Bleacher Report’s Nick Caron:
Loser: Takeya Mizugaki
The back-and-forth win-loss-win-loss for Takeya Mizugaki continued tonight as the Japanese fighter dropped his record to 14-6-1 in his career; but only 3-4 in the WEC and UFC.
Mizugaki has done well against some of the fighters perceived to be “gatekeepers,” but has not fared as well against the top-level competition, including tonight when he was dominated by Brian Bowles. His other losses have come against Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen and Miguel Torres.
Unfortunately, it seems as if the Japanese fighters have struggled mightily, recently, particularly against American wrestlers. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the majority of them are not keen on cutting weight and thus are generally smaller than their opponents come fight time.
Winner Brian Bowles:
Former WEC bantamweight champion Brian Bowles earned his second win in a row by defeating Takeya Mizugaki tonight.
At one point, Bowles was considered arguably the greatest 135-pound fighter on the planet when he defeated former pound-for-pound great Miguel Torres at WEC 42 to become the bantamweight champion.
The win was somewhat shocking at the time given Torres’ long-time dominance over the division, but Bowles has been proving his worth since coming to the UFC with back-to-back wins over Damacio Page and now Mizugaki.
Bowles may be ready to earn his title back.