UFC 132 could turn out to be a seminal moment for the bantamweight class in MMA.
The 135-pound title fight between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber was the first time fighters of that size headlined a card. The result was a close five-round fight that was waged all over the Octagon.
The champ, who retained his title via unanimous decision, 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, knew there was a lot more on the line that just his UFC title belt.
"Me and Urijah kind of set the bar for the 135ers especially. we had something to show everybody in the world today ...� that 135ers can headline a card. 145ers can headline a card and it will be exciting," Cruz said. "We can compete with, you know heavyweights, 170 pounders. We all train hard. We all work hard. Just because we're little guys doesn't mean we can't scrap," joked Cruz.
There were even screams of "little guy, little guy" coming from the crowd. It turned out that the dude yelling for 25 minutes was Brandon Vera, Cruz's camp mate at Alliance Training Center in San Diego.
"I knew what that meant. That's when I'm sparring. It means, get on my toes, hop around, footwork [and] move. That's kind of like an active rest. Yeah, I did hear [Vera yelling]," said Cruz.
The bantamweights and featherweights have a chance to become some of the biggest stars in the game. They hardly ever have the stamina issues you sometimes see at heavyweight and light heavyweight. The smaller guys also seem to be more well-rounded which makes finishes, via submission or knockout, possible in just about every fight.
Many of boxing's biggest stars currently fight between 126-154 pounds, so it makes sense that Cruz, Faber, Demetrious Johnson, Jose Aldo, Kenny Florian and countless others could be mega-stars in the next few years. The UFC announced last month that it'll add one more weight class, the 125 pounders before the end of 2011.
round the world yacht racing scuba diving snorkeling speed sailing surfing
No comments:
Post a Comment