It's official. Dominick Cruz (17-1) will get another shot at Urijah Faber (25-4)—but this time, he will be the defending champion instead.
Four years ago these two duked it out for the WEC featherweight title at WEC 26 in a fight that gave Cruz his only career loss to date. Faber submitted Cruz by guillotine choke in the first round at that fight.
The two fighters have since had a heated rivalry, going back and forth at one another in interviews.
"In the beginning it had nothing to do with him at all," says Cruz in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "In the very beginning, it had to do with the fact that I wasn't even on the event poster and I was fighting him for a world title. That really got under my skin."
But now it's more then just the event poster that has gotten to Cruz.
"So, my way of getting on the poster was to sign where I signed [over Faber's picture], and it ended up pissing him off. Since then, he's been the one calling me out. He's done a million YouTube videos, went on like a media frenzy, and just done a bunch of YouTube videos running his mouth. After that, that's when everything started up. That's when I started talking because I'm not just going to let him keep running his mouth about me for no reason," Cruz says.
Faber has said a lot about Cruz. From Cruz's point of view, fans might believe much of Faber's words hold true.
"I feel like people just take what Faber says and go in stride with it and assume what he says is true—because he tries to play this perfect identity," Cruz says. "And, to be honest, I haven't been able to have quite the spotlight throughout my career that he's had—just from the timeline and the things he's done and when I did it."
"That being said, people are going to take the word of the person they know more than the person that is kind of coming out of nowhere, and I kind of came out of nowhere. So, that automatically makes me the bad guy. And if that's the guy he wants to make me out to be, go for it. But sooner or later people are going to know the truth about me, and they're going to know I'm here to fight. They're going to know I'm here to win. They're going to know I'm a good guy and a good champion," Cruz says.
The two have a while before their fight at UFC 132 on July 2nd in Las Vegas. The card is also rumored to feature a rematch between B.J. Penn and Jon Fitch and the return of Tito Ortiz against Ryan Bader.
The rivalry has boiled up to this moment—and Cruz seems excited and more then ready to face Faber again, this time hopefully standing with his arm raised at the end.
"Losing that fight a long time ago was a surreal moment—kind of like winning the UFC belt was a surreal moment," Cruz says. "So, I'm just going to kind of take it day by day as I prepare for the fight. I couldn't be more excited. I feel like every fighter wants the opportunity to fight someone they've lost to in the past, and this is like the best-case scenario for me. I've had a lot of time to make improvements to my game, and I'm excited about the fight."
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Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/646580-ufc-news-urijah-faber-vs-dominick-cruz-ii-is-now-booked
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