The UFC takes its talent from Pittsburgh at UFC Live 4 to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 132 this Saturday, July 2nd.The feature matchup of the evening is current bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz defending his title against the prev…
The UFC takes its talent from Pittsburgh at UFC Live 4 to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for UFC 132 this Saturday, July 2nd.
The feature matchup of the evening is current bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz defending his title against the previous WEC Featherweight Champion, Urijah Faber.
Additional bouts include a middleweight slug-fest between the ultra aggressive and extremely exciting Wanderlei Silva and the heavy-hitting Chris Leben.
Tito Ortiz makes his return to the famed Octagon to challenge the right hand and wrestling prowess of Ryan Bader.
An extremely talented and dynamic welterweight, Carlos Condit, will face off against Dong Hyun Kim and rounding out the night’s main card action will be a lightweight duel matching the German kick-boxer Denis Siver against Matt Wiman.
Please follow along as I dissect all the night’s fights including the preliminary matchups on Facebook and the exciting main card action.
UFC 132 Fight Card: Carlos Condit’s Most Impressive WinsBleacher Report’s John Heinis:Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit is one of the UFC’s most promising young stars in the welterweight division. Despite being just 27 years old, Condit alr…
UFC 132 Fight Card: Carlos Condit’s Most Impressive Wins
Bleacher Report’s John Heinis:
Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit is one of the UFC’s most promising young stars in the welterweight division.
Despite being just 27 years old, Condit already has 31 professional fights under his belt, and boasts a quality record of 26-5.
Condit will take on fellow rising star Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 132, in a bout that many feel will be an unofficial No. 1 contender fight to see who has the next shot at the welterweight title.
That shot would be a ways off, as the most recent Strikeforce welterweight champion, Nick Diaz, will start his second stint in the UFC to challenge GSP for 170-pound supremacy at UFC 137 on October 29.
Nevertheless, Condit, a former WEC welterweight champion, is not a long ways off from proving he is among the cream of the crop.
Let’s take a look inside and see which victories have really defined Condit as a fighter.
Carlos Condit is the kind of fighter who lays it on the line every time the octagon door closes. He isn’t afraid of a standup slugfest or a ground war. Since entering the UFC, he is nearly flawless, with his one loss coming in a controversial spli…
Carlos Condit is the kind of fighter who lays it on the line every time the octagon door closes. He isn’t afraid of a standup slugfest or a ground war. Since entering the UFC, he is nearly flawless, with his one loss coming in a controversial split decision to Martin Kampmann.
Condit got many talking after he knocked out Brittish powerhouse Dan Hardy in his last bout. He is primed for a title shot in the near future if he can get this W.
Dong Hyun Kim is no slouch, however. He is undefeated in his UFC career and is coming off his most impressive win of his life over Nate Diaz.
Kim isn’t known for excitement, but if anyone can make him exciting, it is Condit. Whether he is taking a beating or dishing it out, I can promise the “Natural Born Killer” will have the crowd on their feet.
UFC 132 features great stylistic matchups, compelling storylines and fights that are sure to leave fans satisfied for paying $55.This PPV is not headlined by Brock Lesnar, Jon “Bones” Jones or Georges St-Pierre, so it won’t get the same amount …
UFC 132 features great stylistic matchups, compelling storylines and fights that are sure to leave fans satisfied for paying $55.
This PPV is not headlined by Brock Lesnar, Jon “Bones” Jones or Georges St-Pierre, so it won’t get the same amount of buys that those PPVs would have gotten. But my goodness, look at this card. It’s as if UFC President Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva got together and said let’s make a card strictly for the fans.
1)It starts with the undercard, which fans can see live on Facebook and on Spike. Three fights taking place on Facebook that fans won’t want to miss are Anthony Njokuani vs. Andre Miller, Brad Tavares vs. Aaron Simpson and Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki.
The Njokuani-Miller fight is one of the most exciting matchups on the card. Expect a kickboxing clinic between these two high-level strikers.
2)Move on to Spike’s version of the Prelims and you’ve got George Sotiropoulos vs. Rafael Dos Anjos and Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller.
These are two exciting lightweight matchups that will have compelling storylines and questions. Will Guillard continue his winning streak and become that lightweight contender MMA fans always envisioned him to be? And will Sotiropoulos get back on his horse and start another winning streak?
3)From the first fight on PPV between Dennis Siver and Matt Wiman to the main event between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, this fight card is stacked with exciting matchups that have a large effect on five weight divisions.
Siver and Wiman is simply a crowd-pleasing fight. Their styles match up so well, and both fighters will most likely want to keep this fight on the feet. UFC 132 will get off to a fast start with this PPV opener.
4)The welterweight division is in need of new contenders for St-Pierre’s belt, and these two guys are just that. Carlos Condit is riding a wave of momentum after a highlight reel knockout over Dan Hardy, and Dong Hyun Kim is undefeated with recent wins against Amir Sadollah and Nate Diaz.
Condit proved what he can do when he gets off to a fast start in his last fight, so let’s see how long it takes him to kick things into gear in this bout.
