Dominick Cruz Surprised by Split Decision Ruling at WEC 50

Okay, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, if you don’t watch the WEC simply because it doesn’t have the letters U, F or C, or even worse, because you ‘only like watching the bigger dudes’, you sir or madam are truly deserving of a rather cruel insult. Someone else can take care of […]

dominick-cruz

Okay, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, if you don’t watch the WEC simply because it doesn’t have the letters U, F or C, or even worse, because you ‘only like watching the bigger dudes’, you sir or madam are truly deserving of a rather cruel insult. Someone else can take care of our dirty work. If you watched WEC 50 last night then you know that the card once again offered not one, but several, ‘fight of the night’ quality bouts.

As expected, the bantamweight title fight between champion Dominick Cruz and challenger Joseph Benavidez didn’t disappoint, and was chalk full of entertaining violence. Although it was a pretty close fight and Benavidez threw everything he had at Cruz, it was pretty clear by the fight’s end that the champ should retain the belt. Of course, this is MMA, and what one judge thinks constitutes winning a fight might be vastly different than what 90% of the population thinks. So when it was announced that Cruz had won, but by Split Decision, what did the 16-1 fighter think? (Thanks to MMA Junkie for the quotes)

“In my humble opinion, I thought I won all the rounds,” Cruz told MMAjunkie.com following the fight. “I thought I won it pretty unanimously. That’s all I can say. I thought I won it.”….”I think that the crowd has a big part to play in the judges’ opinion sometimes,” Cruz said. “Also, he caught me with a real slick knee up against the cage that made me bleed real bad. I would assume the blood could have swayed the judges as well.”

In case you’re wondering, it was Nelson “Doc” Hamilton that had Benavidez winning the fight.

‘WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez’ Aftermath — Press Conference Highlights, Payouts, Villains + More

(Props: YouTube.com/Heavy)
— If you thought last night’s WEC main event wasn’t as close as the judges scored it, Dominick Cruz would respectfully agree with you. As the reigning bantamweight champ said after his fight with Joseph Benavidez (…

(Props: YouTube.com/Heavy)

— If you thought last night’s WEC main event wasn’t as close as the judges scored it, Dominick Cruz would respectfully agree with you. As the reigning bantamweight champ said after his fight with Joseph Benavidez (skip to the 2:59 mark above): 

"In my humble opinion, I thought I won all the rounds…I think that the crowd has a big part to play in the judges’ opinion sometimes. Also, he caught me with a real slick knee up against the cage that made me bleed real bad. I would assume the blood could have swayed the judges a little as well."

Benavidez was also surprised that one of the judges saw it his way: "I figured I didn’t do enough to win, but I wasn’t watching the fight, so when the judge did say my name it was quite a surprise. I was like "wow, could this happen? Is this, like, the work of God or something?" For the record, FightMetric gave every round to Cruz for outpointing Benavidez in striking (103-46 total) and takedowns (5-0 total).

— $10,000 performance bonuses were handed out to the following fighters…
Knockout of the Night: Newcomer Maciej Jewtuszko for using a spinning back elbow and a pair of nasty uppercuts to wreck Anthony Njokuani in 96 seconds.
Submission of the Night: Anthony Pettis for finishing Shane Roller via triangle choke with just nine seconds left in the fight, after wearing Roller down with his impressively-flashy striking attacks. (How ’bout that capoeira head kick in round one?)
Fight of the Night: Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett for their 15-minute smash-up which went all over the cage and didn’t slow down for one second. Round two was easily one of the best MMA rounds of 2010.

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WEC 50: Dominick Cruz Beats Joseph Benavidez

Filed under: WEC, NewsA wild five-round fight for the bantamweight title of mixed martial arts ended with the champion retaining his belt, as Dominick Cruz beat Joseph Benavidez by split decision Wednesday night at WEC 50.

With blood dripping from the…

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A wild five-round fight for the bantamweight title of mixed martial arts ended with the champion retaining his belt, as Dominick Cruz beat Joseph Benavidez by split decision Wednesday night at WEC 50.

