The UFC’s young bantamweight division is very uncertain right now. With fighters like former title challenger, Urijah Faber trying his hand at the division, and other fighters like Demetrious Johnson considering an exit, there isn’t a lot of stability. The one thing that is consistent is Champion, Dominick “The Dominator” Cruz.
Cruz became famous for his WEC 26 featherweight title fight against Urijah Faber. The champion, Faber, handled Cruz with relative ease, submitting him with a guillotine choke in just over a minute into the fight.
After his first loss, and such a quick one, his camp decided that it would be a wise move to drop to 135 pounds and make a name for himself in the bantamweight division. He did just that as he went on a tear defeating the sport’s top 135ers. He took down Charlie Valencia, Joseph Benavidez and Brian Bowles. In his fight against Bowles, he claimed the WEC Bantamweight title, a title he has yet to relinquish.
Cruz’s first title defense was against Joseph Benavidez. In the rematch with the only man to hand him a loss, Benavidez defeated once again by split decision. Cruz’s next opponent was announced to be Scott Jorgenson for the last WEC Bantamweight title fight.
The fight lasted all five rounds and was one of the most highly contested bouts of Cruz’s career. Cruz dominated the striking game and each got their shots in on the ground. Cruz was obviously the more talented wrestler, controlling the position for most of the fight. Cruz retained his fight with a unanimous decision victory and became the Undisputed UFC Bantamweight Champion in the UFC-WEC merger.
Cruz’s first title defense was against Urijah Faber, the only loss on his record. Faber lost the featherweight title to Mike Brown, and then later lost the rematch. After stringing together a few wins, he was awarded a title bout with current UFC Featherweight Champion, José Aldo. Faber was unable to reclaim his title and subsequently dropped down to bantamweight to chase after his former nemesis, Cruz.
Cruz handled Faber’s aggressive style by countering effectively, and stuffing many of his takedowns. It was clear that Cruz had improved vastly since his last fight with Faber, and Faber just had no weapons to use against the champ. Cruz earned another unanimous nod, and retained his title while winning his rematch.
Coming off of his impressive win over Faber, there is little doubt about whether Cruz can retain his title against Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. The shortest fighter in the UFC, at five feet three inches, Johnson poses few problems for Cruz. Cruz has already demonstrated that he can triumph over a dominant wrestler many times through his wins over Faber, Benavidez and Jorgensen, coincidentally all fighters from Team Alpha Male. Cruz only has a short two-inch reach advantage, but he has a five-inch height advantage, much of which is in his legs. Cruz will need to utilize his kickboxing skills to keep Johnson at bay, as he will immediately look to bring the fight to the mat. In the end, Cruz will continue his career with only one loss as he rolls past Demetrious Johnson via unanimous decision.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment