Tag: Dominick Cruz

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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Dominick Cruz vs. Joseph Benavidez: Head to Head

(Whatever Benavidez throws at him in the cage, it won’t be nearly as intense as that horrible freakin’ ice bath. Props: YouTube.com/fightmagazine)
Headlining tomorrow night’s WEC 50 card on Versus is Dominick Cruz (15-1) attempting his first banta…

(Whatever Benavidez throws at him in the cage, it won’t be nearly as intense as that horrible freakin’ ice bath. Props: YouTube.com/fightmagazine)

Headlining tomorrow night’s WEC 50 card on Versus is Dominick Cruz (15-1) attempting his first bantamweight title defense against old rival Joseph Benavidez (12-1). Cruz won their first meeting at WEC 42 by unanimous decision. Will he be able to repeat the performance, or is Joe B gettin’ that belt? Let’s go to the stats…

AGE
Cruz: 25
Benavidez: 26
Advantage: Even

HEIGHT
Cruz: 5’8"
Benavidez: 5’4"
Advantage: Cruz. Seriously, Ariel Helwani looks like a giant standing next to Joe. Though to be fair, Miguel Torres is 5’9", and Benavidez wrecked him.

FINISHING PERCENTAGE
Cruz: 44% (7 out of 16 fights ended in stoppage victories)
Benavidez: 77% (10 out of 13 fights ended in stoppage victories)
Advantage: Benavidez

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Dominick Cruz Not Surprised to Be Facing Joseph Benavidez Again

The next couple of weeks are looking pretty, pretty, pretty sweet for MMA fans; first we have this Wednesday’s WEC, Saturday night will feature Strikeforce’s “King Mo vs. Feijao” card, as well as, Sengoku 14 (that’s a promotion in Japan for you MMA-lite fans), and then next Saturday of course is UFC 118. Not too […]

Dominick_Cruz

The next couple of weeks are looking pretty, pretty, pretty sweet for MMA fans; first we have this Wednesday’s WEC, Saturday night will feature Strikeforce’s “King Mo vs. Feijao” card, as well as, Sengoku 14 (that’s a promotion in Japan for you MMA-lite fans), and then next Saturday of course is UFC 118. Not too shabby.

First things first is Wednesday’s WEC, which will feature a rematch between bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez, and if you’ve seen these guys throw down before you know that there’s a damn good chance you’re going to be entertained. Cruz earned a UD win over Benavidez last September, and based off that experience, it doesn’t sound like he was too surprised when Benavidez took out Rani Yahya and Miguel Torres. Speaking to MMA Weekly about his upcoming title defense Cruz said:

“I always knew he had the potential to do what he did for those fights,” Cruz told MMAWeekly Radio. “Everything about fights comes down to style match-up, and if you stand in front of Joseph and let him punch you, you’re going to get punched. The key is fighting him a specific way, making sure he can’t unload on you.”… “You’ve got to be able to change your style up, and unfortunately those guys weren’t quite able to figure it out.”

It’s also interesting to note that Cruz took the belt from Brian Bowles, who ended the long reign of Torres, who in turn was taken out by Benavidez. Well, we think that makes the fight interesting at least.

To bet on Wednesday’s action head here.

Joseph Benavidez Not Underestimating Dominick Cruz This Time Around

Filed under: MMA Videos, WEC, FanHouse Exclusive, VideosMMA Fighting recently spoke to Joseph Benavidez about his upcoming bantamweight title fight at WEC 50 against Dominick Cruz.

Benavidez, who lost to Cruz via unanimous decision last August, talked…

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MMA Fighting recently spoke to Joseph Benavidez about his upcoming bantamweight title fight at WEC 50 against Dominick Cruz.

Benavidez, who lost to Cruz via unanimous decision last August, talked about why he underestimated Cruz the first time they fought, how he has improved since the loss, why the WEC made the right choice to give him the title shot and whether he would ever fight his friend Urijah Faber.

Check out the video interview below.

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Anderson Silva Slips

Filed under: UFC, WECThere’s another change at the top of my pound-for-pound rankings.

A month ago I dropped Fedor Emelianenko from the top of the list to all the way off the list following his loss to Fabricio Werdum. When Fedor dropped out I moved A…

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There’s another change at the top of my pound-for-pound rankings.

A month ago I dropped Fedor Emelianenko from the top of the list to all the way off the list following his loss to Fabricio Werdum. When Fedor dropped out I moved Anderson Silva to the top. But on Saturday night we watched the worst performance of Anderson Silva’s UFC career, and although Silva pulled off a brilliant submission to win the fight, he struggled enough through the first four and a half rounds that he deserves to drop in the rankings.

Find out who’s No. 1 now, and how far Silva fell, below.

WEC 50 Fight Card: Dominick Cruz vs. Joseph Benavidez

Filed under: WECThe WEC 50 fight card will be headlined by Dominick Cruz’s WEC bantamweight title defense against Joseph Benavidez on Aug. 18 at the Pearl in Las Vegas.

The two previously met one year ago at WEC 42 and the fight resulted in Cruz deliv…

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The WEC 50 fight card will be headlined by Dominick Cruz‘s WEC bantamweight title defense against Joseph Benavidez on Aug. 18 at the Pearl in Las Vegas.

The two previously met one year ago at WEC 42 and the fight resulted in Cruz delivering Benavidez the only loss of his career.

Also, Benavidez’s Alpha Male team captain, Urijah Faber, makes his bantamweight debut against contender Takeya Mizugaki.

The WEC 50 fight card is below.