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The Two Sheds Review: Manny Tapia Challenges Miguel Torres at WEC 37

As the Extreme Sports channel continues their regular rotation of old World Extreme Cagefighting shows, we’re now going back to December 2008, as Manny Tapia challenged Miguel Torres for the Bantamweight title at WEC 37.The broadcast began with b…

The broadcast began with bantamweight action as Joseph Benavidez faced Danny Martinez.

An encounter between two debuting fighters proved to be an intriguing, though unspectacular three rounder. Both guys put on a good display of striking, although as the fight went on Benavidez took control with his jab/hook tactics.

Benavidez may have been in control in the third, but as the fight came to an end, Martinez sprang to life with a flurry of blows.

All three judges scored in favour of Benavidez.

The bantamweight action continued as Brian Bowles faced Will Ribeiro.

Bowles put on a great performance here. His striking was crisp and his ground work was good, especially in the third round when he locked in a guillotine choke that Ribeiro barely escaped from.

The Brazilian had his moments, but these didn’t happen that often, and when he went for a take down in the third, Bowles countered with a guillotine. Once again Ribeiro tried to fight it, but it wasn’t long before he tapped out to give Bowles the submission win.

Then it was up to featherweight and two more debuting fighters, as Wagnney Fabiano took on Akitoshi Tamura.

If you ever want to see a good example of effective ground fighting, give this one a look.

It went to the ground early, and while Fabiano put on a great offensive display, Tamura was up to the task with some sound defensive work.

However, the Japanese star just couldn’t get much offence going off his back, with Fabiano escaping from his guillotine attempt by wall-walking to relieve the pressure.

The end came towards the close of the third round as Fabiano locked in an arm triangle for the submission win.

The main event saw Manny Tapia challenging Miguel Torres for the Bantamweight title.

Torres came into this fight with a huge reach advantage, and he used it to good effect, keeping Tapia at bay with his stinging jabs.

Tapia got in a few good body shots, but as the fight entered the second round, Torres took control.

A big right rocked Tapia and sent him to the ground. Another big right sent Tapia down for the second time, with Torres following him down for some ground and pound. It wasn’t long before the referee had seen enough, as he stopped the fight to give Torres the title-retaining TKO win.

In conclusion: another good show from the UFC’s little brother. Although it wasn’t packed with spectacular action, the majority of the fighting was sound, with the performance of Miguel Torres the highlight of the night for me.

So in all, a good show, and once again I’ll say that if you live in Britain and haven’t seen this show yet—don’t worry. Just keep an eye on the Extreme Sports channel. I’m sure it will be on again.

Don’t forget to check out my website at twoshedsreview.blogspot.com.

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Miguel Torres in Rhythm With Firas Zahabi Ahead of UFC 130

Filed under: UFCWatching Firas Zahabi talk to reporter after reporter in Toronto last month, one almost got the feeling that he might be getting tired of answering questions about Georges St-Pierre.

So why not cut one of the most prominent trainers i…

Filed under: UFC

Watching Firas Zahabi talk to reporter after reporter in Toronto last month, one almost got the feeling that he might be getting tired of answering questions about Georges St-Pierre.

So why not cut one of the most prominent trainers in the sport some slack, let him get his mind off his welterweight champ for a few minutes?

“Oh – you want me to talk (crap) about Miguel?” Zahabi asks, a smile on his face. “I can do that!”

Zahabi is most famous for the work he does at his Tristar Gym in Montreal with St-Pierre, the UFC welterweight champ, and ahead of GSP’s UFC 129 title defense in Toronto against Jake Shields, there were plenty of questions for the coach. But in the last 10 months, Zahabi has taken on a new challenge – revamping the fight game of former bantamweight kingpin Miguel Torres.

And so far, business has been good. Zahabi has helped Torres (39-3, 1-0 UFC) to back-to-back wins after he lost his WEC 135-pound title to Brian Bowles in August 2009, his first career knockout loss, and followed that up by tapping for the first time in a bloody loss to Joseph Benavidez. In fact, Zahabi believes that for Torres, the best is yet to come.

“I still think he’s got a lot of potential left, and it’s going to take some time to reach that,” Zahabi said. “But I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he’s going to be in the future.”

But Torres, who mostly self-trained at his own gym in Northwest Indiana until taking up with Zahabi last fall, gives a slightly different account of what his coach tells him in the gym.

“He hasn’t told me anything like that,” Torres said Wednesday. “Everything he tells me is pretty much negative – and that I’m garbage – so I can get better. But I feel like I’m getting better every day. When I came here, I saw what I was lacking in my game. I knew how much more I could pick up and how much better I could become.”

