WEC 42 "Torres vs. Bowles" 8/9/09 Re-Cap

WEC 42 “Torres vs. Bowles”
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, NV

Todd Harris is joined by Frank Mir for commentary. Craig Hummer is the in-ring interviewer. The Main Event tonight is for the WEC Bantamweight Championship as one of the top P4P fighters in the world, Miguel Torres, defends his belt against Brian Bowles.

Featherweight Fight- Leonard Garcia (16-4) vs. Jameel Massouh (21-5)

Massouh is coming off a decision loss to Raphael Assuncao at WEC 40. Garcia is coming off of a first round submission loss to the Featherweight Champion, Mike Brown. Both guys are looking to get back to their winning ways tonight.

R1- Garcia is the more aggressive fighter early and lands a huge right hand at the two minute mark that floors Massouh. Garcia pauses and gives Jameel time to recover and then umps on top for some Ground and Pound. Back to their feet and Garcia lands some knees. Jameel comes back and gets a take down. Massouh did a good job of regaining his exposure and getting in some offense at the end of the round but Garcia hit the big shot of the round and popped right up at the end of the round after Massouh had been on top for about a minute. Garcia 10-9 after one round.

R2- Massouh went for a take down and Garcia grabbed a guillotine on the way down but couldn’t hold it. Massouh controls the first half of the round without doing any substantial damage. Massouh gets Garcia in a choke and Garcia gets to his feet and looked like he was going out but Massouh let go of the move and tried to take Garcia’s back and Garcia got loose. Garcia looks real wobbly right now. Garcia looked finished in the final minute of this round but Massouh just didn’t show the killer instinct and let Garcia live to fight another round. This is tied up 19-19 after two rounds. The winner of round three wins the fight.

R3- Garcia is once again being more aggressive in the first half of this round but neither guy has done enough to claim this round. Garcia hit a glancing spinning back kick. Garcia is throwing bombs as he’s looking for the knockout punch but isn’t connecting. Garcia is going to take this final round just based on effort. Massouh really had Garcia reeling after that choke but after that point he really lost his aggressiveness and never threatening Garcia. I’ve got Garcia winning this fight 29-28. Not a real impressive showing by Garcia but he showed a lot of heart in hanging on after barely surviving the choke and coming back to win the third and final round.

Judges score cards say: 29-28 Garcia, 29-28 Massouh and 29-28 Garcia.

Winner: Leonard Garcia by Decision (Split)

Bantamweight Fight- Takeya Mizugaki (11-3-2) vs. Jeff Curran (31-11-1)

Mizugaki is coming off of a great fight against Champion Miguel Torres in which Torres won by Decision. Mizugaki is the first fighter in WEC to take Torres to a decision. Jeff Curran is coming off a decision loss to Joseph Benavidez.

R1- Curran caught a Mizugaki kick and clinched him against the cage. Curran spent the better half of the round trying to take Mizugaki down with Mizugaki stuffing him the entire time. With two minutes left in the round Mizugaki got a take down and took Curran’s guard. Curran is active in his guard but he ate some decent shots from Mizugaki. Curran was able to go for an arm bar and get out of the guard. Curran took Mizugaki down but again ended up in Mizugaki’s guard. Good first round that I gave to Mizugaki due to the two take downs, take down defense and landing more strikes.

R2- Both guys are landing shots early in the round. Mizugaki got a take down half way through the round. Mizugaki landed some strikes from this position. Curran grabbed a guillotine but it was pretty much just for position and he was not in danger of finishing the fight. Mizugaki is up 20-18 after two rounds.

R3- Mizugaki got a take down to start the round. Curran fought an active round from the bottom. Curran landed a nice sweep into a triangle choke with 40 seconds left in the fight. Curran rolled him over and tried to put more pressure on Mizugaki but Mizugaki held on. Curran took this round but I’ve got Mizugaki holding on for the 29-28 win. Good fight and a great attempt at the end of the fight by Curran to try and steal the fight.

Judges score cards: 29-28 Mizugaki, 29-28 Curran and 29-28 Mizugaki

Winner: Takeya Mizugaki by Decision (Split)

Kind of interesting that we’ve had 2 fights and 2 split decisions so far.

