Issue 046
February 2009
WEC 37: Torres vs Tapia
Wednesday, 3 December, 2008, The Joint at the Hard Rock, Las Vegas, NV
World Extreme Cagefighting [WEC] have had a storming couple of months, with a series of high-profile (and highly entertaining) main event fights. Sister promotion to the UFC, the WEC has carved out their niche as the premier event in the world for fighters under 155lb.
One of the WEC’s prize assets is Miguel Angel Torres, their razor sharp 135lb champion. He tore through the former title holder Chase Beebe to win the title, and in his first defence proved his worth as champ by taking out the tough Yoshiro Maeda in a gruelling yet one-sided battle.
Manny Tapia was a hot undefeated prospect going into this fight. A regular on King of the Cage, Tapia built-up a reputation as a tough-as-nails brawler. With a string of knockouts and technical knockouts on his record, it looked on paper like he would be a serious threat to Torres’s crown.
Torres’s performances seem to just get better and better. Tapia was, on paper at least, supposed to be a tough challenge for Miguel, but the Chicago-based fighter simply blew through Tapia’s defences. The first round saw Torres work his jab to good effect. Tapia appeared frustrated at his inability to close the distance, and Torres picked him off with his piston-like left arm.
The second round was one-way traffic for Torres. He dropped Tapia with a laser-guided right hand, and it was only Tapia’s tough heart that saw him survive the first onslaught of follow-up punches. Back on their feet, a second right hand from Torres saw Tapia down once again, and Torres pounded away at his stricken foe until the referee waved it off.
Though Torres appears to be in for a long stint as king of the 135lb fighters, there are still a pack of hungry challengers waiting in the wings.
UFC Fight For The Troops
Wednesday, 10 December, 2008, Crown Coliseum, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Remember when Josh Koscheck was ‘just’ a wrestler? Not too long ago, his critics even gave the derogatory nickname ‘The Human Blanket’ due to his rather annoying habit of taking opponents down and simply sitting on them for three rounds. Evolution is the name of the game in MMA, and Koscheck embodies that sentiment like few others, rounding out his game by training at one of the best striking gyms in the USA, American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
Yoshiyuki Yoshida is one of the recent Japanese imports to the UFC. A tough competitor who cut his teeth in Shooto and Cage Force, he put Jon ‘War Machine’ Koppenhaver to sleep with an anaconda choke in his UFC debut. But he didn’t even come close to slapping a submission on Koscheck in the headlining bout for the UFC’s Fight for the Troops fight night.
Koscheck bullied the southpaw Yoshida around the cage, stalking him and cutting off the cage with meaty right hands. A shade over two minutes into the fight, Koscheck had Yoshida against the fence. He sent a bludgeoning right hook sailing through Yoshida’s guard, leaving the Japanese fighter in a crumpled heap and requiring a stretcher out of the Octagon.
Always an explosive fighter, this is Koscheck’s second impressive stoppage in the last 12 months, and though his hopes of a title shot at GSP have been shut out by Thiago Alves, he still ranks as one of the top welterweights in the UFC.
Mike Swick, another AKA product, once again lived up to his ‘Quick’ moniker, stopping the Canadian Jonathan Goulet in only 33 seconds. Swick dropped Goulet with a flurry and blasted him with shots to the side of the head, as the man who calls Georges St Pierre a teammate desperately hung on for a single-leg. This looks like a return to form for Swick, whose two most recent performances at 170lb were considered to be desperately uninspiring.
The Ultimate Fighter 8 Finale
Saturday, 13 December, 2008, The Pearl at the Palms, Las Vegas, NV
Featuring lightweights and light heavyweights, the eighth series of The Ultimate Fighter was remarkable only for the rather disgusting antics that took place in the fighters’ house. However, there was plenty of talent on offer from the cast and, along with the finalists, the best of the rest were invited back to fight on the series finale.
Lightweight fighter Phillipe Nover kept a low profile on the show after fainting in front of Dana White on the very first episode, but it transpired that the Filipino-New Yorker was one of the favourites for overall winner. White alluded to his Anderson Silva-like skills, while his opponent, fellow Team Nogueira member Efrain Escudero, got little more fanfare that the acknowledgment that he was a strong wrestler.
‘Strong’ was an understatement, judging from Escudero’s performance in this fight. He mauled Nover for much of the contest, tossing the kickboxer around and taking him down at will. Escudero’s wrestling was too much for Nover to handle in the first two rounds, and his ability to control the fight meant victory was assured. Nover had some good moments – notably an omoplata in the third round – but was never close to finishing the fight, leaving Escudero to pick up the decision as the deserving lightweight winner of TUF 8.
In the light heavyweight final Ryan ‘Darth’ Bader defeated Vinny Magalhaes with a crunching KO. Bader, an outstanding wrestler, clubbed the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert to the ground with a right hook reminiscent of Brock Lesnar’s finishing blow on Randy Couture. Following up with hammerfists on the floor, Bader claimed the quick victory and the TUF 8 light heavyweight trophy.
