Filed under: UFCMiguel Torres became the bantamweight champion of the world while eschewing big training camps with well-known MMA gyms to stay home and train at his own gym in Indiana. But Torres has now lost three of his last five fights, and as he p…
Miguel Torres became the bantamweight champion of the world while eschewing big training camps with well-known MMA gyms to stay home and train at his own gym in Indiana. But Torres has now lost three of his last five fights, and as he prepares to take on Nick Pace at UFC 139 on Saturday, he says it’s past time for his buddies back home to understand that he needs to go elsewhere to get better.
Torres posted a heartfelt message on Facebook saying that he was bothered by the attitudes of some of the people at his gym back home in Indiana, and that he couldn’t allow himself to be held back by people who don’t understand the sacrifices a fighter has to make to be a world champion. And in an appearance on The MMA Hour, Torres said that training with Firas Zihabi at Tri Star Gym in Montreal — rather than at his own gym — has been essential to his efforts to regain the bantamweight title.
“These are guys who don’t understand what it takes to achieve at the highest level of the sport — they don’t understand what it takes,” Torres said of certain elements holding him back at home. “They’re stuck in the little world that they live in. They don’t see the big picture.”
In his Facebook message, Torres had harsh words for some of his old friends, training partners and students who don’t understand that he couldn’t allow himself to grow complacent if he wants to be the best. He expanded on those comments on The MMA Hour.
“They want me to stay in my gym in Hammond,” Torres said. “It doesn’t work that way. For me to get better I have to train with better guys, that are ahead of the game, and seek better training partners.”
Dealing with some of his local buddies has been difficult because they haven’t been supportive, and Torres even said he was “robbed” by a former manager, although he declined to go into details.
“I’m not going to go out there and say anything. I have some issues with a couple guys that owe me some money, and that kind of held me back for a little bit, too,” Torres said. “I’m not trying to carry that burden anymore. It’s too much.”
Torres says that while he has left some old friends behind in Indiana, Zihabi has turned his career around by teaching him to strategize and fight under control.
“My trainer and personal friend Firas Zihabi has controlled me,” Torres said. “There’s other ways to win a fight where you’re not going to get your hand broken or your brain smashed in or your face scarred up. … I’ve been training extremely hard. My mind is in a good place.”
And having his mind in the right place is all about focusing on winning, starting on Saturday against Pace. Torres said he believes that through it all, he’s going to get the bantamweight title back.
“You’re going to see me fighting for the title,” Torres said. “One hundred percent.”
* UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg will also recap the historic night that was in Anaheim, Calif.
* Bantamweight Miguel Torres will talk about his UFC 139 fight against Nick Pace.
* Middleweight Tom Lawlor will preview his Saturday night fight against Chris Weidman.
* And we’ll debut a new segment called “5 Rounds,” where two MMA journalists debate five topics with yours truly serving as judge after each “round” using the ever effective 10-point must system to determine a winner. The fifth round winner will be decided by the fans via our chat and Twitter. This week, MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta and Michael David Smith will go toe-to-toe.
Of course, we’ll also be taking your calls as we recap UFC on FOX and look ahead to UFC 139, so give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
* UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg will also recap the historic night that was in Anaheim, Calif.
* Bantamweight Miguel Torres will talk about his UFC 139 fight against Nick Pace.
* Middleweight Tom Lawlor will preview his Saturday night fight against Chris Weidman.
* And we’ll debut a new segment called “5 Rounds,” where two MMA journalists debate five topics with yours truly serving as judge after each “round” using the ever effective 10-point must system to determine a winner. The fifth round winner will be decided by the fans via our chat and Twitter. This week, MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta and Michael David Smith will go toe-to-toe.
Of course, we’ll also be taking your calls as we recap UFC on FOX and look ahead to UFC 139, so give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
As MySpace has become a haven for douchebags to show off their ripped bodies (faces not required), Miguel Torres tweeted out this [above] pic of himself saying: If he’d only shot lower down on his.
As MySpace has become a haven for douchebags to show off their ripped bodies (faces not required), Miguel Torres tweeted out this [above] pic of himself saying:
If he’d only shot lower down on his body, it could have been a Craigslist photo, hey boys?
With a potential flyweight division on the horizon, it seems as if the UFC and ZUFFA are already trying to familiarize their fan base with a few of their fighters. The hope is that it takes off quickly and gains as much popularity as the bantamweights …
With a potential flyweight division on the horizon, it seems as if the UFC and ZUFFA are already trying to familiarize their fan base with a few of their fighters. The hope is that it takes off quickly and gains as much popularity as the bantamweights and featherweights already have.
This season of the Ultimate Fighter (14) features several fighters who have fought at 125 lbs. in the past. They are clearly being put on display for fans to recognize after the season is over and the division is created.
With the popularity these fighters are getting based off the show, fighters that can easily cut from the bantamweight division and ZUFFA’S willingness to spend money on some of the very best fighters from outside companies, we could see a flyweight division debuting sooner than later.
