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UFC 132 Cruz vs Faber: huge matchups promise fireworks

Roar Rookie
30th June, 2011
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Roar Rookie
30th June, 2011
1
1672 Reads

UFC 132 Cruz vs FaberUFC 132 takes place this weekend in Las Vegas and features some of the more exciting fighters in the company’s roster. Headlining the show will be the first bantamweight title fight with champion Dominick Cruz taking on former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber.

The co-feature will see the long awaited return of ‘The Axe Murderer’ Wanderlei Silva who has been out since February last year. Silva faces Chris Leben in a fight that has slugfest written all over it.

Former champion Tito Ortiz also returns from injury and meets Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader in a hotly anticipated fight. From the Australian perspective, the card also features the return of George Sotiropolous and Carlos Condit.

The main event sees bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz out to avenge his only loss against Urijah Faber.

Their first fight, taking place back in 2007 for Faber’s featherweight title, is best described as a crazy 90 second scramble that saw Faber catch Cruz in a guillotine choke and force the submission to end the bout.

Since then, Faber lost his title to Mike Brown, lost the subsequent rematch and another challenge against current featherweight champion Jose Aldo after which he dropped to bantamweight.

Cruz made the drop shortly after the loss to Faber, and has gone undefeated in eight fights since the win.

The fight itself is an interesting one. Both men are great wrestlers while Cruz is probably the better technical striker and Faber is probably the better of the two on the ground. The one advantage Faber probably has in this fight is his incredible cardio.

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Over the course of a five round fight with the sort of pace both men fight at, Faber’s ability to catch chokes during scrambles and his cardio give him the advantage.

I’m sure Cruz will fight more measured in this fight but Faber should be able to dictate the pace and do enough damage on the ground to get the decision or catch Cruz in a choke and win by submission.

The co-main event is probably the fight people are tuning in to watch.

The return of Wanderlei Silva, the former PRIDE champion has been out with a knee injury since UFC 127 in Australia last year and takes on Chris Leben, who made his move to contender status last year when he replaced the injured Silva against Yoshihiro Akiyama and scored an upset win just two weeks after winning a tough fight against Aaron Simpson.

Both men fight with the same style, the hunt for the knockout. Although he often trades and swings wild punches like Leben, Silva is probably the more technical striker. His leg kicks are a solid part of his game and his clinch striking is deadly. He also has a solid ground game.

While Leben’s game revolves around getting his left hand on his opponents chin, he has submissions from his back and the rest of his game is often overlooked.

Silva’s cardio is probably better and while his chin is often called suspect, the men who have knocked him out in the last few years were among the heavier hitters in the game at any weight.

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If I had to put money on it I doubt that Chris Leben has the punching power of Dan Henderson or Rampage Jackson or the power of a Mirko Cro Cop left high kick.

Leben has been beaten or even knocked out by the better strikers he has faced, namely Anderson Silva, Brian Stann and Michael Bisping.

However, with four ounce gloves on, the punching power these two bring, combined with the fact that both have been knocked out in the past mean the chances of either man ending it early are high.

Former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz also makes his return, looking for his first win since a pair of victories over Ken Shamrock in 2006.

His opponent, Ryan Bader, aims to bounce back from his first career loss, against current champion Jon Jones, and I think he’s been fed the perfect opponent.

Ortiz needs to be able to get the fight to the ground if he wins and with Bader’s wrestling credentials combined with Ortiz’s injuries which have slowed him in the cage the outcome is that the fight will take mplace wherever Bader chooses it to.

If Bader keeps it standing, I doubt Ortiz can take his power for long if Bader is in form. Bader should end this one early by knockout.

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George Sotiropoulos

Read The Roar's interview with George Sotiropoulos ahead of his UFC 132 bout

Also on the card, welterweight contenders Carlos Condit and Don Hyun Kim battle in what is probably the most significant fight on the card outside of the title fight.

Condit is coming off a knockout win over Dan Hardy while Kim is undefeated with recent wins over Nate Diaz and Amir Sadollah.

Condit is a step up mainly in experience from those two, his kickboxing and jiu jitsu skills make him dangerous to anyone but Kim’s ability to score takedowns and his top game and physical strength I think will stifle Condit’s game and earn him another decision victory.

Dennis Siver, the man who defeated Sotiropolous in Sydney, takes on Mike Wiman who is on a three fight winning streak. Wiman’s aggression and takedowns should give earn him a decision but if Siver can stuff his takedowns like he did to Sotiropolous then Wiman will do well to hang with him in the stand-up.

Speaking of Sotiropolous, he makes his return against Rafael Dos Anjos while Melvin Guillard takes on Shane Roller in the free portion of the televised card on ONE HD before the pay per view.

Finally, a bantamweight bout between Jeff Hougland and Donny Walker has been inserted into undercard as a late addition, both making their debut on UFC.

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George Sotiropoulos’ UFC 132 fight will be on Channel ONE from 10am Sunday as part of their Preliminary fight coverage – with the Main Event from 11am

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