Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir, Urijah Faber vs. Dominick Cruz Likely to Take Place This Summer
Amidst a late-night marathon on Twitter on Thursday night, UFC co-owner Lornzo Fertitta broke quite a bit of news, including heavyweights Cain Velasquez vs. Frank Mir and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber 3 being likely for the summer.
Fertitta also announced that heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem will take place at UFC 146 and that a rubber match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz is in the works.
According to Fertitta, Velasquez, who dos Santos knocked out in just 64-seconds to win the heavyweight title in November, is likely to take on another former champion in Mir next, but he did not announce which upcoming event will host the matchup.
Velasquez (9-1) has not fought since that loss, the first of his career, while Mir (16-5) was in action at UFC 140 in December, defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira via kimura.
While Fertitta did not go into detail on the matchup, it is likely to be a number one contender’s bout, with the winner taking on the winner of dos Santos vs. Overeem.
Meanwhile, Cruz and Faber will appear as opposing coaches on the upcoming 15th season of The Ultimate Fighter on FX and, according to Fertitta, the rubber match between the two is expected to take place at UFC 148 on July 7th in Las Vegas.
Cruz and Faber each have one win in their first two matches against each other, with Faber defeating Cruz via guillotine choke in their first matchup at WEC 26 in March 2007 and Cruz avenging his only career loss four years later at UFC 132, where he defeated Faber via unanimous decision.
Fertitta added that Rich Franklin is also expected to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 148. Franklin, the former UFC middleweight champion, has not fought since UFC 126, where he lost to Griffin. He was scheduled to fight Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 133 in August, but Nogueira withdrew, and the UFC was unable to find Franklin a replacement opponent. He then underwent shoulder surgery in October to repair a torn labrum suffered during training.
Finally, Fertitta commented on Nick Diaz failing his drug test at UFC 143. While he did not comment on when he expected Diaz to be eligible to return, he did confirm that the UFC would like to have him back, stating “really like the kid just needs to get it together. I’m a sap for real fighters.”
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great night of announcements
Cain vs Mir is an awesome matchup
!!!
Love these mathups and can’t wait to see Mir’s wrestling defense. I believe he is more welll rounded, but needs to finish the fight in the first 3 rounds to win becasue cains cardio is ridiculous
Not sure who franklin will get matched up with. Hope he drops back down to middle weight.
I think the advantage will go to Cain, he has the better cardio and with both his striking and wrestling, he can pretty much control this fight wherever the fight goes.
Not counting Mir out, since he has the jitz, and his stand-up is making leaps and bounds, but I give the advantage to Cain.
I figured Mir/Cain would happen, as it was most logical, but I’m surprised it could be number one contender fight for Cain, as it’ll be his first fight since the loss. Cain should win, but Mir won’t go easy. It’s gonna be fun!
I think Mir should get title fight if he wins, but Cain should get loser of junior/reem. Then if he wins that he gets title fight.
I was hoping for Werdum vs. Mir – it’d be a proving ground for which heavyweight has the better JJ. Trouble is they’d likely just both revert to striking rather than rolling.
yea, unfortunately you see a lot of grappelers get fascinated with the striking game and forget to use what got them to where they are :(d.maia for ex.)
Great matchup. Even tho hate seeing ma two favorite HW square off.
Cain vs Mir is a good match up. Its pitting a word class wrestler vs a BJJ black belt in Mir. Personalty I believe Cain is to young and will be looking for a devastating k.o. I believe Cain will pull it out. Although I don’t believe he should run right back into a title shot again. For Franklin I like him at 205 although he does half a size disadvantage. I would like to see Franklin maby take on Vladimir Matyushenko, Stephan Bonnar, or Possibly Lyoto Machida.
So is Tito vs Forrest a farewell to both fighters type of fight.. Tito is 1 fight away from being out of a contract and Forrest has expressed that he is bored of the training.
franklin vs bader???
Wouldn’t it be great to see a possess off aggressive Mir step into the cage? He looked so cool calm and collected against Carwin’s, then he got his face bashed in. He looked so reserved against CroCop until…well I heard he won, but I fell asleep. He looked so relaxed against Nelson, until the talent differential became apparent. Mir is one of my favorite fighters, and I appreciate how cerebral he is, but I think Cain is too dangerous to sit back on. I would love to see him come out guns blazing and go for broke; otherwise I see Cain relegated Mir to the gatekeeper his detractors have placed him at for years. Go Mir!
*possess, not possess* I am so sick of auto correct!
possess not possess? Lol
DYAC
I think Mir can stop Cain in 2 rounds with that aggressive go for broke style kevsmitt eluded to. Mir is just so masty with those subs…cain doesn’t have that. He’ll have the size advantage something he hasn’t had alot of recently and he’s had troubles with the bigger guys as well so I see him taking advantage of that. Not to mention the momentum of Mir’s historic really submission of Big Nog…Cain’s coming off that hard loss from JDS. And we’ll have to see how Cain reacts to that his first loss if i’m not mistaken…
Mir rd 2 sub
Cruz is just too much for anyone in that weight class. Faber might disagree but Cruz really is a p4p best in the world for a reason, and not to take anything away from Urijah but what can he do differently to somehow win enough rounds off of Cruz which is highly unlikely, or somehow ko or sub Cruz…Faber needs to get this fight to the ground and roll with Cruz so he could possibly take the back and sink in that rear naked. But that’s pretty much the only way I see Faber winning that fight. He won’t be able to Cruz down and won’t be able to sink in that rear naked, again.
Cruz decision.
masty, nasty…same thing.
BRING IN DAN SEVERN!!!!
I think as far as Mir vs Cain goes.. it will come down to which Mir shows up to the fight. If its the conditioned, 265 pound juggernaut Mir we saw against Kongo, he will have a very good chance of beating Cain. If its the slow 260 pound, no-cardio Mir we saw against Big Nog II, Cain will simply TKO him in the first round
velasquez 1st round ko sry frank