Here we take a look at 10 fighters who could make up the potential division—with a bit of a spin. These are my personal predictions on where we’ll see the flyweight division six months after its conception.
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsOne of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz’s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He…
One of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz‘s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He has already handily beaten most of the best 135-pound fighters in the world, and there aren’t a lot of big fights for him out there.
Cruz’s latest conquest was Demetrious Johnson, and that fight went a lot like most of Cruz’s other fights: It wasn’t a vicious, violent beatdown, but it was a one-sided display of technical dominance, a fight in which we knew within the first minute or two that we were going to see Cruz win a unanimous decision.
As much as MMA fans recognize Cruz’s skill, it’s going to be hard for the UFC to get the general public excited about his fights because the public likes guys who destroy their opponents better than guys who win through their technical mastery. Still, there’s no doubting that Cruz is by far the best in the bantamweight division: He’s already beaten most of the other Top 10 bantamweights, as you’ll see below.
Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA (Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)
1. Dominick Cruz (1): One of the really impressive aspects of Cruz’s current run is the quality of the competition he’s facing. As we’ll discuss below, there are a lot of really good bantamweights in the UFC right now — Johnson, Joseph Benavidez, Brian Bowles, Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen — and Cruz has beaten them all handily.
2. Joseph Benavidez (2): Benavidez is 15-0 when he’s not fighting Cruz, and 0-2 when he is fighting Cruz. If the UFC ever adds a flyweight class, Benavidez could easily make the cut to 125 pounds and would likely be the division’s first champion. Instead he languishes as the second-best fighter in a division where he’s already lost twice to the best.
3. Brian Bowles (3): After losing the bantamweight belt to Cruz in March of 2010, Bowles missed a year because of injuries. Now he’s 2-0 in 2011, and if he makes it 3-0 by beating Faber at UFC 139, he’ll probably get another shot at Cruz.
4. Urijah Faber (4): If Faber gets by Bowles at UFC 139, the UFC will probably give him his rubber match with Cruz. But that says more about Faber being the UFC’s most marketable bantamweight than it says about Faber’s chances of taking the bantamweight belt from Cruz: The way Cruz beat Faber at UFC 132 leaves little doubt that Cruz would be a heavy favorite if they fight again.
5. Bibiano Fernandes (NR): The former Dream featherweight champion, Fernandes is now fighting at 135 pounds in the Dream bantamweight tournament, and he looks great there: He’s better off fighting at a lower weight. He’s the best bantamweight outside the UFC, and he could be a great future opponent for Cruz if the UFC ever signs him.
6. Demetrious Johnson (5): Mighty Mouse is undersized at 135 pounds, and he would benefit from a move down to flyweight. The UFC has been talking about creating a flyweight class for a long time (and the WEC talked about it for a long time before that), and with guys like Johnson and Benavidez around, there’s no better time than now.
7. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen was thoroughly outclassed by Cruz last year, but he bounced back with a big knockout win over Ken Stone in June. He draws Jeff Curran next at UFC 137.
8. Miguel Torres (7): The former WEC bantamweight champion, Torres is the best UFC bantamweight who hasn’t yet fought Cruz. I also think Torres could be an interesting opponent for Cruz because he has height and reach that match up well with Cruz, and because he’s good at fighting off his back, and Cruz showed against Johnson that he can at times be sloppy on top. Torres is coming off a loss to Johnson, and he probably needs to go on a two-fight winning streak before the UFC would give him a crack at Cruz. He can start that streak at UFC 139, when he fights Nick Pace.
9. Brad Pickett (8): After putting together some very impressive performances in the WEC, the British Pickett will finally make his UFC debut on his home turf at UFC 138 in Birmingham, England, where he’ll face …
10. Renan Barão (9): Barao is on an incredible run, having won 26 straight fights (with one no contest) since dropping his professional MMA debut in 2005. However, all but the last three of those fights have been against little-known opponents on small Brazilian shows. Going to England to face Pickett represents a big step up in quality of competition for Barao, and the fight represents a very good match-up to determine which one of them really deserves to be considered a Top 10 bantamweight.
Let’s be honest, there weren’t many of us out there biting our nails in anticipation of Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman Part II in the weeks leading up to it, but boy were we wrong. The rematch, which took home Fight of the Night Honors, was a back and forth, blood soaked brawl, and we loved every second of it. So it is in light of their triumph that we present you, Potato Nation, with five rematches, in no particular order, that we can expect to see as soon as Joe Silva starts returning our calls.
5. Carlos Condit vs. Rory Macdonald
Depending on how well Carlos Condit does in his upcoming title fight against GSP, the possibility of seeing these two welterweight brutes tangle again seems pretty high. Both have been on a tear as of late, and the first fight between them was nothing short of extraordinary.