WEC 43 will see Donald Cerrone fight Ben Henderson for the Interim Lightweight Championship. Both guys are cage side with Craig Hummer and they hype up their fight.

The TapouT guys are in the house for the fights tonight. So is Featherweight Champion Mike Thomas Brown.

Lightweight Fight- Ricardo Lamas (6-0) vs. Danny Castillo (7-1)

At WEC 39 Lamas beat Bart Palaszewski by unanimous decision. The only time I’ve seen Castillo fight was at WEC 34 where he lost by Submission to Donald Cerrone in thirty seconds of the first round. Castillo has a 2 inch reach advantage. Castillo is coming off a win on the under card of WEC 39.

R1- This has started out as a stand up fight between two wrestlers. This was a close and even first round. Lamas did a better job landing leg kicks and that might just give him round one.

R2- This round continues with both fighters on their feet. Castillo caught Lamas with a big right hand and Lamas went down and Castillo jumped on top and landed some Ground and Pound and the ref stopped the fight. This was a really close fight up until this point but that shot by Castillo was a big straight right hand to the chink and Lamas went down.

Winner: Danny Castillo by TKO (strikes) R2 4:15

Bantamweight Fight- Joseph Benavidez (10-0) vs. Dominick Cruz (13-1)

Cruz has dropped down in weight for this fight. Cruz’s only loss has come to Urijah Faber and is on a 3 fight win streak. Cruz has a 4” height and 3” reach advantage. At WEC 40 Benavidez defeated Jeff Curran by Decision.

R1- Benavidez landed a couple of strikes and then got tripped up when Cruz grabbed his leg on a kick. Benavidez is lightning quick and he hit a couple of shots on Cruz but Cruz was able to get a take down. Benavidez grabbed a guillotine and couldn’t clamp it in but used it to get back to his feet and separate himself from Cruz. Cruz got Benavidez to the ground again but couldn’t hold him down. Cruz got yet another take down but Benavidez scrambled and Cruz could not get in any offense. Good, close first round. Cruz got 3 take downs but didn’t do any damage when he had them. Benavidez was the aggressor and hit better strikes so I’ve got him taking the round 10-9.

R2- Both guys start out quick. Benavidez chases Cruz down with a flurry but Cruz caught Benavidez coming in a second time and then Cruz landed a flurry on Benavidez and Benavidez grabbed a guillotine and used it to stop the onslaught. Benavidez missed with a kick and went to the ground and Cruz came after him with some strikes and then landed a take down. Once again Cruz could not take advantage of his take down and they returned to their feet. Cruz ended the round with another take down. Cruz took this round so I’ve got the fight 19-19. Really fun fight so far.

R3- Cruz got a take down with three minutes left in the fight but once again gets nothing from it. Both guys are throwing shots but neither has distanced themselves in this round as we are coming down to the last 60 seconds. Cruz got a take down and Benavidez popped immediately back up. Cruz landed some shots and got a take down and hit some Ground and Pound. Cruz ended the fight on top of Benavidez. Really good fight and Cruz finished strong. Cruz will take this fight 29-28. Really good effort by both guys.

Judges score cards say: 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 in favor of Cruz

Winner: Dominick Cruz by Decision (Unanimous)

WEC Bantamweight Championship: Miguel Torres (c) (36-1) vs. Brian Bowles (7-0)

Torres is on a 17 fight win streak and has defended his belt 3 times. Torres is coming off of a successful title defense at WEC 40 over Takeya Mizugaki. Bowles is coming off of a win at WEC 37 against Will Ribeiro by submission in third round. Torres has a 2” height and 5.5” reach advantage.

R1- Bowles rocked Torres at about the one minute mark with a right hand but Torres punched his way out of trouble. Bowles got a take down at the two minute mark. Torres was able to hit some up kicks and was able to get back to his feet at the two minute mark. Torres hit a big right hand and followed it up with a flurry of punches but Bowles was able to counter and get Torres down and land a big punch on Torres and he landed several punches and ended the fight. Big time upset! Great fight by Brian Bowles as he took a good shot from Torres and was able to find a right hand threw Torres’ flurry and then finished it on the ground. Big time win for Bowles.

Winner and new champion: Brian Bowles by KO 3:57