Two bantamweight top contenders and fierce strikers who could be heading for a showdown...which one's left standing?
I'm not to sure about this one. At first I'd say Mizugaki, but Cruz is a very awkward striker, slick, good footwork, good speed. I don't think I've ever seen a fighter that switches as often as he does. Mizugaki on the other hand just bangs and hard. He also has good gnp and is always looking to hurt people. His submission defence looks to be very good aswell, although I'm not sure that it would come to that in this fight. I was worried last night that the judges would rob him whereas I thought he clearly won that fight (against Curran). All I know is that I wouldn't want to miss this fight because it would be awesome!
Who vs. who. This sounds like a zuffa zombie thread, where they assume everyone is as brainwashed into watching zuffa events as they are.
I barely follow MMA, and when I do it's pretty much the WEC exclusively as the higher weights (as in boxing) don't much interest me. If I was really brainwashed as you claim wouldn't I pay more attention to the cashcow PPV events and TUF than an afterthought promotion buried on a third-rate cable network? I have only ever paid for a handful of UFC events (and haven't in years) - though I did habitually rent the original VHS series (pre-Zuffa) back when the competition actually featured a mixture of martial arts disciplines. :good Take your zuffa zombie agenda BS and try it on someone else for whom the shoe fits.
Now, back to business... I see any outcome short of either guy tapping as more or less equally likely. Both men are comfortable trading, and while Cruz showed a knack for tossing Benavidez bodily to the mat whenever he willed, there was an overall lack of commitment or desire to follow-up on the ground. Mizu is a big, strong bantam; I doubt Cruz will try the same tactics unless he grows supremely confident in his ground game overnight. Besides, Mizu can handle himself on the ground and showed good sub defense against Curran. Both men will be looking to knock each other out - Cruz with a head kick or counter punch, and Mizu with whatever he can touch Cruz with. Since both guys seem fairly sturdy, I would guess that it will come down to who scores more points in the eyes of the officials.
This just shows how ****ing little you know or care about MMA; you just have a hard on for Dana, you couldn't care less about the sport. If Zuffa never ****ing existed you should still know Mizugaki is one of the best 135lbers in the world. Especially since you claim to be such an expert on the issue of what "real MMA" is all about. You think somebody who claims to be all about the purity of the sport would now about ****ing Shooto. The guy was absolutely great in Shooto and Cage Force (GCM at the time he was there). Are you Kazja13 perchance? The nutjob who got banned from the UG? We get it, you hate Zuffa and even though MMA has become 100x bigger with them around, you think they are trying to kill the sport, we get it. Maybe post something original, something about some other organizations, other fighters, there are plenty out there; I suppose its easier to just say the same bull**** over and over again rather than provide real information on the sport you claim to love. If you actually give a **** about the sport, why not provide us with some information about some of the non zuffa mma in the world, that would be the best way to take peoples minds off Zuffa. But please, we're all dieing to hear something besides, or at least in addition to how the Fertittas are the mafia, Dana is evil, blah blah blah blah blah.
Back to the non mental cases. I really liked Cruz's game plan last fight, he took his already good striking and used it to mix in some picture perfect takedowns on a very good wrestler in Benevidez. I know its cliche but Benevidez, who trains with Faber, fights quite a lot like him as well, and the fact that Cruz was able to so easily take him down showed that he could defiantly do that to Mizugaki, who is not that great on the ground, or at least not much of a threat to win from his back.
cruz looks good, mizu i honestly though curren should have gotten the nod. yeah curren was on his back but still whipping mizus ass for most of the fight. he wasnt comfortable on the ground against curren at all and almost seemed tenative to really get into it wiht him on the ground
Id go with Dominick Cruz I feel hes a more well rounded fighter then Mizugaki. Really dont care for this fight though im hoping Cruz gets the title fight vs Brian Bowles next. In the meantime id honestly love a Mizugaki vs Torres rematch I mean look they did a Faber-Pulver rematch and that fight wasnt nearly as close as Mizugaki-Torres and the loser didnt come in on less then a months notice. Torres vs Mizugaki for the # 1 contenders while Cruz vs Bowles lets do it. Although if Rani Yaha got in on that I wouldnt mind that man has been on a tear as of late.
Mizu won much of the 2nd round sitting in Curran's guard (and the early going when they were standing). It wasn't until the choke the last minute of the round that Curran started to get the better of it - and that was the turning point in the fight's momentum. Much of what Curran had attempted from his back prior to that had been stuffed pretty effectively, and he wasn't necessarily landing cleaner until the 3rd IIRC. He only whipped Mizu's ass for one round + one minute.