After a submission win over Charlie Valencia at WEC 51 last September and a unanimous decision over Antonio Banuelos in his UFC debut at UFC 126 in February, Torres was given Brad Pickett for UFC 130 next week. But five weeks before the fight, Pickett pulled out with an injury.

Pickett’s replacement, Demetrious Johnson (9-1, 1-0 UFC), raised a few eyebrows. Torres’ Achille’s heel has always been his wrestling. And “Mighty Mouse”? He was a standout high school wrestler in Washington and is coming off a dominating 10-takedown performance to beat Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto in February. But Torres’ wrestling is what he has worked on at length since his last loss.

“When I fought Benavidez, I had no wrestling skills whatsoever,” Torres said. “Now it’s been a year, and all I’ve been doing is wrestling. Every training camp involves wrestling. Every fight I go into involves wrestling. I’m very confident in my ability to stop takedowns and use counter-shots to take people down.”

Zahabi also makes no bones about Torres’ wrestling – but concurs with his student that overlooking his ability in that part of his game might be a mistake.

“It’s definitely his wrestling – I’ll admit to that. I have no problem – I like to say the truth,” Zahabi said. “But I’ll tell you one thing: He’s working very hard on that, and he’s not going to be easy to take down. He’s going to be even more difficult to hold down, and it’s going to be very hard to stop his submissions. So I’m confident for this fight.”

And so confident are Torres and Zahabi that they say Torres’ height and reach advantage – he’s 5-foot-9 vs. Johnson’s 5-3 – will force Johnson to shoot. And bring it on.

“Johnson shooting on me is the game plan,” Torres said. “I want the guy to try to shoot on me. My whole strength is developed to hit guys – to force them to have to shoot. They can’t touch me, they can’t strike with me – the longer we stand, the more I win. The longer we stand, the more he has to shoot to win the round. So as he shoots, as he comes in to try and touch me, he’s either going to get hit or he’s going to get sprawled out. Once he gets sprawled out, he’s going to give up his back or his neck. So for me, Demetrious shooting, him engaging me in a shot is going to result in me being able to use my full offense that has developed in the past year with Firas.”

And the past year, Zahabi has seen Torres grow from an almost reckless fighter, doing it all on his own, to the kind who can admit his shortcomings and allow himself to be called “garbage” by his coach. (Even if that’s a slight Torres exaggeration.)

“I’m very happy with Miguel,” Zahabi said. “He’s taken some serious steps to move himself forward. It takes somebody who is very proactive, somebody who is very responsible to do that.”

Torres and Johnson fight on the preliminary card of UFC 130 on May 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be part of the Spike TV’s live prelims broadcast, which starts at 8 p.m. Eastern ahead of the pay-per-view at 9 p.m.

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Spike to Air Torres-Johnson, Grove-Boetsch During UFC 130 Prelims

Filed under: UFCSpike will air two preliminary fights from May 28’s UFC 130 card, the cable channel confirmed on Tuesday.

The two bouts that will air live at 8 pm ET are a bantamweight fight pitting Miguel Torres against Demetrious Johnson, as well as…

Filed under: UFC

Spike will air two preliminary fights from May 28’s UFC 130 card, the cable channel confirmed on Tuesday.

The two bouts that will air live at 8 pm ET are a bantamweight fight pitting Miguel Torres against Demetrious Johnson, as well as a middleweight encounter between Kendall Grove and Tim Boetsch.

The night’s other three prelim fights will air on Facebook.com.

The Torres-Johnson bout could be a barn-burner. The speedy Johnson has won three in a row in raising his record to 9-1. He most recently defeated Kid Yamamoto via decision at UFC 126. Meanwhile, on the same card, Torres won his second straight when he won a unanimous decision over Antonio Banuelos. That victory improved his record to 39-3.

Both Grove and Boetsch will be looking to return to the win column after dropping their last match. Grove (12-8, 1 no contest) lost a unanimous decision to Demian Maia last December. He’s alternated wins and losses over his last six fights. Boetsch (12-4) saw his four-fight win streak snapped at UFC 123 in November, when he fell victim to a Phil Davis modified kimura in a submission loss.

Also on Tuesday, the UFC announced UFC 130’s Bart Palaszewski vs. Gleison Tibau, Chris Cariaso vs. Michael McDonald, and Cole Escovedo vs. Renan Barao bouts would all air through a stream on the UFC’s Facebook page.

UFC 130 takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and has a main event of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt Hamil.

