Cruz vs Faber 3 set for UFC 148 July 7 in Vegas

http://mmajunkie.com/news/27367/champ-dominick-cruz-vs-urijah-faber-iii-targeted-for-ufc-148-in-las-vegas.mma
The trilogy bout between UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) and longtime rival Urijah Faber (26-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) is targeted for UFC 148 on July 7 in Las Vegas.

That's according to UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, who was full of announcements overnight, posting the information on his Twitter account.

First, the two will square off as opposing coaches on the upcoming 15th season of "The Ultimate Fighter."

Nice.

Can't wait for Cruz/Faber 3, it's gonna be another great fight!

Lorenzo was posting up a storm of fights.

49-46 Cruz...again

@UrijahFaber wat u call a Decision I call a win!...u can keep the prom queen tiara mr popular, I'll keep the @ufcbelt! #stinkykidsrule! -Dominick Cruz

bobbitt15 wrote:

49-46 Cruz...again

Will Cruz win multiple rounds hes dropped in but scores no damage in as well? I hope to gawd Faber closes the show on dude brutally.

He hurt Cruz maybe once the whole fight. Flash knockdowns where the dude shows no ill effects less than 5 seconds later don't win rounds when you get outstruck for the next 4.5 minutes

No amount of toothless dance and dodge should win rounds where you get rocked in. For the betterment of MMA I will root for Faber.

Faber takes it

Fun fact - Faber built his name finishing featherweights. Cruz built his decisioning flyweights.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Fun fact - Faber built his name finishing featherweights. Cruz built his decisioning flyweights.

Did you ever think maybe it's harder to finish the guys Cruz has been fighting? I realize both divisions are underdeveloped but come on. Let's play the fun fact game. All the guys Cruz' has beaten under Zuffa and how many times they have been finished against all their fights:

Valencia: 6 of 19
McCall: 1 of 13
Lopez: 0 of 9
Benavidez: 0 of 17
Bowles: 2 of 12
Jorgensen: 1 of 17
Faber: 2 of 31
Johnson: 0 of 16

12 of 134 = 8.95%, or about once every 12 fights.

Now let's look at the guys Faber has beaten including Cruz and how many times they have been finished during his WEC/UFC career:

Escovedo: 5 of 26
Pearson: 17 of 56
Cruz: 1 of 20
Farrar: 3 of 11
Curran: 5 of 48
Pulver: 15 of 42
Assuncao: 2 of 20
Mizugaki: 2 of 23
Wineland: 5 of 26
Bowles: 2 of 12

57 of 284 = 20.07%, or about once every 5 fights.

Fun fact: Wolf talks out of his ass.

What I said was still true, and mostly a joke anyway. Did my comment send you on that fact finding mission or did you have those stats in the pipe line? Cruz does not finish guys based on his style. Urijah does. Nothing changes that. Even some cooked up stats with a much broader range of talent with a lot of recent losses and long careers in other weight classes skewing the numbers against Faber. Cruz opponents are smaller guys who fought smaller guys on average. Faber is a finisher and Cruz isn't. And no amount of Jens Pulver losses changes that reality.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

What I said was still true, and mostly a joke anyway. Did my comment send you on that fact finding mission or did you have those stats in the pipe line? Cruz does not finish guys based on his style. Urijah does. Nothing changes that. Even some cooked up stats with a much broader range of talent with a lot of recent losses and long careers in other weight classes skewing the numbers against Faber. Cruz opponents are smaller guys who fought smaller guys on average. Faber is a finisher and Cruz isn't. And no amount of Jens Pulver losses changes that reality.

What you said was Cruz built his name on decisioning. Of course his style isn't as explosive but it is every bit as effective. It's not his fault Mighty Mouse is all but unchokeable. It only took Me about 20 minutes to go through the names and then calculate he percentages. Those of us not working off the wifi connection at the barnes and noble snack shop don't need an hour to produce facts.

I've done the numbers before as of mid last year or so and found that Featherweight and Bantamweight fights actually are consistent with other divisions in overall finish percentages. I believe it was around a 25% finish rate. If you like I can spend another half hour or so going through the numbers tomorrow afternoon. High level opponents generally are hard to finish no matter what they weigh.

Yea dude but if youre smart enough to stat calculate youre also smart enough to acknowledge Jens and Pearson add a significant number of those losses. Also many of Fabers opponents have many more fights which drives the % of times finished up as they acquire more losses in longer careers. Also more of Fabers opponents fought at 55 against larger guys. Your stats dont mean much if looked at critically. Take Jens and Pearson out and the only guys Faber fought with five finish losses have 30, 30, and 50 total fights.

All the numbers the media report have 135 significantly lower in terms of finish rates.

Quick google http://mobile.mmafighting.com/2011/07/09/stats-facts-and-figures-for-2011s-ufc-events

Also id really like to see you compare the strength of schedule of Fabers opponents vs Cruz opponents. Fabers opponents have themselves had many more bouts with top competition.

You dont need to dress up goofy numbers. Everyone knows he is effective but he can't bust a grape and doesnt ever seem intent on ending fights. Those are valid criticisms regardless of what ever unscientific prejudicial stats you gots player.

How are the stats prejudice? The numbers are what they are. In both of their zuffa careers Cruz' opponents have been finished less than half the time. Even if you take out Pulvers record you still have 42 times being stopped out of 242 fights which is 17.36%, still twice as much as Cruz' opponents. There's nothing cooked about these numbers, nothing prejudiced, the fact of the matter is Faber's opponents have been knocked out and submitted more than Cruz's opponents.

Take pearson out and the numbers get even closer. Again, your numbers are used to obscure the reality that Cruz doesnt finish guys and Faber does. I've already pointed out the factors that mitigate the worth of those stats. Window dressing for a Cruz fanboi. Faber on yall. Watch.

Why don't we just take them all away to fit your ridiculous claims? I understand what your doing, your deliberately discrediting the numbers so you don't have to admit that it isn't just Cruz who isn't finishing these guys and it's not just Faber who is finishing his opponents. I'm not trying to obscure anything. I'm pointing out that the guys Cruz has beaten are decidedly tougher to finish on average.

That average is only the result of shorter careers with less total fights against a weaker cross section of the sport and thus isnt truly indicative to being a significantly harder group to finish. Faber would finish many/most of Cruz opponents in my opinion. Cruz would not finish many of Fabers. Those numbers are junk.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

That average is only the result of shorter careers with less total fights against a weaker cross section of the sport and thus isnt truly indicative to being a significantly harder group to finish.

Your not making any sense. Your saying that when you take the average of shorter careers(less fights to average against) against a weaker cross section is somehow skewed in comparison to almost two and a half times? Did you even graduate highschool?

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Faber would finish many/most of Cruz opponents in my opinion.

So would Jose Aldo, what's your point?

My point is Cruz cant finish a plate. Your anger at a dispute over MMA and Cruz is not like you. Something up man? inbox me n we can talk.

I take it you're rooting for Cruz? Can I ask why?

I'm not angry, I know your trolling and all but I don't even mind running the numbers to be honest. I'm not rooting for Cruz, but I just don't see Faber taking him out, flash knockdowns due to being off balance not withstanding.