great personality that the people gravitate towards, and even in defeat he was still loved by the people.
It will take time to get the rest of the bantamweight fighters over with a big audience, but the first fight is always the most important, and all things considered it was a rousing success. People on Twitter were clamoring for a rematch, even though I don’t agree with that sentiment, the fact that people want more from these fighters and this division is a HUGE positive for UFC.
There is nothing more that these two men could have done to sell the bantamweight division. They put on a great fight for five rounds, and the people were into everything that they did. This division, and these two fighters, will have a good, long future in UFC.