Of the nominated fights, Brian Bowles’s knockout of Miguel Torres wasn’t the biggest upset from a gambling perspective (that would belong to Mackens Semerzier’s triangle from hell on Wagnney Fabiano). When Bowles gave Torres’s face an intimate introduction to the canvas, he ended six years of long lasting dominance and a derailed a trip on the Superstar Express.
Torres entered the fight with a 37-1 record (and he avenged the loss – a decision – by submission), a seventeen fight win streak, and four straight title fight victories. The WEC had begun to hitch their bantamweight wagon on Torres like they had done with his California counterpart Urijah Faber. And with a fighting style to match his Mexican heritage, Torres was a budding MMA superstar.
Bowles may have been underrepresented in pre-fight pundit picks, but no one understated his threat to the champ. A big 135er, Bowles 7-0 record included an impressive run through the WEC’s bantamweight class, including wins over Will Ribeiro and Damacio Page. But could a fighter with less than ten fights on his ledger take down a 38-fight monolith?
If Torres intimidated Bowles, the challenger showed no signs of fear. After a cool and collected staredown, Bowles came out of his corner with the patient presence of a fighter with four times as many fights.
Just a minute in, Torres felt the power of the challenger, getting clipped and stumbling into the fence before regaining his composure. After a short interlude on the ground, Bowles and Torres slowed the pace down standing until Torres landed a right-left combo that got the attention of the challenger. Torres pushed ahead with strikes, sensing an opportunity.
Then Bowles landed a huge right cross that put the champ on his ass.
Torres had enough sense in his head to get into guard, but Bowles had even more sense to drop a Zeppelin on Torres’s head. Miguel’s eyes decided it was a good time to admire the rafters; and, after a few more shots for good measure, the referee was forced to step in and stop the bout.
The reality of the upset sunk in when we heard Frank Mir’s my-puppy-just-died analysis of the final moments.
Full results after the break.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | |
| Bowles vs. Torres | 11 | 15 | 3 | 103 |
| Warren vs. Yamamoto | 12 | 8 | 5 | 89 |
| Rogers vs. Arlovski | 11 | 7 | 9 | 85 |
| Sermerzier vs. Fabiano | 8 | 3 | 6 | 55 |
| Mercer vs. Sylvia | 6 | 5 | 5 | 50 |
| Thiago vs. Koscheck | 5 | 4 | 8 | 45 |
| Coleman vs. Bonnar | 1 | 2 | 6 | 17 |
| Smith vs. Le | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| Kanehara vs. Yamamoto | 3 | |||
| Slice vs. Alexander | 3 |