5)Tito Ortiz vs. Ryan Bader is not only a good matchup stylistically, but the fact that it’s do-or-die for Ortiz makes it that much more intriguing.
Ortiz is the biggest reason why I got into MMA. The Ultimate Fighter, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and the sheer awesomeness of the sport helped, too, but I absolutely hated Ortiz and wanted to watch him get beat up. I would order PPVs just to watch him take a beating and finally this Mohawk guy gave me what I wanted.
Looking back, Ortiz was a genius in promoting fights and getting new fans. I have him to thank for really getting me invested in the sport and seeing how great the sport was. If it’s Ortiz’s last fight in the UFC, you better believe he will go down swinging.
6)I don’t think Joe Silva could have made a more exciting matchup than the co-main event, Chris Leben vs. Wanderlei Silva. They have the same brawling style that makes them fan favorites, and when they meet in the center of the octagon, expect them to throw down.
If all the other fights on this card end up being lackluster and not worth your $55, this fight will be the PPV’s saving grace. Buy this PPV for this fight, and everything else will just be icing on the cake.
7)This is the first time a UFC PPV has been headlined by a bantamweight fight, and they couldn’t have picked two better fighters to take the main stage.
This is a rematch four years in the making, and Faber has the mental edge as he won the first fight by guillotine choke in the first round. But make no mistake, these are two completely different fighters from who they were in 2007.
Both fighters have evolved in many ways, and they are embraced as the elite of the division. Both have exciting styles, and they should leave the fans with a crowd-pleasing main event.
Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — Before you ever see one of Dominick Cruz’s workouts, you hear it.
More to the point, you hear Mike Easton, who is a little like MMA’s version of the magical talking mirror in “Snow White.” Only instead of telling you who’…
LAS VEGAS — Before you ever see one of Dominick Cruz‘s workouts, you hear it.
More to the point, you hear Mike Easton, who is a little like MMA’s version of the magical talking mirror in “Snow White.” Only instead of telling you who’s the fairest in the kingdom, Easton tells Cruz — and anyone else within earshot — who the baddest 135-pound man in the entire world is.
Better yet, Cruz never even has to ask in order to get the answer he wants to hear.
“Yeah, that’s right!” Easton shouted as Cruz shadow-boxed himself into a sweat inside the MGM Grand on Wednesday afternoon. “He can’t take you down! He ain’t faster than you! He ain’t ready for this!”
The way Cruz floats across the mat during these sessions, you can hardly tell if he’s listening. But Easton — a short, stocky bulldog of a man who looks a little like a fire hydrant that someone slapped a t-shirt on — knows that he is. He also knows the value of what he provides the champ during the tough times.
“I’m his hype man,” Easton explained. “Also his training partner, but his hype man too. Just like how Muhammad Ali always had somebody talking to him, that’s what it is. You always need somebody in your corner that’s going to talk you up. It makes you feel good.”
It also, according to Cruz, makes you feel not quite so horrible during the necessary evil of the weight cut. That’s why as he works to slim down to 135 pounds to defend his UFC bantamweight title against Urijah Faber at UFC 132 this Saturday night, he likes to have Easton right there, reminding him that this particular pain is only temporary.
“When you feel the weakest is when you’re cutting weight,” said Cruz. “It’s very important to have someone in your ear, telling you how strong you are when you’re feeling the weakest.”
But even though it looks like the easiest job in any champion’s entourage, it takes more than a big mouth to be a good hype man. You don’t just walk in off the street, tell a guy how great he is, then get a free plane ticket to Vegas out of it.
First, you have to make your hype mean something. And the best way to do that, according to both Cruz and Easton, is to have a personal role in beating down the champ before you build him up. That’s where Easton — who is 10-1 as a pro himself — really excels, said Cruz.
“Mike Easton’s my hype man, but on top of that, he’s a sick fighter. The reason he can be my hype man is because I have respect for his fighting abilities. He understands the game. He understands what it takes to win.”
A good hype man can even help you off the mats. As Cruz prepared to defend his WEC title against Scott Jorgensen last winter, it was Easton who stood off to the side during Cruz’s pre-fight interviews and added a little emphasis behind each one of his answers.
Was Jorgensen ready for Cruz’s speed and rhythm? Cruz shrugged at first. No, probably not, he told reporters.
“That’s right he’s not!” Easton shouted out from behind the media scrum. The effect it had on Cruz was visible and immediate.
Had Jorgensen really figured out his style, or was he just talking himself into thinking so? This time Cruz fired right back. Ofcourse he was talking himself into it, said the champ.
“Yeah, he is!” shouted Easton. “He’s got no idea!”
Suddenly, everyone in the room was feeling motivated. You could almost see reporters looking at one another and thinking, where can I get one of these hype men? Does he do parties?
But to hear Easton tell it, having a motivator in your corner isn’t just a nice little perk — it’s downright necessary.
“You remind somebody what’s going on in their life, what all the blood, sweat and tears are for,” he said. “You do that, you’ll have them ready to bite the back of a chair. I learned it from my father, actually. He’s the same way. That’s my hype man.”
