WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez 2 (18 Aug 10)

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

18 Aug 10 (Wednesday) 9 pm ET/6 pm P

Venue: The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort

Broadcast: Versus

This event marks WECs first visit to Las Vegas since WEC 45 in December 2009 and will also be shown on the Versus channel.

WEC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz (15-1) will make his first title defense against Joseph Benavidez (12-1) in the main event of WEC 50, currently scheduled for Aug. 15 at “The Pearl” from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dominick Cruz the current 135-pound champion won the belt from the former champion Brian Bowles in what was Bowles first defense of the belt at WEC 47 back on March 6.

Cruz has won six straight since a submission loss to former featherweight champion Urijah Faber at WEC 26 in March 2007. His path to the title included a unanimous decision win over the previously unbeaten Benavidez in August of last year.

Now Benavidez gets a chance at getting the belt back.

Since his 2009 loss to Cruz Benavidez quickly bounced back with a technical knockout win over Rani Yahya at WEC 45 followed by a convincing submission win over former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres in March.

Urijah Faber was expected to make his bantamweight debut against Japanese striker Takeya Mizugaki. However, Faber was forced off the card with an injury. As a result Mizugaki was also pulled from the event. The Faber/Mizugaki bout is expected to simply be pushed back, possibly as early as WEC 52.

Stephan Bonnar will serve as a commentator for the event along with Todd Harris.

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