How do these two stack up?
Cruz: 25 years old | 5'8" | 68" reach
Faber: 32 years old | 5'6" | 69" reach
What have these two done recently?
Cruz: W - Scott Jorgensen (UD) | W - Joseph Benavidez (SD) | W - Brian Bowles (TKO)
Faber: W - Eddie Wineland (UD) | W - Takeya Mizugaki (SUB) | L - Jose Aldo (UD)
How did these two get here?
Dominick Cruz was a wrestler that got goaded into going to an MMA gym in Arizona one day and got hooked on the sport. Eventually he took a fight in San Diego on 24 hours' notice and came to the attention of Eric Del Pierro, who runs Alliance gym. Not long after, Cruz was getting the first formal coaching of his career and got a contract to fight for the WEC featherweight title. Against a guy named Urijah Faber. Faber subbed him in the first round, and Cruz felt he'd do better as a bantamweight shortly thereafter. Four wins later, including a win over Faber's teammate Joseph Benavidez, Cruz was given a shot at 135 lb. champion Brian Bowles. After dominating the standup for two rounds, Bowles quit on the stool with a broken hand and the belt was given to "The Dominator". After defending his belt twice, the WEC was folded into the UFC and Cruz was handed a UFC belt. Hand surgery delayed his first title defense in the UFC, but he's now ready to take on his nemesis and truly earn the title he's carrying around right now.
UFC 132: Interviews | Results | Fight Card
Urijah Faber has a long and storied history you've probably heard about once or twice. Long-term WEC featherweight champion. Face of the promotion. 1.5 million viewers for his title defense against Jens Pulver. And so on. Everything was well and good until he met Mike Brown's fist and dropped his title. After breaking both his hands in a rematch against Brown and dropping a decision, an impressive win over Raphael Assuncao earned him yet another shot at the title, this time against new champion Jose Aldo. Aldo kicked his leg into oblivion and he dropped another decision, which forced Faber down to his natural weight class, bantamweight. Two wins at 135 and he's back in the limelight, this time against a guy he took out in one of his title defenses back in the day. The bad blood adds to the allure of the matchup, but this is clearly Faber's last chance in an elite spot. A loss would be disastrous for Faber's career.
Why should you care?
Its the first bantamweight title defense in UFC history, and these two have a ton of history. If you don't care about this, why are you even watching MMA? They're bantamweights, which means they're awesome. Get with the program.
