Cruz (21-1, 4-0 UFC) will defend his title for the first time in his current reign as champion against rival Uriah Faber in the co-main event Saturday.
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UFC 199 is one event which you should definitely not miss if you are a huge MMA fan.
The Lancashire veteran knocked out Rockhold in the first round of their middleweight title fight at UFC 199 despite stepping in at just 17 days’ notice to replace the injured Chris Weidman.
Well, that didn’t take long – Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold apparently are enemies again. I’m going to swing for the fences, and I’m going to push that guy up against the fence, and I’m going to unload with everything I’ve got right in his face. I’ve been at it so long.
“[Anti-gay slur]!” Bisping said before catching himself.
He certainly has paid his dues. Bisping strolled to the cage with more confidence than ever, even though his customary choice of Blur’s “Song 2” remained unchanged.
He said it’s odd to be facing someone else now that his opportunity has arrived. “That’s flawless because I won that last fight too so even I didn’t change I was better than him then and I’m definitely better than him now”. That was a personal goal I wanted to achieve. “I think I’ve earned mine, but I’ll do whatever I need to do”, he said.
“I’ll have to give it some thought”, said Faber. “You know, I lost those fights fair and square but there were mitigating circumstance”.
“I just have to win this fight”. It came against Rockhold (15-3), who submitted Bisping in the second round of a bout in November 2014.
The judges awarded Cruz (22-1) victory by scores of 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46, another stroke of vindication for a fighter who missed more than three years with various injuries, but is a religious study of mixed martial arts and out-smarted Faber. “This guy finishes everybody in the first round but check this out”.
After first round TKOs in both of his first two fights in the organization, though, Breese fought to a unanimous decision victory against Keita Nakamura in London, England in February.
Faber insists he will win, but also dismissed the notion this could be his final chance.
“It’s a lot to go through before a fight”, Casey said of Ali’s passing on Friday.
And realistically speaking, fans know that a behind-closed-doors sparring session that went down years ago between the two doesn’t mean almost as much as the champion’s 2014 destruction of Bisping in the octagon. There’s no last anything. “I got caught. I just didn’t see him having anything for me and I just over-committed”.
The football analogy could be all too apropos after Saturday. “That may have been the last one of my career”. He was out. I went to shake his hand afterward and he said he had already shook my hand. “He’s accomplished so much, and he has been a champion in the WEC”. I’ll prove that any time. But he realizes how close he is to fulfilling his boyhood dream of being a world champion.
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“Some say revenge is sweet. I’ve never been humble”, Rockhold told FOX Sports.
