UFC 132 Fight Picks: Cruz Vs. Faber

Dominick Cruz, the reigning Bantamweight Champion of the UFC, is one of the best fighters in the sport from a winning percentage standpoint.

But his record, which contains 17 wins, has a blemish on it that came at the hands of his July 2 opponent, Urijah Faber.

Faber, the former featherweight champ, is Cruz's opponent at UFC 132 and many are picking Cruz to avenge his loss in this one. Cruz has improved leaps and bounds since the last time he fought Faber, and he is one of the most elusive and talented precision strikers in the fight game today.

Faber of course is a fan favorite because he is aggressive an unconventional with a strong fighting spirit. Broken hands and other recurring injuries only serve to slow Faber down in the short term as he always seems to bounce back stronger and has issues fighting hurt.

A five-round fight in this one could play in Cruz's favor if he starts finding his timing and is able to stay out of the shorter Faber's range while working the jab as he does so well.

Faber vs. Cruz in Las Vegas could come down to whether or not Faber can do significant damage or at least get ahead on the scorecard early. He'll have to bring the heat in the first couple rounds or else the deft striker Cruz can get a lead on the scorecards and then coast to decision win as he has done so often in the recent past.

The bantamweight division so far has been good to Faber, who has looked solid so far since dropping down from featherweight. His UFC debut against Eddie Wineland wasn't a vintage performance, however. But his debut at the weight class resulted in a submission of the night award in the WEC.

On July 2, the Cruz vs. Faber fight winner is a tough pick to make, but the true bad blood between these two ensures that it will be a hard-fought one with a lot of emotions involved and perhaps a lot of scrambles, which could favor Faber considering his experience in such fights.

Cruz's biggest enemy could be himself in this one if he's not careful because he needs to execute his game plan and not do too much freelancing against Faber.

In the end, this UFC 132 scrap will be a close back-and-forth one with Faber coming out aggressively to try and gain momentum early and to not let Cruz get into a comfort zone.

The Cruz vs. Faber pick here is that Faber outlasts Cruz and uses his superior leverage and power to take a close decision win.