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Mighty Mouse Johnson: His Fight with Torres Is Like David and Goliath

With The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 130 scheduled for May 28, the speedy, 5’3″ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, discusses his next bantamweight contest versus the much taller Miguel Torres, who stands six inches above his oppone…

Following a three-fight win streak, including a unanimous decision versus highly touted Japanese fighter Kid Yamamoto, the shorter Johnson welcomes the height difference as he prepares against the former World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) 135-pound champion, as he explains to MMAMania’s Brian Hemminger:

“Being 5’3″ with him 5’9″, there’s a huge height difference,” states Johnson. “If he wants to punch me, he has to punch down, which exposes his chin, and if I want to hit him, I have to reach up and my chin will always be protected. It’s like David and Goliath. David was a little guy and he had to throw up and Goliath had to break his posture to hit David with a good clean shot.”

Though “Mighty Mouse” wasn’t initially slated to fight Torres, as UFC bantamweight contender Brad Pickett had to withdraw due to injury, he’s definitely grateful for this fantastic opportunity to fight a former champion:

“I was very honored when the UFC gave me the call and asked me if I wanted to step up and take on Miguel Torres instead of Renan Barão,” says Demetrious.

“Now I’m stepping up to take on Miguel Torres. I trained really hard for this fight and it’s gonna go down in the Octagon on Spike TV,” exclaims the AMC Pankration fighter.

Though there are few 135-pounders to train with in his Washington state-based gym, Johnson feels that sparring with larger and stronger training partners is an advantage:

“This morning I worked out two hours with a guy who’s 205 and has very good knowledge of the mixed martial arts game. It helps me because it makes my body get adapted to be pushed the whole time,” said the Kentucky bred wrestler. “You see guys go against guys their own size, and that’s good too, but when I’m rolling on the ground and I have a guy who’s 205 pounds on me, it makes my body work and it conditions every single part of my body.

“Whether it’s my tendons, my wrists, whatever, it’s getting worked the whole time. It’s a good benefit for me and when I get in there with guys my own size, like 5’3″ or whatever, it’s a piece of cake because I’m used to kicking guys in the head who are 5’10” or 5’11”.”

As “Mighty Mouse” takes on a former world champion in Torres, it will be exciting to see how Demetrious handles the sizable 10-inch reach difference, as he owns a 66-inch reach, while Torres possesses a 76-inch reach advantage.

Regardless, Johnson’s heart and dedication is unparalleled and a fight of this magnitude is well deserved. As the UFC’s 135 pound weight class continues to bring energetic, fast-paced fights, this bantamweight match-up has the makings to be filled with non-stop action and be equally exciting as well.

-ROLAND RISO
MMAIDIOT.COM

Roland Riso is a contributing writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained from MMAMania.com.

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UFC 130 Fight Card: 5 Things Miguel Torres Must Do to Beat Demetrious Johnson

UFC 130 is only a few weeks away, but already the card is shaping up to be one of the most solid nights of fights in recent history—only another great card to add on to what the UFC has already put on in 2011.On the Spike TV card, which also feat…

On the Spike TV card, which also features Rick Story facing Thiago Alves, Miguel Angel Torres will look to extend his streak in the UFC to 2-0 against Demetrious Johnson, who has a great wrestling base and has been known to be very explosive when he lays in some shots.

Torres is a former WEC Bantamweight Champion with great striking, long limbs and some very good Jiu-Jitsu, but without question Johnson poses one of the toughest threats to date for Torres.

So what does he have to do to beat Mighty Mouse?

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MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Cruz, Faber on a Collision Course

Filed under: UFC, WEC, Rankings, BantamweightsThe two best 135-pound fighters in the world will square off some time later this year for the first ever UFC bantamweight title match in what should be a great showcase for what has quietly become one of t…

Filed under: UFC, WEC, Rankings, Bantamweights

The two best 135-pound fighters in the world will square off some time later this year for the first ever UFC bantamweight title match in what should be a great showcase for what has quietly become one of the UFC’s most talented weight classes.

Before the UFC absorbed World Extreme Cagefighting, the smaller guys were largely overlooked by casual MMA fans. But now that the UFC has added the WEC’s bantamweights — and also snapped up some 135-pounders from other promotions — the bantamweight class is stacked. In fact, as I put together my latest ranking of the Top 10 bantamweights in mixed martial arts, all 10 of them are now under contract to the UFC.

The top two, as you probably suspect, are bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and the only man to defeat him, Urijah Faber. Those two will square off at UFC 132. But the rest of the bantamweight division includes several talented fighters who could become worthy challengers to the bantamweight title in the years ahead.