The Sports Xchange
By Dave Doyle, The Sports Xchange
UFC on FOX 9: Home cage gives TAM fighters edge
Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena is best known as the home of the NBA’s Kings. But in mixed martial arts circles, the old barn in California’s capitol city may as well be called The House Team Alpha Male Built.
Fighters from the city’s leading MMA gym have headlined several of the biggest events held in Sac-town since the sport was legalized in the Golden State in 2006. But there may be no bigger event than UFC on FOX 9 Saturday night, when Team Alpha Male fighters are featured in three of the four nationally televised main-card bouts.
In the main event, TAM’s Joseph Benavidez challenges Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight title. In the co-feature, Urijah Faber takes on Michael McDonald of nearby Modesto in a key bantamweight bout. And in a featherweight fight, once-beaten Chad Mendes squares off with Nik Lentz. Combined, Benavidez, Faber and Mendes have won their past 10 fights.
The veteran Faber, the biggest star among the lower weight classes, has headlined several sellout and near-sellout cards at Sleep Train Arena over the years and feels the home-cage advantage will work in his camp’s favor.
“You know, it’s definitely an advantage in a lot of ways,” Faber said. “I mean, the energy, I’m big on energy, and, the culmination of being in a place that’s really comfortable and having a crowd that is going to be putting off some great vibes and having my whole team with me is going to be huge.”
Benavidez hopes such an energy will put his career over the top. The native of Las Cruces, N.M., is 18-3. His three losses have been a pair of decisions to current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, and a split-decision loss to Johnson in Sept. 2012, which crowned the UFC’s first 125-pound champ.
Since then, Benavidez has won three straight fights, the last two via TKO.
“Demetrious is one of the best fighters in the world,” Benavidez said. “He doesn’t get the credit he deserves. For me, I have been in there with him for 25 minutes. I have a little better idea of his speed and movement, where, the first time in there it’s kind of, you just go in there and dive in head first.”
The resilient Faber (29-6) can cap off a tremendous 2013 with a victory over McDonald. As World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champ from 2006-08, Faber popularized the lower weight classes as his division’s breakthrough star. Since a loss to current UFC interim bantamweight champ Renan Barao in July, 2012, though, he has won three straight fights.
But Faber knows his work is cut out against him against McDonald (16-2), a 22-year-old who used Faber as his inspiration to break into the sport. McDonald has scored 14 of his 16 career wins via knockout or submission.
“The guy is a force to be reckoned with,” Faber said. “It’s one thing to go in there and try to win. It’s another thing to know, like, this is a simulated death match. We’re both trying to get that victory.”
Mendes (15-1), meanwhile, is one of the world’s top featherweights. The former two-time NCAA wrestling All-American at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo suffered his only career loss to current champion Jose Aldo in January 2012. Since then, though, Mendes has won four consecutive fights, all via knockout. Lentz (25-4-2, 1 no-contest), a Minnesota resident, has won three in a row.
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