The Juggernaut MMA News Report 03.10.10: Benavidez Dominates Torres
Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 03.10.2010
A complete look at WEC 47, including discussion of Miguel Torres as a part of the past, Dominick Cruz’s chance at being a dominant champion, a sad farewell to Jens Pulver the fighter, Bellator updates, Sengoku results and more!
Bye Bye Bowles, Hello Champion Cruz
WEC 47 proved to be an historic night although it ended in anticlimactic fashion. Earlier in the night, we witnessed the possible last fight in the career of a fan favorite and the second biggest star in company history looked unfamiliarly slow.
In the main event, Dominick Cruz became the new WEC bantamweight champion after Brian Bowles and his corner stopped the fight due to an injury. Bowles said after the first punch he threw in the first round, he broke his right hand. It would be the second time he broke his hand, as he injured it when he won the title last year. The fight may have lasted two rounds, but Cruz dominated the fight. He showed improved striking as he bobbed and weaved around the cage, coming in from various angles that confused Bowles.
Cruz bloodied Bowles' nose and landed some vicious leg kicks that had him hobbling. Cruz would have definitely been leading on the cards up to that point had the fight continued but Bowles could muster up little offense with one good hand. I first noticed something wrong with his hand during the second round when he was visibly shaking it as if to get some feeling back. It reminded me of Urijah Faber during his second fight with Mike Brown.
The loss marks the end of a short reign for Bowles who would be considered a transitional champion if this were professional wrestling. This is also the first loss of his career and no doubt it's extremely disappointing it happened due to an injury so early in the fight.
As for Cruz, he is now the man. It's pretty clear who is in his future as we saw earlier in the night, a tremendous performance from Joseph Benavidez.
Miguel Torres had talked about changing up his training methods in preparation for this fight, hiring different coaches and training partners to help him. I have no idea what the problem was, but Torres did not look well at all in this fight. He appeared hesitant and never comfortable in the fight. In round one, Benavidez's height disadvantage did not matter at all. He caught Torres with a punch and even took him down and controlled him on the ground.
In round two, Torres attempted to pepper him with jabs to prevent the takedown. He failed. Benavidez took him down and from the guard, cut him with big elbows. Torres was busted wide open to the point the fight may have been stopped anyway due to blood. Torres tried to scramble up, but Benavidez caught him in a tight guillotine and the former champion was forced to tap out.
To say this was a huge win for Joseph Benavidez would be a big understatement. Besides the fact he won, he dominated Torres for most of two rounds en route to this win. Benavidez immediately becomes the top contender to the bantamweight title and should receive a rematch with Cruz (Cruz defeated him last year to earn his title shot).
As for Torres, this must be a weird feeling to say the least. For the first time in his career, he has consecutive losses and has been finished in both fights. What is there for him in the bantamweight division? The only options that come to mound are A) a rematch with Brian Bowles whenever he is healthy or B) should Urijah Faber lose to Jose Aldo, perhaps he will drop to 135-pounds and fight Torres.
In another emotional fight, Jens Pulver gave his all but it was not enough. He fought grappling ace Javier Vasquez and could not compete on the ground like his opponent. Pulver tried to work in leg kicks but on one attempt, Vazquez caught it and took him down. They scrambled for a bit before Vazquez ultimately caught him in an armbar and forced Pulver to tap. If he had waited any longer, Pulver's arm may have snapped. Luckily, it did not.
For the first time, Pulver in the post-fight interview, alluded to the fact this may have been his last fight. He refused to use the word 'retirement' but was emotional in saying he did not want to put the fans through another defeat. Despite the fact that he is as beloved a fighter as there is, it has to be tough for WEC to continue to book him in main-card fights after losing as many fights as he has.
I will assume he will never "retire" because as a lifelong competitor, it would be extremely difficult to do so. Instead, I hope he can focus on his own gym and do all kinds of work for WEC and the UFC.
As for Vazquez, the win was important for him as he risked losing three fights in a row. He will go as far in WEC as his BJJ skills allow him to.
In the worst fight of the night, entertainment wise, was the decision battle between LC Davis and Deividas Taurosevicius. The majority of the fight was spent with both men fighting alongside the cage in the clinch. Literally. One judge had the fight a DRAW while the other two ruled it in favor of Davis.
The opener of the show was electric as it included a come-from-behind victory by Bart Palaszewski. For the majority of the first round, Karen Daradebyan dominated the contest after achieving a takedown. He controlled Bart on the mat and landed some big ground and pound strikes. However, with about a minute left in the round, Palaszewski caught him in an armbar and won the fight. One mistake cost Daradebyan as he was controlling the fight up until that point.
JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS
- Phil Baroni is on his way to Thailand for two months to improve his striking and other skills.
- Sengoku lightweight champion Mizuto Hirota vacated his championship during Sengoku 12 due to the arm injury he suffered on New Year's Eve during a fight with Shinya Aoki. Aoki applied a hammerlock but Hirota refused to tap and the referee did not stop the fight until Aoki broke his arm. Hirota hopes to be able to return to the ring by September and wants a rematch with Aoki ASAP.
- In the main event at Sengoku 12, Jorge Santiago avenged a loss in a non-title fight to challenger Mamed Khalidov. Santiago won a unanimous decision to retain his middleweight championship. Elsewhere on the show, Akihiro Gono defeated Diego Gonzalez, also by unanimous decision.
- Cung Le wants a rematch with Scott Smith and says he will return to the cage "real soon."
- Fight bonuses for WEC were awarded to Anthony Pettis (knockout of the night), Joseph Benavidez (submission of the night) and George Roop and Leonard Garcia (fight of the night). Each man was given an extra $10,000 in addition to their purse money.
- According to some reports, Benavidez may not be first in line to receive first crack at new WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. Supposedly, WEC will wait until the April PPV to decide if Damacio Page deserves the title shot first.
- Bellator confirmed Tony Imada has entered their season two lightweight tournament. Imada finished second in their first tournament last year which included his famous inverted submission hold on Jorge Masvidal. Bellator's second season debuts on Thursday night, April 8th and will broadcast live on Fox Sports Net.
- The Boston MMA event thought to feature Tim Sylvia fighting Mariusz Pudzianowski has been delayed to May 21st (instead of April 23rd). Seth Petruzelli may fight Houston Alexander on the same show.
- Miguel Torres needed twenty stitches to close the cut on his forehead suffered during the fight at WEC 47 on Saturday night.
- Kimbo Slice's next fight has been confirmed for UFC 113 on May 8th in Montreal, Quebec. He will fight Matt Mitrione. For the past week, there have been rumors the UFC was considering moving Slice to fight on the April 17th Spike TV show, but that has been laid to rest.
- Paulo Thiago is expected to fight Martin Kampmann at UFC 115.
- The UFC on Versus card is now complete. The full televised listing for the March 23rd show is as follows: Brandon Vera vs. Bones Jones, Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo vs. Paul Buentello and Alessio Sakara vs. James Irvin.
- An M-1 representative has said to expect Fedor Emelianenko's next fight sometime in the summer, possibly in July.
JUGGERNAUT VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Here's part of the UFC Countdown for the Bones Jones vs. Brandon Vera fight, courtesy of the Versus network.
