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By Sam Matthew, MMATorch Columnist
Saturday night'sWEC 47 showcased some great action complete with guillotine and armbar submissions, head kick knockouts, brutal elbow cuts, and upset victories.
Spotlighting the little guys, the evening's main event Bantamweight Title fight saw a fast Dominick Cruz utilize his speed and reach advantage to stick and move against tough defending champ Brian Bowles. The one-time champion broke his right hand during the bout and the fight was stopped as Bowles could not answer the bell for the third round.
The Georgia native looked timid throughout and was unable to defend his title after taking the belt from former champ Miguel Torres, who was also featured on the co-main event, a battle for contention status that had Torres pegged as a favorite to get back on track for a rematch against Bowles.
This rematch is now a near certainty, though not in the form everyone expected as another 5-round title fight. Fans can expect to see a similar card in the near future with all the same faces as Dominick Cruz will likely defend his belt against Joseph Benavidez, while the Torres/Bowles rematch to determine who gets the next shot at the title may be featured as a co-main event.
The big story of the night was Joseph Benavidez's incredible upset over top-ten ranked Miguel Torres, a fighter considered by many to be the best Bantamweight in the world. Benavidez' absolute domination of his world class opponent put his name on the map and has likely earned the little fireball a shot at newly crowned champ Dominick Cruz. These two have history as Benavidez's only loss has come at the hands of the new champ by unanimous decision in a bout that really saw the 5-4 Team Alpha Male fighter struggle against 5-8 Dominick Cruz's height and reach advantage.
Benavidez successfully landed an incredibly powerful elbow from top position in the very dangerous guard of Miguel Torres, opening up a horrific cut that was streaming blood right into the eyes of the former champ. Instead of backing away and letting the doctors call off the fight because of the cut (as the severity of the bleeding would have undoubtedly done) Benavidez showed true heart in going for a risky finish by pulling Torres into a tight guillotine submission that was made worse as the challenger threw his right leg high over Torres's free shoulder, ultimately trapping both arms which forced a double-handed tapout.
While normally Torres may have been able to escape this maneuver, Benavidez exemplified the spirit of a warrior by going in for the kill while his opponent was still reeling from the bloody elbow strike. I definitely think Torres's mental game was thrown off by the cut and he was looking for a way out once the guillotine was applied. Congrats to Benavidez on a huge win against one of the best fighters in the world and his Urijah Faber-like guillotine choke rightfully deserved the Submission of the Night $10,000 bonus.
Other big upsets from WEC 47 included a highlight-reel knockout showcased by Anthony Pettis over a tough Danny Castillo. Pettis unleashed a furious kickboxing combination following his straight 1-2 punches with a powerful lead roundhouse high kick early in the first round that earned him a $10,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.
After being dominated from top position by Karen Darebedyan, the former IFL veteran Bart Palaszewski, normally known for his brawling style, pulled off a slick armbar finish from the bottom. Taking advantage of his opponent over-committing to a heavy right hand bomb thrown from inside the guard, Bart quickly threw his legs up and latched the submission onto Karen's left arm, moving his win-streak to three in a row.
The famous Jens Pulver's retirement fight ended just as everyone thought it would with a game Javier Vasquez controlling "Lil Evil" with his superior jiu-jitsu and nearly breaking the aging veterans limb with a textbook armbar submission from the mount position. Pulver made the mistake of throwing leg kicks that allowed Vasquez to easily take him down to his comfort zone on the ground.
The grappling prowess of Vasquez allowed him to briefly attain the Crucifix position trapping Pulvers arms while he rained short punches and a couple nasty elbows that caused a Mount Everest-sized lump to appear on Lil Evil's forehead. Pulver did not disappoint with his usual post-fight speech that was truly an emotional tear-jerker that had the entire audience up in their seats roaring appreciation for one of the sports original lightweight pioneers.
The big disappointment of the night was showing the Devidas Taurosevicias vs. L.C. Davis snoozefest instead of the Fight of the Night slugfest between the ever-popular Leonard Garcia and George Roop. The WEC production crew really dropped the ball on this one as Davis barely edged out a boring majority decision win over Taurosevicias in a bout that resembled a wrestling match more than an actual MMA fight.
Known for his heavy hands, it was a huge surprise that former UFC fighter Leonard Garcia was not on the main card and the three round brawl wasn't even televised. How the hell does the Fight of the Night not get shown to the public?
Another exciting matchup that went unaired was the Ricardo Lamas v. Bendy Casimir bout that ended with Lamas landing a straight knee right up the middle to knockout his opponent as he shot in for a takedown. This knockout finish segues nicely into next week's article, a close examination of "The Knee" which will be a follow up to last week's "The Elbow."
Stay tuned for more action and, as always, feel free to post your comments below.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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