WEC 50 Results: Dominick Cruz Retains the Belt Against Joseph Benavidez

If you aren't sure what the buzz is about with the lighterweights of MMA, watch WEC 50 again tonight on Versus.

Of course, Brad Pickett's fight with Scott Jorgenson was a great fight in itself, but the main event should be the one that has you hooked on Bantamweights.

Tonight, Dominick Cruz got himself a win in his first title defense since winning the belt from Brian Bowles, but he beat Joseph Benavidez in a way that even I could not have called.

For those who would like to know how I saw it, I did see Cruz winning the fight.

What I didn't see was the fight being close enough to where even one judge thought Benavidez had beaten Cruz.

From the moment Steve Mazzagati said, "Bring it on, come on," Cruz and Benavidez were hungry to throw their shots.

Both men landed some good shots on each other, swinging back and forth at times while swinging wildly at other times.

There were times when it was Cruz getting close to Benavidez that I thought the fight might end quickly, as "Joe-B Wan Kenobi" is never a sluggish puncher when he swings.

Somehow Cruz was able to survive some of Benavidez's best shots and deliver a hard flying knee that cut Benavidez early in the fight, though it was nothing that would've warranted another doctor stoppage win for the champ.

Also notable were the takedowns and submission defense of Cruz in the fight, which is all the more surprising when you consider how tough it is to escape a guillotine choke from any member of Team Alpha Male.

Cruz managed to do that about three to four times overall during the fight from where I could see, but I give Benavidez his respect.

At least two of those guillotine chokes were locked in tight enough to where I wouldn't have blamed Cruz for tapping.

As Todd Harris and Stephan Bonnar would point out throughout the fight, though, Cruz clearly had spent a countless amount of hours in camp learning how to defend and even escape the hold.

One thing about Benavidez that definitely earned him some major props during the fight, on the other hand, was that he did return the favor to Cruz.

Remember the mention about how Cruz busted Benavidez open early in the fight?

Well, Benavidez did it with his back against the cage near the end of the fourth round, which may or may not have contributed to the belief that Benavidez had dethroned Cruz.

Either way, both men never bicycled around the cage for the full five minutes of that last round.

They brought it like it had never been brought before, and even when Cruz somehow managed to take down Benavidez, both warriors took the trading of fisticuffs to the ground.

Speaking of the ground, Cruz did a good job of keeping active on the ground while holding Benavidez in a position where he was unable to secure anything strong on Cruz from off his back.

At the end of the 25 minutes of that Bantamweight battle, the judges saw the fight in different manners, with one judge seeing a victory for the challenger while the other two saw the fight in favor of the champ.

My prediction came somewhat true, as Cruz did beat Benavidez by a decision.

The only thing I didn't say was that it was going to be a split decision—I actually said either Unanimous Decision or a TKO.

"To dominate or to be dominated?"

That seems to be the question with Dominick Cruz, but the answer I doubt matters.

It seems like either way, he might just find a way to come out the winner in the end.