Miguel Torres continues to impress; scores TKO win over Manny Tapia at WEC 37

It might seem pretentious to make the claim, but Miguel Torres deserves to be in the Top 5 pound-for-pound fighters in the world. He proved without a shadow of a doubt that he belongs with the world’s best with a second-round TKO win over Manny Tapia at WEC 37 last night.

Torres worked Tapia with stiff jabs and straight punches at any moment the distance was closed. His striking overall was crisp, effective, and simply overpowering. The conditioning of Torres is world-class, as the bantamweight didn’t show a hint of fatigue the entire fight. While Tapia was sucking air in the first round, Torres remained composed and poker-faced throughout the duration of the bout.

The decisive victory over Tapia leaves us all asking the age-old question: Who is next for Miguel Torres? In his post fight interview, Torres did not indicate that he has a specific challenger in mind but made it clear that he simply wants to fight the best opponent the WEC can give him.

Could Brian Bowles be the next opponent to challenge Miguel Torres for his title? Bowles made a case for title contention in his exciting bout with Will Ribeiro last night. Bowles traded punches with the former Brazilian boxing champion and showed superior wrestling and ground control the first two rounds. 

It was in the third round where the well-roundedness of Bowles came into play as he took advantage of a Ribeiro mistake and sunk in the fight ending guillotine choke. Ribeiro shot in for the takedown but left his neck exposed for the second and last time in the fight as Bowles capitalized on the textbook mistake.

Perhaps the most technical ground battle of the night came with the featherweight bout between Wagnney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura. Although Tamura showed a strong butterfly guard, Fabiano used his superior Jiu Jitsu skills to work his way to side mount and ultimately to an arm-head choke which forced a tap from Tamura in the third round.

While Fabiano poses a significant threat on the ground, his overall game is far too one-dimensional to hold up with the top featherweights in the division. As long as the former IFL Featherweight champion will choose to supplement his ground skills with the other facets of the fight game, he should be able to become a force in the division

We were also treated to yet another featherweight prospect most recently integrated in the division—the Urijah Faber trained Joseph Benavidez. In the card’s first untelevised bout, the undefeated Benavidez used his incredibly crisp, quick striking to overpower the heavy-handed Danny Martinez in a 30-27 unanimous division victory. While Martinez was looking for power shots, Benavidez worked him with quick combinations and defended takedown attempts with a sprawl like the Great Wall of China.

Benavidez’s performance was certainly reminiscent of his trainer and mentor, Urijah Faber. It’ll be interesting to see the sorts of marks that Benavidez will make on the division. At first glance the sky’s the limit for this kid, as his skill set is already so well developed in his young MMA career.

Full card results (courtesy of MMAJunkie) including all undercard bouts are below:

• Miguel Torres def. Manny Tapia via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 3:04
• Wagnney Fabiano def. Akitoshi Tamura via submission (head-arm choke) — Round 3, 4:48
• Brian Bowles def. Will Ribeiro via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 3, 1:11
• Joseph Benavidez def. Danny Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Johny Hendricks def. Justin Haskins via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 0:52
• Mark Munoz def. Blas Avena via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 2:26
• Diego Nunes def. Cole Province via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
• Bart Palaszewski def. Alex Karalexis via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 1:11
• Cub Swanson def. Hirouki Takaya via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Shane Roller def. Mike Budnik via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 1, 1:01