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UFC 132’s main event between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber was a fantastic fight. While Cruz walked away with a unanimous decision and his bantamweight championship, the fight was exceptionally close.
After three rounds, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the fight was 30-27 in either fighter’s favour.
Although the decision was close, it was by no means a controversial one. Immediate rematches in the UFC are usually only dished out under controversial circumstances.
Regardless, I have three reasons why these two should be given the chance to pick up where they left off.
Firstly, it was a great fight.
It may not be the fight of the year, as some people have labelled it, but it was an epic back and forth battle.
While there were excellent exchanges and scrambles throughout the bout, I think the best thing about it was the pace in which it was done. I wouldn’t be surprised if fighters in the heavyweight division got tired just watching that fight.
The amount of space Dominick Cruz covers in a round, and the speed in which he does it is just nuts.
Add to that Urijah Faber’s lightning fast reactions and you have a fight that resembles a tussle out of a Looney Toons cartoon.
Also, because the fight was so good it will make the rematch sell so much more. By all accounts, UFC 132 was not as successful as most of the other shows put on by the UFC in recent times, but like the Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard fight in January the people that did see the bout will spread its virtues to a host of people that did not.
Secondly, it will mark the end of a great trilogy.
With the unanimous verdict in Cruz’s favour, ‘The Dominator’ successfully levelled the ledger with Faber at 1-1. The original bout took place four years ago, and ten pounds higher at WEC 26.
Faber tapped Cruz with a guillotine choke after one minute and twenty-six seconds of frenetic action that resembled the twenty-five minutes we saw on Sunday.
This potential trilogy is made even better by the fact that the two don’t like each other very much. This will most likely have been exacerbated by Cruz’s win on Sunday. Plus, people just love a good trilogy.
Finally, the bantamweight division needs it.
When Zuffa merged the WEC into the UFC and installed the featherweight and bantamweight divisions, they made mention of the fact that it was going to take time to build up the new divisions and their fighters.
The featherweight division has had an easier run in this department because of it being just 10 lbs. shy of the lightweight division. This allows for more recognisable lightweight fighters who have only been fighting at that weight because there wasn’t the featherweight option before, like Kenny Florian and Tyson Griffin, to make the drop down.
The move makes for a good storyline, and like at UFC 131 with Florian’s debut, brings a spotlight to the division.
The bantamweight division doesn’t have that luxury and is thus filled with people completely unknown to the casual fan.
The biggest star in the division is Urijah Faber who had great success in the WEC and has had some notable sponsorships.
Because the division’s fighters are so unknown it makes it difficult to sell title fights. If the UFC is not going to rematch Faber and Cruz then the next shot will most likely go to former WEC champ, Brian Bowles.
Bowles is a soft-spoken man who fought on Sunday’s preliminary card where he notched a unanimous decision over former title challenger, Takeya Mizugaki.
The fact UFC management chose to air the bantamweight bout between UFC newcomers Jeff Hougland and Donny Walker, with the remaining time on the pay-per-view instead of the Bowles bout should tell you how exciting that fight was.
Cruz may have earned some notoriety from his win over Faber, but a bout with Bowles would make peanuts in pay-per-view if you ask me.
Having Cruz and Faber duke it out for a third time, while you pit Bowles against Demetrious Johnson in a title eliminator in the meantime makes more sense.
This way it lets the UFC cash-in on the buzz caused by the bout on Sunday, let Cruz and Faber settle the score and gives the bantamweight division time to develop.
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