With blood dripping from the bridge of his nose as well as an eye and his mouth, Cruz acknowledged afterward that Benavidez had given him everything he could handle.

“I felt the blood pouring down my face,” Cruz said. “Benavidez is a great competitor. I give him all the credit in the world.”



WEC 50 Quick Results: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Judges?

(Benavidez must be standing on the stack of cash he gave Nelson Hamilton before the fight)
Well WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez II is in the books and in usual WEC fashion, the card didn’t disappoint.
The fact that six out of 10 fights on the card went to …


(Benavidez must be standing on the stack of cash he gave Nelson Hamilton before the fight)

Well WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez II is in the books and in usual WEC fashion, the card didn’t disappoint.

The fact that six out of 10 fights on the card went to the judges’ scorecards is a testament to the WEC matchmaker Sean Shelby’s adeptness, because even the bouts that went the distance were wars of attrition in which both fighters left everything in the cage.

A few up-and-comers climbed further up the title contention ladder while a few others dropped a few rungs down, but none of the fights were disappointing.
The only real question mark of the show was which fights the judges were watching as they seem to have decidedly different opinions on who won a few of the bouts.

In the main event of the evening, bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz controlled the majority of action, possibly losing two rounds of the five round title affair to challenger Joseph Benavidez. Benavidez landed a handful of power shots throughout the bout, but it was Cruz’s takedowns that were the real deciding factor in the fight.

Personally, I had the fight at 49-46 for Cruz, but it arguably could have gone 48-47 depending on how you look at round two. For Nelson "Doc" Hamilton to score the the bout 48-47 for Benavidez it makes me wonder if he was watching America’s Got Talent on his iPhone instead of watching the fight.

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WEC 50 Preview and Predictions

Filed under: WECThe bantamweight championship of the world is on the line Wednesday night at WEC 50, with champion Dominick Cruz taking on Joseph Benavidez in one of the biggest mixed martial arts fights of the year. We’ve got the full preview and pred…

Filed under:

The bantamweight championship of the world is on the line Wednesday night at WEC 50, with champion Dominick Cruz taking on Joseph Benavidez in one of the biggest mixed martial arts fights of the year. We’ve got the full preview and predictions below.

Reminder: WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez Weigh-Ins Live Right Here at 7:00pm ET

(Video courtesy YouTube/WEC)
With all of the media hype surrounding Saturday night”s Strikeforce: Houston event and UFC 118 the following weekend, it’s no wonder that a lot of people have forgotten that we have a mid-week WEC event tomorrow night.
W…

(Video courtesy YouTube/WEC)

With all of the media hype surrounding Saturday night”s Strikeforce: Houston event and UFC 118 the following weekend, it’s no wonder that a lot of people have forgotten that we have a mid-week WEC event tomorrow night.

WEC 50 goes down Wednesday night in Las Vegas and will feature a main event championship rematch between the promotion’s bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez. Former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber was supposed to make his WEC bantamweight debut opposite Takeya Mizugaki on the card, but he had his head kicked off by Kenny Powers and had to pull out due to the injury.

Here’s the card for the event, which boasts a pretty solid line-up of up-and-comers and could produce some great scraps reminiscent of the much lauded Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung WEC 48 fight, so it’s definitely worth tuning in. What else do you have to do on a Wednesday night?

WEC 50
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Pearl at The Palms
Las Vegas, Nevada

Main Card
Bantamweight Championship Bout
Dominick Cruz vs. Joseph Benavidez
Lightweight bout: Shane Roller vs. Anthony Pettis
Featherweight bout: Cub Swanson vs. Chad Mendes
Bantamweight bout: Scott Jorgensen vs. Brad Pickett
Lightweight bout: Bart Palaszewski vs. Zach Micklewright

Non-Televised Preliminary Card
Anthony Njokuani vs. Maciej Jewtuszko
Javier Vazquez vs. Mackens Semerzier
Ricardo Lamas vs. Dave Jansen
Fredson Paixão vs. Bryan Caraway
Danny Castillo vs. Dustin Poirier

The weigh-ins for the event take place tonight at 7:00pm ET and can be seen right here after the jump.

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