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LAS VEGAS – Dominick Cruz may not be flashy and he doesn't often do things to bring a crowd to its feet. But the World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion does so many things so well so often that it's going to take a near-perfect fight for someone to beat him.

Joseph Benavidez fought a very good fight against Cruz on Wednesday in the main event of WEC 50 at the Palms Resort, but very good wasn't quite good enough. Cruz won a split decision to retain his title and cement his place among the elite fighters in the world, if he hadn't before Wednesday's victory.

Judges had it 49-46, 48-47 for Cruz and 48-47 for Benavidez in the rematch of a non-title fight between them a year earlier at WEC 42.

Cruz is now 17-1 and unbeaten at 135 pounds, where he's reeled off a series of impressive wins. In his past three outings, he's beaten Benavidez twice and Brian Bowles once. They're ranked third and second in the world, respectively, in

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Chad Dawson did himself no favors with his lackluster effort in his loss in Montreal on Saturday in his World Boxing Council light heavyweight title fight with Jean Pascal.

It was clear fairly early in the HBO-televised bout at the Bell Centre that Dawson was the more skillful fighter, but he had nowhere near the passion and fire that Pascal had. Pascal looked like he wanted to win badly; Dawson looked as if he were bored by the proceedings.

Dawson, though, hurt his image far more after the fight than he did during it. He chose to whine about the stoppage on HBO, accusing Pascal incorrectly of illegally butting him all night and intimating he was on the verge of a stoppage.

At the postfight news conference, promoter Gary Shaw and Dawson continued the farce instead of conceding that Dawson had had a bad night. Fans can accept a fighter who has a bad night every now and then. But Dawson came off looking petulant and not like one of the

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LAS VEGAS – Joseph Benavidez had surrendered the comfort of his family, the security of a full-time job, the ease of a familiar routine, rounded up everything he owned and drove about 1,000 miles from New Mexico to California hoping to fulfill a dream and become a world-class mixed martial arts fighter.

Benavidez left his home in Las Cruces, N.M., with no illusions. He knew it would be hard and that the odds were stacked against him. He has beaten the odds to this point and will meet Dominick Cruz on Wednesday for the World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight title in the main event of WEC 50 at the Palms Resort.

Moving north and giving up everything he knew and everything that was familiar to him to take a chance at fulfilling dream was risky, but Benavidez said he never let the thought of the risk deter him.

"I didn't care," he said. "I knew that if I was going to take my career to the next level, this was what I would have to do. Nothing

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James Toney didn't let the first sentence of the first question finish before erupting. After going 72-6-3 as a boxer, Toney makes his mixed martial arts debut when he fights Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Famer Randy Couture in a three-round heavyweight bout at UFC 118 on Aug. 28 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.

When a reporter referred to Couture as a legend, Toney banged his palm on a table and began to shout.

"Man, what kind of [expletive] sport is this if y'all call a guy barely over .500 a legend?" Toney said of Couture's 18-10 record. "If this guy is a legend, what am I? I'm going to knock this [expletive's] head off. I'll hit him so hard his grandmother's going to feel it. I come from boxing. Boxing ain't no joke and your legend is about to find that out the hard way."

Toney is one of the greatest boxers of his era, as well as in a league by himself in terms of trash talking. He loves to fight, and not just inside

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Watch a few clips of Chad Dawson and it’s obvious that he's an elite talent. He's faster than just about anybody he faces. He has a ring awareness which far exceeds his age and experience.

See him in person and it will remove all doubt: You know you're watching one of the best fighters in the business.

"The way I see it, the only fighters you can really say are truly better than Chad are [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao," said Gary Shaw, Dawson’s promoter.

Dawson, though, is strangely low-key despite a 29-0 record, 17 knockouts and a position among virtually every major pound-for-pound Top 10 list. He's ranked fifth in the Yahoo! Sports poll. He's rated sixth by The Ring and fourth by ESPN.com.

Yet, his fight for the World Boxing Council light heavyweight title on HBO Saturday against Jean Pascal in Montreal is flying decidedly under the radar, particularly for one so talented. Mayweather once praised Dawson as the most talented

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A watershed moment in women's mixed martial arts occurred last month on a night when there was nary a fight and arenas across the country were dark.

ESPN's "SportsCenter," which normally pays only slightly more attention to MMA as it does to professional lacrosse, included a women's fight highlight among its "Plays of the Week." A few days before that show, Sarah Kaufman retained her Strikeforce welterweight title with a third-round knockout of Roxanne Modaferi in Everett, Wash.

Kaufman ended the fight, which was broadcast live on Showtime, with a power bomb slam that instantly knocked Modaferi out. It was fourth on "Plays of the Week," joining nine baseball highlights.

If the women's sport continues to grow, Kaufman's slam may come to be known as the female equivalent of the 2005 Ultimate Fighting Championship bout between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. That is the fight which UFC president Dana White credits with saving the company

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The new leader in the Yahoo! Sports boxing rankings is an old one. Manny Pacquiao regained the top spot in the voting from Floyd Mayweather Jr., the clear result of voter disappointment with Mayweather's reluctance to fight his Filipino rival.

There was no poll in July, since I was on vacation, so the last balloting took place in June. At that time, it still looked likely that Mayweather and Pacquiao would meet in the fall.

But Mayweather let pass an opportunity to fight Pacquiao on Nov. 13, with one of his advisors denying negotiations had ever taken place despite the fact that promoter Bob Arum and HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg insisted they had.

Voters clearly were unhappy with Mayweather's choice and one left him off of his ballot entirely as a result. In June, Mayweather garnered 22 of the 40 first-place votes cast, with Pacquiao taking the other 18. In the August balloting, there were 36 votes cast. Pacquiao got 21 first-place

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The rancor between Zuffa, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the Bellator Fighting Championship escalated significantly on Tuesday when Bellator filed suit in a federal court in New Jersey, alleging Zuffa used a fighter Bellator claims it has under exclusive promotional contract as part of the cast on "The Ultimate Fighter."

Bellator's suit also includes fighter Jonathan Brookins, who is part of the cast of the upcoming TUF 12, and Brookins' manager, Mickey Dubberly. It accuses all defendants of tortious interference in its promotional agreement with Brookins. It also accuses Zuffa of fraud, Brookins of fraud, breach of contract and misrepresentation and Dubberly of fraud and misrepresentation.

The suit comes less than two weeks after Zuffa sued Bellator and high-profile mixed martial arts fighter agent Ken Pavia in state court in Nevada, accusing them of theft of trade secrets.

As part of the suit, Bellator