- Joined
- Mar 14, 2015
- Messages
- 67
- Reaction score
- 50
hahaha! I can't believe this person actually thought Mizugaki earned Cruz the shot at the belt. That's simply ignoring all context. Cruz's fight against Mizugaki was a warm-up match for him. It was to assess his condition after a lengthy recovery (after which he took ANOTHER lengthy recovery).
Cruz got his shot because he was a champion who never lost his belt. Mizugaki would have only served as a roadblock. However, Cruz starched him--and that fact proves he's not a true contender in the bantamweight division (since when does Cruz starch ANYBODY--he completely dominated Faber, but never tried to go in for the kill).
I am a fan of Cruz to some extent. I was a BIG fan of his back in the WEC. However, these days he seems very content as a point fighter. If it ain't broke, don't fix it--I get why he does it--but TJ Dillashaw always is looking to finish. That is likely what lost him the last fight.
However, based on the aggression and quality of strikes landed, I'd actually have given the last fight to Dillashaw. Yeah, he missed a lot, but you don't lose points for missing--and overall he did land more total strikes (and their sig strikes were nearly identical).
Either way you score it, it's a fight that deserves a rematch--unlike Rousey, Velasquez, Weidman, etc. who were all offered rematches despite getting finished (none of them materialized, but they WERE on the table).
