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MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: WEC Dominates the Division

Posted: Nov 18th 2009 10:36AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: DREAM, WEC, Rankings

Wednesday night's WEC 44 event is a featherweight showcase, headlined by Mike Brown defending his 145-pound title against Jose Aldo.

But the WEC's bantamweight division, which won't be represented in any of Wednesday night's live fights on Versus, might be even more stacked than the featherweight division. My list of the Top 10 bantamweights in MMA is topped by six WEC fighters, with champion Brian Bowles and former champion Miguel Torres clearly the class of the division.

A couple of Shooto fighters make my list, as does Dream's Bibiano Fernandes (whom I consider a bantamweight even though he's the promotion's featherweight champ), but there's no question that at the top, the division is dominated by the WEC.

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Miguel Torres: 'I Didn't Go Anywhere'

Posted: Oct 30th 2009 11:01AM by Ariel Helwani (author feed)
Filed under: WEC, FanHouse Exclusive

2 COMMENTS

Miguel Torres has been a busy man as of late even though he doesn't have a fight coming up. The former WEC bantamweight champion recently filmed a movie with the likes of Kimbo Slice and Roger Huerta and just returned from training with boxer Miguel Cotto in Florida. Torres was offered a fight on WEC's upcoming Dec. 19 show, but didn't feel as though he had enough time to prepare.

FanHouse spoke to the 28-year-old about when he expects to return to action, what went wrong against Brian Bowles in August, and the evolution of his famous mullet. Check out the video interview below.

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Miguel Torres Learns New Tricks from Boxing Champ Miguel Cotto

Posted: Oct 27th 2009 12:36PM by Ray Hui (author feed)
Filed under: WEC, MMA Boxing, FanHouse Exclusive

2 COMMENTS

Former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres will never train the same thanks to another famous fighter sharing his given name, WBO welterweight boxing champion Miguel Cotto.

Torres was a special guest last week at the Fight Factory in Tampa, Fla., the site of Cotto's training camp for his Nov. 14 fight against Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao.

"I'm picking up a lot of details, a lot of little things he does different than what I would in one of my training camps," Torres told FanHouse. "And I got to see how a professional boxer at the top of his game conducts his training camp and how his trainers cater to his needs and make him a better fighter."

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MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Shogun Rua Is Back

Posted: Oct 27th 2009 9:00AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, M-1 Global, Overall

21 COMMENTS

For the first time since his loss to Forrest Griffin more than two years ago, Shogun Rua can legitimately be called one of the top 10 fighters in MMA -- and it took a loss to get him there.

Rua's unanimous decision loss to Lyoto Machida in the main event at UFC 104 was a fight that most people thought he deserved to win, and a fight that makes one thing very clear: Shogun is back.

But where does Shogun fit in our list of the Top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in MMA? Find out below.

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Mackens Semerzier on His MMA Upset of the Year: 'I Fully Expected to Win'

Posted: Oct 13th 2009 4:06PM by Mike Chiappetta (author feed)
Filed under: WEC, FanHouse Exclusive

3 COMMENTS

Upon authoring perhaps the biggest upset of the year in mixed martial arts, Mackens Semerzier nonchanlantly rose from the canvas, whispered a thanks to his fallen opponent Wagnney Fabiano for the opportunity to compete against him, and simply smiled to the camera broadcasting the shocker to the world.

No one would have objected if Semerzier, who according to multiple MMA wagering sites entered the bout as the biggest underdog of the 10-card WEC event, pulled out a bottle of champagne and uncorked it right in the center of the cage. Instead, he illustrated the maturity that led to his win in the first place by controlling his emotions in a supercharged moment.

"I say this with total confidence: I fully expected to win," said the previously little-known Semerzier, who improbably submitted top three featherweight Fabiano with a triangle choke. "Not that I walk around saying I can beat anyone, but that's a thing for me in life: you can always win. You can always find a way. I always thought, 'I'm going to figure out a way to do it. So when I win, it doesn't surprise me."

Continue Reading Mackens Semerzier on His MMA Upset of the Year: 'I Fully Expected to Win'

MMA Top 10 Bantamweights

Posted: Oct 13th 2009 4:05PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: DREAM, WEC

0 COMMENTS

At first glance, not much seems to have changed in the MMA bantamweight division in the last three months. All the top bantamweights in the WEC -- Brian Bowles, Miguel Torres, Dominick Cruz, Takeya Mizugaki, Rani Yahya and Joseph Benavidez -- fought on August 9, and since then they've just been biding their time for their next fight.

But I have a new name in my new ranking of the Top 10 bantamweights in mixed martial arts: Bibiano Fernandes. Yes, I know the title Fernandes just won is the Dream featherweight belt, not the bantamweight belt. But Fernandes weighed in at 138 pounds in the Dream tournament, and if he were ever to fight in the WEC, I think he'd be a bantamweight.

And so Fernandes is listed as a bantamweight in my new rankings, which are below.

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WEC Eyes Pay-Per-View, Reality TV

Posted: Oct 2nd 2009 4:35PM by Ray Hui (author feed)
Filed under: WEC

1 COMMENT

Pay-per-views and a reality television show are still in the plans for the WEC to further its viability as the lighter weight version of the UFC.

WEC general Reed Harris said Thursday that the WEC is actively looking to enter the pay-per-view market in 2010, but when will all depend on how effective it is in the near future when it comes to building anticipated fights through its free telecasts on Versus.

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WEC 42 Sells 1,640 Tickets

Posted: Sep 1st 2009 1:11PM by Ray Hui (author feed)
Filed under: WEC

0 COMMENTS

Compare the tickets sold at WEC 42 to the amount sold at WEC 41, the Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles event brought in only 6.2% of what the Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown rematch did.

Of course, WEC 41 was held at Sacramento's Arco Arena, which accommodated 12,706 fans as opposed to the Joint in Las Vegas, which has capacity of 4,000.

According to the official numbers released Tuesday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, WEC 42 sold 1,640 tickets for a gate of $175,835. 442 tickets were given away and 870 were left unsold.

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MMA Twitter Mailbag: Brian Bowles, Fedor Emelianenko

Posted: Aug 14th 2009 7:31AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: WEC

0 COMMENTS

MMA Twitter universe had plenty to say about my interview with new WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles, who defeated Miguel Torres on Sunday at WEC 42. Questions and answers included the possibility of a Torres-Bowles rematch and the extent of the hand injury Bowles suffered during his final series of punches.

We then turn our attention to Fedor Emelianenko, and whether he needs to keep fighting top opponents to stay atop the pound-for-pound rankings. Your questions and comments, and my answers, are below.

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Brian Bowles: Being the WEC Champion Won't Change Me

Posted: Aug 13th 2009 10:52PM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: WEC

0 COMMENTS

Brian Bowles shocked the mixed martial arts world on Sunday night when he knocked out Miguel Torres to win the World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight title. In an interview with FanHouse Thursday, Bowles said even he didn't think he'd knock Torres out less than four minutes into their fight.

But Bowles also said he followed a well-crafted game plan to get himself into position to knock Torres out, and he said he's going to keep training hard and fighting the same way now that he's the champion.

Bowles also said that he broke a bone in his hand punching an unconscious Torres, that he expects to make his first title defense against Dominick Cruz, and that he thinks the win should put him near the top of the pound-for-pound rankings.

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