Just six months ago, Miguel Torres, the WEC Bantamweight Champion, was considered unstoppable. He was considered, alongside Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko, to be one of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters.
Enter Brian Bowles, who positively dominated Torres at WEC 42 and became a champion himself. Was Bowles the real deal, or was Torres simply overhyped?
The question was quite possibly answered at WEC 47–both Torres and Bowles suffered crushing, upset defeats in the card’s most high-profile bouts.
For Bowles, it meant losing his title to Dominick Cruz via stoppage after the second round. For Torres, it meant tapping out to Joseph Benavidez midway through round two.
In both cases, the landscape of the WEC bantamweight division was changed. Full WEC47 results follow:
Ricardo Lamas b. Bendy Casimir via KO (knee) at 3:43 of Round One
Fredson Paixo b. Courtney Buck via submission (rear naked choke) at 2:39 of Round One
George Roop fought Leonard Garcia to a split draw (29-27, 27-29, 28-28)
Anthony Pettis b. Danny Costillo via knockout (strikes) at 2:27 of Round One
Chad Mendes b. Erik Koch via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Scott Jorgensen b. Chad George via submission (guillotine) at :31 of Round One
Bart Palaszewski b. Karen Darabedyan via submission (armbar) at 4:40 of Round One
L.C. Davis b. Deividas Taurosevicius via majority decision (29-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Javier Vasquez b. Jens Pulver via submission (armbar) at 3:41 of Round One
Joseph Benavidez b. Miguel Torres via submission (guillotine) at 2:57 of Round Two
Dominick Cruz b. Brian Bowles via TKO (post-round stoppage due to injury) at 5:00 of Round Two