UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz deserves your attention this Saturday

Dominick Cruz deserves your attention this Saturday.

I’ve been signing the praises of Cruz to friends and fans going back to his days in the WEC. Boy, do I miss those cards, particularly the laters ones that featured almost exclusively Bantamweight and Featherweight fights. Since MMA is still a young sport, there are still divisions that are lacking for depth (in particular Heavyweight and Middleweight) and still experience growing pains while the sport continues to attract the attention of  higher caliber of athletes from around the globe. Yet in the WEC, there were two lower weight classes that at the time were not even in the UFC where the talent pool was not only exceptional, but nearly every fight was a barn-burner.

Cruz was the star of the WEC in its final days, becoming champion right at the precipice of the announcement of the UFC’s eventual aborption of the promotion. His year and a half long reign has seen him dominate the likes of Scott Jorgensen and former Featherweight champion Urijah Faber in performances that have shown him to be something far beyond the measuring stick for his weight class. Like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, Cruz seems to be a generation ahead of every other fighter in his division, yet with a style that is unique and all his own. Anyone that appreciates footwork can only sit in awe as he darts and dances around his opponents. As MMAFighting.com’s Ben Fowlkes once said (in praise of Cruz’s unique style and baffling cardio), “how do you prepare for this weirdo?”

It’s my belief (as you’ll see when I release my rankings later this week) that Dominick Cruz is one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world. It’s a shame that he’s not being showcased on pay-per-view and does not yet have the recognition and respect from casual fans to be a major draw, but the positive of course is that we get to see one of the greatest MMA fighters in the game hone his craft on free television. Lucky us.

UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson” airs live on Versus this Saturday, October 1st starting at 9:00pm.

In addition to the main event, the rest of the card has the potential to be one of the more entertaining events of 2011. Pat Barry vs. Stefan Struve, Matt Wiman vs. Mac Danzig, and Anthony Johnson vs. Charlie Brenneman rounds out the live televised portion of the event.

You owe it to yourself as a fan to watch this Saturday. Mark my words: you won’t see a better fighter step in the cage the rest of this year.

WordPress theme: Kippis 1.15