Let’s be honest, there weren’t many of us out there biting our nails in anticipation of Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman Part II in the weeks leading up to it, but boy were we wrong. The rematch, which took home Fight of the Night Honors, was a back and forth, blood soaked brawl, and we loved every second of it. So it is in light of their triumph that we present you, Potato Nation, with five rematches, in no particular order, that we can expect to see as soon as Joe Silva starts returning our calls.
5. Carlos Condit vs. Rory Macdonald
Depending on how well Carlos Condit does in his upcoming title fight against GSP, the possibility of seeing these two welterweight brutes tangle again seems pretty high. Both have been on a tear as of late, and the first fight between them was nothing short of extraordinary.
Macdonald, a relatively unknown at the time, gave the final WEC welterweight champ all he could handle, utilizing a beautiful array of kicks and takedowns to keep Condit off balance for the better part of two rounds. Condit was able to shake off the cobwebs and mount a ground and pound clinic on Macdonald in the third however, finishing him off with just 7 seconds left in the fight. If Condit is able to defeat GSP, and if Rory can get by Brian Ebersole at UFC 140 (and maybe another, higher tier fighter), then we have the makings of one hell of a title fight.
4. Diego Sanchez vs. Martin Kampmann
The main event of the third UFC on Versus, this fight changed the perspective on how much punishment someone could absorb while still walking away the victor. For three rounds, Kampmann brutalized “The Nightmare” “The Dream’s” face with sharp punches, but Sanchez waded through nearly all of them, landing a few nice combinations of his own and scoring a takedown in the third round. “The Hitman” quickly found himself on the losing side of another razor-thin decision, and protested it with the infamous “Look at that dude’s fucking face!” defense, to no avail. Add to that their heated Twitter feud and we’ve got ourselves a full blown grudge match, and we all know how much the UFC loves those. Both guys are facing tough tests in their next fights, Kampmann takes on Rick Story at UFC 139 and Sanchez takes on Jake Ellenberger at UFC 141. When the smoke clears from all that, who honestly wouldn’t want to see these guys go to war again?
3. Forrest Griffin v. Quinton Jackson
Their title fight back at UFC 86 marked the first time a TUF winner would ever don UFC gold, discounting our boy Matt Serra of course, who the world was aware of before his time on The Ultimate Fighter. The decision was controversial, its aftermath even more so. But with 520,000 pay-per-view buy’s the first time around, this rematch could easily boost up a card’s interest level, though maybe as a co-main event this time.
Though “Rampage” seems destined for other venues, there’s no doubt that this is one loss that he would like to erase before his contract expires…in fact, he has been repeatedly begging for it. Griffin, on the other hand, finds himself in an unusual place amongst the UFC’s light heavyweight division. On the heels of knockout loss to Maricio Rua at UFC 134, a win over Jackson would not only validate his original victory, but propel him back up the light heavyweight ranks. If anything, it will be interesting just to see if DW can get Forrest to leave Vegas again.
2. Edson Barboza vs. Ross Pearson
The first fight, which just recently transpired at UFC 134, was the very definition of a battle between a brawler and a technical striker. Pearson looked about as good as he could in the loss, repeatedly tagging Barboza despite the Brazilian’s reach advantage. Barboza however, was able to land more consistently and with more pizzazz, walking away with the split decision victory in his second consecutive Fight of the Night winning performance.
Though a win in the rematch wouldn’t do much for either fighter in terms of stock value, this is just one of those fights that we simply want to watch again as fans of the sport, regardless of rankings. Some of us weren’t exactly convinced that Barboza deserved the nod, stating Pearson’s constant pressure as a determining factor. And since neither fighter has anything booked at the moment, why not give it another go?
1. Miguel Torres vs. Takeya Mizugaki
Ah, the good old days of the WEC. Back in 2009, Miguel Torres was about as close as you could get to an unbeatable fighter. Takeya Mizugaki was an unknown Shooto vet with a penchant for brawling, and my God what a brawl this turned into. In a fight that was nominated across the forum world for fight of the year, Torres and Mizugaki stood toe-to-toe for 25 minutes and threw down, with each fighter not letting a strike go unanswered.
Coming off a second round TKO of Cole Escovedo at UFC 135, Mizugaki arguably has the momentum in his favor this time around, as Torres will be trying to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Demetrious Johnson against Nick Pace at UFC 139. If he can best Pace, then this rematch would make all the more sense in terms of the bantamweight picture. If not, then this fight would still be a nice addition to any card in need of fireworks.
-Danga
What say you, Potato Nation? Are there any other rematches that you are currently blowing up DW’s Twitter with requests for? Let us know in the comments section.
Miguel Torres became the bantamweight champion of the world while eschewing big training camps with well-known MMA gyms to stay home and train at his own gym in Indiana. But Torres has now lost three of his last five fights, and as he prepares to take on Nick Pace at UFC 139 on Saturday, he says it’s past time for his buddies back home to understand that he needs to go elsewhere to get better.
One of the things that demonstrates 
