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http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/6/8/150 ... -135-faces

The former WEC featherweight champion will make the move down to 135lbs for his next fight on August 18 as he faces Japanese fighter Takeya Mizugaki in the WEC.

The bout was confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the fight stating bout agreements have been issued at this point for the bantamweight showdown.

This should be a great fight! Smart move by Faber too.

This is the right move for Urijah, who is too small for the new breed of 145. He is likely one win away from a fight with Miguel Torres, if both can win their next fight. That is a fight everyone wants to see and likely will be on PPV.

No way can it headline a PPV. But it would be cool to see.

I think both Torres and Faber will want to put a couple green highlights on their record before taking that fight on.

Faber vs. Torres could absolutely headline a WEC PPV. I think it might be the only fight that could do it, because Faber is still a bigger draw than anyone else in the WEC, belt or no belt.

Best case scenario, of course, would be for one of the two to have the 135 belt.

Something else that I think should be noted is that this could indicate that the 125 pound class is coming to the WEC. I'm not sure Faber would step on Joseph Benavidez's toes by going down to fight in the weight class where he is a top (but somewhat undersized) contender. That would give Team Alpha Male a horse in each race, so to speak, with Benavidez at 125, Faber at 135, and Mendes at 145, which I think was the plan if Faber were to move down.

Anyway, as for this fight itself, I think it should be very good, and I wouldn't sleep on Mizugaki. I think Faber should be able to control it with his wrestling, but Mizugaki is a resilient and slippery lil bugger.

How could a guy with 2 straight losses and a 2-3 in his last 5 guy headline? Add a win to each, they're still not that impressive.

I guess you can sell Faber based on the promise of his new weight class. OK, maybe. I can't imagine a PPV around that, though.

Torres said himself that both of them would have to work themselves for that to happen. And for each of them that probably means more than one victory.

cowboyronnie wrote:How could a guy with 2 straight losses and a 2-3 in his last 5 guy headline? Add a win to each, they're still not that impressive.

I guess you can sell Faber based on the promise of his new weight class. OK, maybe. I can't imagine a PPV around that, though.

Ask Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin...or even worse, Tito Ortiz.

Draws are draws.

CPT wrote:

cowboyronnie wrote:How could a guy with 2 straight losses and a 2-3 in his last 5 guy headline? Add a win to each, they're still not that impressive.

I guess you can sell Faber based on the promise of his new weight class. OK, maybe. I can't imagine a PPV around that, though.

Ask Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin...or even worse, Tito Ortiz.

Draws are draws.

This.

Though I did not mean to imply it would headline the PPV. I'd assume it would be the co-main event along with a title fight for either Aldo or Bendo.

CPT wrote:

cowboyronnie wrote:How could a guy with 2 straight losses and a 2-3 in his last 5 guy headline? Add a win to each, they're still not that impressive.

I guess you can sell Faber based on the promise of his new weight class. OK, maybe. I can't imagine a PPV around that, though.

Ask Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin...or even worse, Tito Ortiz.

Draws are draws.

Little different. Those two have a lot more prestige in the bank.

cowboyronnie wrote:

CPT wrote:Ask Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin...or even worse, Tito Ortiz.

Draws are draws.

Little different. Those two have a lot more prestige in the bank.

Of course.

But relatively speaking? Not really.

I'd actually argue that by WEC standards, they are way bigger draws than Liddell and Franklin. In real standards, they aren't, but that's why the WEC isn't on PPV all the time.

Maybe it becomes a co-main event to a title fight, but the bulk of the attention and promotion will be on this fight, for sure.

I'm trying to think of an equivalent, but it's hard. Probably something like a non-title Brock Lesnar or GSP fight taking a back seat to an Anderson Silva title fight in the bout order, but everyone would know where the buys were coming from.

Actually, the best example is probably this card itself. WEC 50 is going to have Cruz vs. Benavidez for the BW title, but all anybody is talking about is Faber. Which, come to think of it, means they may very well have plans to fast track Faber into a title shot against Cruz, if the fights play out that way. Faber does have that win over Cruz to help sell the fight. If they do that, and Torres strings two wins together (one of them should have to be Jorgenson, who is getting kind of screwed in this scenario), then this talk could all be moot, because it could be Faber defending the 135 title against Torres. A lot of things would have to go right, but I bet that's the scenario the WEC is hoping for.