UFC 132 Becomes Official, And Should Be One Of The UFC’s Best Summer 2011 Events

Although the past two months have certainly seen a UFC dry spell, the largest MMA promotion in the world has some big plans for the summer and fall. Chief amongst them is their UFC 132 event, which is scheduled for the July 4 weekend and features some of the UFC’s best and brightest stars. Eleven full fights have recently been made official for this event, including the highly-anticipated grudge match between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber. Here are all the details.

We head to the one and only Sherdog for news that the UFC recently made almost a dozen fights official for the July 2 card. UFC 132 “Cruz vs. Faber 2” will now featuring the following match-ups: Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber, Wanderlei Silva vs. Chris Leben, Ryan Bader vs. Tito Ortiz, Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyun Kim, Dennis Siver vs. Matt Wiman, Melvin Guillard vs. Shane Roller, George Sotiropoulos vs. Rafael dos Anjos, Brian Bowles vs. Takeya Mizugaki, Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Aaron Simpson, Andre Winner vs. Anthony Njokuani, and Erik Koch vs. Cub Swanson.

I think UFC 132 is a very interesting card. It does feature some big stars, but not any of the UFC’s mega-stars: no Georges St. Pierre, no Jon Jones, no Anderson Silva, etc. However, the great thing about this card is that it’s not dependent on any one match in particular. What I mean by that is simple: this isn’t a one-note show, every single fight looks very interesting on paper.

In fact, this entire show looks so interesting on paper that I hope the UFC pulls a UFC 129 and makes every single fight available either through Facebook, Spike TV, or Pay-Per-View. The preliminary card of this event is so good, in fact, that I think you could make a serious argument that it’s “UFC Fight Night” caliber.

That’s not hype talking: the undercard features popular Lightweights Melvin Guillard and George Sotiropoulos as well as former WEC Bantamweight Champion Brian Bowles. You’ve event got Jason Miller competing, who recently signed to the UFC from Strikeforce and made some pretty big waves by doing so.

As if that wasn’t good enough, the Pay-Per-View card is shaping up really nicely as well. I think Dennis Siver has truly begun to realize his potential and is starting to turn a lot of heads. Depending on if he beats Wiman and also how he beats him, Siver may find himself amongst the shortlist of possible UFC Lightweight Championship contenders. You’ve then got Carlos Condit taking on “Stun Gun” Kim in what I think will be a fight that will put the winner as the next challenger to the UFC Welterweight Championship, so long as the finish is dramatic enough.

And further atop the card, you’ve got a trifecta of big matches, with a whole lot on the line in each and every one of them. There’s no other way to put this: if Tito Ortiz loses to Ryan Bader, he’ll most likely be fired and he’ll also most likely retire. The situation isn’t as dire for Wanderlei Silva, but if he wants to make one final comeback before he too decides to retire, he’s got to beat Chris Leben.

And in the main event, you have two great fighters who absolutely despise each other stepping into the cage and trading leather. Dominick Cruz is definitely the most “complete” fighter in the UFC’s 135-pound division, but Urijah Faber is considered one of the best lighter-weight fighters of all time. I don’t think Faber will beat Cruz, but I certainly won’t rule out the possibility.

In the end, this looks like it’s going to be a great card and I plan to see as much of it as I possibly can. And what about you, fans and friends? Anyone out there anticipating UFC 132?