And even though Cruz gives no outward indication that he’s enjoying it, he’s come to rely on it, he said.
“The point of it is that, a lot of it, you’re not even paying attention to it. But it’s still there. It’s still entering your subconscious. You can never overdo that. There’s times when I’m focused on other things and not really paying attention to it, but it’s still getting in there and jumbling around a little bit before it leaves.”
Maybe the most amazing thing is that, no matter how much he hears the constant barrage of positivity coming out of Easton’s mouth — and, oh yes, it is constant and it is loud — he never gets sick of it. He never feels like telling his hype man to take five and just sit quietly for a little while.
“I think everybody around me probably wants to say that sometimes,” said Cruz. “That’s without a doubt. But they’re not the ones going in there and fighting. Until they are, they’re going to have to deal with Mike Easton yelling.”
Which is just fine by Easton. Whatever he can do to get the champ in fighting mode, he said, it’s his pleasure. Even he has to shout himself hoarse before the weekend is over.
“That’s my brother. My brother from another mother. He helps me out, so I help him out. He knows I can talk to him, so that’s what I do. That’s my job. That, and to beat the sh-t out of him.”
After 17 years, the UFC is ready to deliver the first sub-155-pound main event in Octagon history. The headlining honors belong to 135-pounders Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber as the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. hosts UFC 132 this Saturday …
After 17 years, the UFC is ready to deliver the first sub-155-pound main event in Octagon history.
The headlining honors belong to 135-pounders Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber as the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. hosts UFC 132 this Saturday night.
Their last meeting in Sin City occurred in March 2007 when Faber, then the WEC featherweight champion, retained his belt versus Cruz via first-round guillotine choke. Four years later, Cruz has the opportunity to defend his 135-pound crown for the third time in his UFC debut while avenging the lone loss of his 18-fight career (17-1) against “The California Kid” (25-4).
“That’s exactly what I feel I’m doing: I’m staking my claim and showing what I can do and that I deserve to be the king of this weight class,” the UFC bantamweight champion told Bleacher Report.
UFC parent company Zuffa experimented with the marketability of the lower weight classes by showcasing them in the WEC for the last three years. It was successful largely because of Faber, the face of the organization, who headlined the WEC’s lone pay-per-view offering opposite Jose Aldo.
Participating in another landmark bout for the sub-155-pound divisions is the latest in a long line of Faber’s headlining duties that date back to his third ever contest.
“I feel lucky to have been in this position but it’s also come on the back of a lot of hard work. There hasn’t been all highs in my career,” Faber said to Bleacher Report, “and to stay on course and not get deserted and create opportunities for yourself—that’s what this is about. This is me creating opportunities by winning by staying persistent and consistent and going after what I want.”
The UFC’s inaugural bantamweight title tilt suggests the lower the weight, the higher the stakes. The chemistry for this bout fuels the rematch with heavyweight hype.
At 26 years old, Cruz is riding an impeccable three-fight run that began with capturing the WEC bantamweight belt as a four-to-one underdog and ended with winning the UFC’s first bantamweight title.
The Alliance MMA representative’s first two title defenses saw him fight 10 rounds totaling 50 minutes with a busted left hand, earning decisions versus top-five world ranked opponents Joseph Benavidez and Scott Jorgensen.
Despite all the accolades, the Arizona native has not approached the same star status Faber is known for relishing.
“In order to be considered the best, there’s certain guys you got to beat and a lot of people believe [Faber]’s the guy for me to beat in order to prove that,” said Cruz, aiming for nine consecutive victories. “Okay, I’m ready to do it. I get to get my only loss back. I’m excited to go out there and prove what I can do.”
The merit of Faber’s ledger became stronger with his UFC debut in March when the 32-year-old bested the WEC’s inaugural bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland. It was Faber’s second straight victory and his third in four outings.
His proven star quality rendered him the obvious choice to challenge Cruz for the UFC bantamweight belt first. With a 1-3 record in his last four title fights, Faber must perform like the fighter that successfully defended his belt five times to remain relevant for title tenures more than marketing muscle.
“I was dealing with a lot of adversity in those fights. I pushed through it and tried to win the whole time. I think he’s a lot less dangerous than the other guys I’ve fought for the title the last two times,” said the Sacramento, Calif. based fighter, who plans to further his legacy by joining Randy Couture and B.J. Penn as a two-division titleholder.
“I’m a lot more elusive and have a more even playing field at this weight.”
Victory against Cruz, who is 3-1 in his last four title fights, would restore Faber’s kingpin credibility. Conversely, a win for “The Dominator” would infuse the champion’s in-ring accomplishments with the popularity of a UFC titleholder.
Cruz pulls main event duty for the second time in his career, while Faber enjoys top billing for the 14th time in his career—remarkably one shy of headlining half his career contests.
The champion summed up what is up for grabs at Cruz vs. Faber II perfectly: “I’m here to make history and not be history.”
Follow Danny Acosta on twitter.com/acostaislegend.
LAS VEGAS — Before you ever see one of 