WEC 42 Aftermath: Surprising Performances Lead Up to Shocking Upset

It's safe to say that the overall theme from Sunday night's WEC 42 was surprise. The main event produced one of the most shocking upsets we've seen this year. A super-bulky and powerful Brian Bowles crushed the seemingly unbeatable force in Miguel Torres. instead of falling to his knees in defeat after being stunned by the champion, Bowles backpedaled to the fence and unloaded a monster right hand to Torres' chin that had Torres reeling on the ground. The subsequent flurry of blows devastated the champ and made Brian Bowles the new WEC Bantamweight champion.

Bowles was impressive in his performance. He cleaned up his striking technique with straighter punches mixed in with his patented power blows. Torres was surprised by not only Bowles' power and striking, but the dominance that Bowles displayed on the floor. Torres' last resort was likely a ground battle, but Bowles gave him a sneak preview of things to come if the fight went to the ground. Unfortunately for Torres, he didn't get the chance to test Bowles' conditioning.

We had a number of solid bantamweight battles that could produce challengers for Bowles. The only real problem is that one of those fights was another pretty substantial upset. Joseph Benavidez was defeated by a bigger and lengthier Dominick Cruz. Benavidez was being built as the next contender at 135, but Cruz's length and size was a huge problem from the start. A lot of scrambles and combinations were happening throughout the fight, but Cruz was always getting the advantage in those scuffles. Benavidez resorted to flying kicks and front kicks late in the fight, and it really makes you wonder how he can blast his way to the top with such a short reach.

In other bantamweight action, Jeff Curran took on Japanese import Takeya Mizugaki. In a bit of a controversial decision, Mizugaki won the fight against Jeff Curran. If we look at how American judging historically looks at fights. Curran wins that fight if emphasis is placed on strikes landed, regardless of position. Ask Phil Cardella in his last two performances as he was even more dominating than Curran. Mizugaki did display some impressive submission escapes, power, and the heart to last through that tight triangle at the end of the fight, but Curran's guard control and evading maneuvers were impressive.

Leonard Garcia, however, was given a gift decision over Jameel Massouh. Garcia nearly finished Massouh in the first round of the bout, so it's fairly easy to give Garcia a 10-9 round. The following two rounds were Massouh's rounds in my mind as he controlled Garcia on the floor and gave him huge problems. I'm a bit disheartened to see that judges couldn't get that decision correct, but it was still a pretty close fight.

Ricardo Lamas vs. Danny Castillo ended in a crushing overhand from Castillo that dropped Lamas late in the second round. Lamas was likely winning the fight up until that point, although Castillo wasn't doing a terrible job in the second round. Not a bad outcome to a fight that many fans believed would be a whole lot of "wrestle-boxing".

Complete results in the full entry.

L.C. Davis beat Javier Vasquez by split decision
Diego Nunes beat Rafael Dias by unanimous decision
Rani Yayha beat John Hosman by first-round submission (north-south)
Ed Ratcliff beat Phil Cardella by unanimous decision
Shane Roller beat Marcus Hicks by unanimous decision
Cole Province beat Fredson Paixao by unanimous decision
Leonard Garcia beat Jameel Massouh by split decision
Takeya Mizugaki beat Jeff Curran by split decision
Danny Castillo beat Ricardo Lamas by second-round TKO (punches)
Dominick Cruz beat Joseph Benavidez by unanimous decision
Brian Bowles beat Miguel Torres by first-round KO (punches)

The undercard was rather predictable, although the most impressive performance came with wrestler Cole Province upsetting BJJ black belt Fredson Paixao. Shane Roller over Marcus Hicks is a bit of an upset, but it isn't too surprising considering Roller's wrestling credentials.

Overall Impressions

WEC 42 definitely delivered if you were looking for a few surprises in order to stay away from the bantamweight division getting a bit stale. Cruz looked impressive in his win, and his size and range is going to be a major factor against a lot of opponents. I'm not exactly sure what the WEC intends to do with him in this case as Benavidez was the main guy looking to get a win to step in against the champ. Will Cruz get the nod now? I was somewhat thinking the Mizugaki should be thrown back into the championship ring while Cruz took on Torres, but we'll see how it pans out.

The division still has some other fighters in the mix coming up at WEC 43 with Akitoshi Tamura and Damacio Page clashing along with Scott Jorgensen vs. Rafael Rebello and Manny Tapia vs. Eddie Wineland. The bantamweight division is truly looking impressive for match-ups in the coming months.

On a final note, Frank Mir was just... mediocre last night, some would say terrible. While I enjoy his foray into the technical aspects of BJJ holds and grabs, his clear one-sided bias to one fighter over the other was rather annoying. I expect it a bit from a fellow fighter to some of the guys in the cage, so I shouldn't delve too deep. I just irks me a bit to only hear a one-sided account of how the fight should be going, only to have it go in a completely opposite direction.