UFC
Miguel Torres interested in UFC bantamweight fight with fellow former WEC star Urijah Faber
Jul 8, 2011 - 6:30:17 PM Miguel Torres interested in UFC bantamweight fight with fellow former WEC star Urijah Faber

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

With Urijah Faber losing his fourth straight title fight to Dominick Cruz at UFC 132 last weekend, it's unclear what his next move will be. While the UFC could potentially book an immediate rubber match between the two of them, another fight that could potentially come to fruition for Faber is one against Miguel Torres.

The two were the biggest stars in the UFC's former sister promotion World Extreme Cagefighting, and reigned atop their respective divisions for some time. Faber has since dropped to the bantamweight division, and though he came up just short of capturing the title against Cruz, he put forth a good showing and remains a top player in the division.

Torres himself is coming off a loss, though his was much more questionable as he lost a decision to Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson despite being the more active fighter and coming closest to finishing the fight. Because of those recent setbacks by both fighters, Torres understands a fight between the two isn't the spectacle it could have been a couple of years ago, though he's still interested in the fight.

"Now, there's only bragging rights," Torres said in an interview with ESPN.com. "He's coming off a loss. I'm coming off a loss. He's had four title shots since then. He lost twice to Mike Brown, to Jose Aldo and now to Dominick Cruz. I lost fights to one of his students [Joseph Benavidez] and Brian Bowles.

"All the momentum we both had, we kind of lost. That fight is still one fans want to see, but I think this fight a couple years ago would have been a lot bigger."

Faber's not the only potential opponent Torres is looking at, as in addition to the fellow star he's never met, he'd like a chance to avenge his loss to Brian Bowles.

"One hundred percent, I would love to fight Brian Bowles," Torres said. "That's a fight I've wanted for the past two years. He's the first guy to ever knock me out and take my title. It's a grudge match for me.

"But he beat [Takeya] Mizugaki [at UFC 132] and Joe [Silva] has mentioned to me they never match up a guy coming off a win and off a loss. I'd have to run it by him and see what he says."

While the UFC has made exceptions to that in the past, it may not be the likeliest of fights for Torres. Still, the Faber fight intrigues him even if there isn't nearly as much on the line.

"It'd be a great fight for me because I never had the chance to fight him and we were on top for a long time," he said. "What sucks is we both don't really have as much to gain as we did two years ago, but it's still a fight I'm looking forward to."

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Penick's Analysis: We talked about the potential for this fight on our Tuesday Livecast at BlogTalkRadio.com/MMATorch, but this is a fight that is still really exciting despite having a lot less on the line. It's somewhat reminiscent of when Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva finally squared off - though on a much smaller scale - as both had lost a number of fights that had sent them down the ladder in the division before they finally did fight. Obviously Faber and Torres aren't the stars that those two had been, but this was still a fight that a lot of people talked about wanting to see when they were both holding belts in the WEC, and if the UFC isn't going to book Faber-Cruz III right away, this is the fight to make.