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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist
Brent writes: I can't stand Dominick Cruz's style and I love Urijah Faber. I thought Faber edged Cruz in their last meeting. I just knew that Faber had Cruz's number in this rubber match, but with this delay I'm not so sure. What is your opinion and how do u see that match going when (and if) it happens?
A: Every round of Cruz-Faber II was tense and closely contested, but it was hard to come away from that fight without feeling like Dominick Cruz had edged Urijah Faber in almost every round. Statistics certainly aren't everything, but looking just at the Fight Metric numbers it's hard to even make a case for Faber having won a round. In a fight that took place almost exclusively on the feet, by the final frame Cruz had landed 90 significant strikes to Faber's 50; again each round was ultra competitive but Cruz was the clear winner.
That being said, in a rematch I might be inclined to favor Urijah Faber slightly just because of the success he had finding Cruz with power punches last July. Faber has made a lot of strides in his striking over the years and has never looked sharper than he has in recent months. While "The Dominator" is certainly capable of mixing things up, Urijah Faber's ability to finish fights is an x-factor that Cruz simply can't match.
But we have to keep in mind that all of this is pretty much meaningless if Faber loses to Renan Barao this July, and to be honest, that's a very real possibility.
David writes: Dan Hardy will fight on another PPV despite four consecutive losses. Do you think the decision to include Hardy has to do with his Global appeal as a Brit?
A: I do believe that Dan Hardy being a popular British fighter has played a role in his continued employment with the UFC despite his recent string of losses. However, I think the quality of competition Hardy has lost to is really what's keeping him around.
Hardy was an okay fighter steadily making his way through the UFC until an unexpected surge in popularity expedited his progression as a fighter. It isn't exactly the norm for a guy to go from fighting Marcus Davis and Mike Swick to Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit in just a few months.
The Anthony Johnson fight was obviously humiliating, but Hardy's loss to Chris Lytle was such a feel good moment for the UFC and Lytle that I could see how it might have been hard to cut him off that.
Dan Hardy being British probably helps, but looking at the situation now, perhaps the UFC feels that they moved him along too quickly and are just cutting him a little bit of slack.
Luke writes: Why is it that fighters like Chael Sonnen can repeatedly bash entire countries (to the point of receiving death threats) and bash almost every fighter that's not on his team but not get in any sort of trouble, yet Miguel Torres makes a "joke" on twitter that nobody really cares about or takes offense to and he gets cut from the UFC?
A: Well, Chael Sonnen is funny and rape isn't; that's actually the big difference here. Sure, some extremists may take Sonnen's japes to heart, but most intelligent people understand that he's attempting to entertain. Really, the fact that people talk about Brazilians as if they have no sense of humor or can only express contempt through violence is far more offensive than anything Chael Sonnen has said.
As far as Miguel Torres goes, I follow him on Twitter and I find myself entertained by most of his tweets, but the guy really seems to think rape is hilarious. The fact is there are really talented comedians out there that can make rape jokes and have rooms explode with laughter, but Torres isn't one of them and Twitter isn't the platform to even attempt that sort of thing.
Also, when you say no one took offense to Torres' rape joke, you have to remember that the UFC recently was taken to task by Anheuser Busch; not because of Chael Sonnen, but because of incidents like Miguel Torres' rape joke. Most other sports leagues don't even allow their athletes to use Twitter to avoid incidents like that because they don't want to have to choose between a high profile athlete who said something stupid and a blue chip sponsor who's ready to take their money and go home; but of course as we saw with Miguel Torres, when the athlete isn't that high profile, they get let go.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter @JasonAmadi and direct your "ask the Torch" questions to mmatorch@gmail.com
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