Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: Dominick Cruz, Johny Hendricks, and Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos
Dec 5, 2012 - 10:30:43 AM HYDEN BLOG: Dominick Cruz, Johny Hendricks, and Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

Current UFC Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz suffered a major setback in his return from knee surgery this past week. Cruz has already missed a lot of time and there's now a chance that he'll miss most or all of 2013 as well. Renan Barao is the interim champ and had wanted to wait until Cruz could return to fight again. Setting aside the fact that this negates the need for an interim belt, it's just not possible to do that now.

Cruz needs to be stripped of his belt and Barao needs to be made the official Bantamweight Champion. Cruz hasn't fought since October 2011. If he can't fight again until 2014 you have no choice but to strip him of the belt. You can't keep a division in limbo that long. To be honest, they should have stripped him as soon as he got hurt. If you're going to miss a year, you can't be champion. To go even further, I'm against guys going longer than six months in between title defenses, except in certain cases. I don't consider coaching The Ultimate Fighter to be a good enough reason to go more than six months in between title defenses. The only exceptions I would make is in cases where there's no clear No. 1 contender.

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Johny Hendricks is likely the No. 1 contender for the UFC Welterweight Title. It's hard to make a case for Nick Diaz considering how long it's been since he's fought, plus the fact that he lost to Carlos Condit in that last fight. I like Hendricks as he's a dangerous fighter, however he's diminishing himself by claiming that UFC Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre is ducking him. Hendricks says that GSP would rather fight Nick Diaz than him because GSP thinks he could beat Diaz.

Someone must have gotten into his head to tell Hendricks to spout such ridiculous garbage. Quite frankly, I think GSP would beat either Hendricks or Diaz almost every time. As a matter of fact, I think Diaz is a tougher matchup for GSP than Hendricks is. I know Hendricks is a good wrestler, but I would still give GSP the edge there. I think GSP could take either guy down, and Diaz is much more dangerous on the ground than Hendricks. Diaz and Hendricks are both strong boxers, but Diaz has the advantage on the ground.

Suggesting that GSP is ducking you is ludicrous. It's like reading YouTube comments and expecting rational discussion. There's no way that GSP is ducking Johny Hendricks.

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Cain Velasquez recently said that he plans on showing that he's the best when he fights Junior dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Title at UFC 155. Cain said that no one is better than him, especially JDS. It's basically what you would expect from a fighter, and lends credence to the notion that all these guys read from the same script. My question about this fight is: what's different?

Cain was hurt going into the first fight, but so was JDS. It also wasn't like it was a close decision loss, Cain got blasted and knocked out in just over a minute. What's changed since then? I don't think anything has. It may not happen as quickly, but I think that JDS wins by TKO. Cain is a really good fighter, no question. I think he's the second-best heavyweight in the world. The problem is that he's fighting the best heavyweight in the world. I don't see this fight deviating from their first fight much.

I've given consideration to the fact that Cain is out title contention for a bit if he loses to JDS again. That can give a lot of motivation to a fighter. However, with the division being so weak, I think Cain could earn another title shot fairly quickly so I don't know if it's as big a factor as it might be in a stacked division. I think Cain fights well, but that JDS finishes him in the first round.


Comments and suggestions can be e-mailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com