The main event at the WEC in Las Vegas, NV featured the much anticipated bout between what most consider the best one-for-one bantam-weight champion Miguel Torres and the undefeated Manny Tapia. Tough words came from Tapia’s side leading up to the main event title bout, however Torres used the verbiage as fuel for his cause. Torres launched an unstoppable two round attack that ended with Torres bleeding and unable to defend himself from the punishment. Torres improved to an impressive 35-1 with the successful title defense.

“I wanted to fight a little bit calm this time,” Torres said. “Last time I fought, I got kind of emotional and got kind of crazy. If I calm myself down, I fight like this pretty much all the time. I knew Manny was gonna come with big punches. I wanted to keep my range, use my jab to measure him up and then throw a couple of feints and a big right hand.”

Torres will likely fight Brian Bowls for his next title defense, whcih should be one of his toughest challenges to date.

“The next step is to fight the next person in line, whoever that may be,” said Torres. “The WEC has a lot of great 135-pounders out there. To me, they got the best in the world. I’m here to fight the best in the world.”

Waggney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura had a slow, but technical battle on the ground that went the full three rounds. Although Tamura did everything in his power to stop the attack put forth by Fabiano, he was surprisingly tapped to a head and arm choke with just twelve seconds left in the match.

Brian Bowles returned to quiet Will Ribeiro, but not with out resistance. Riberio forged ahead through two rounds while getting beat with faster punches and more takedown and submission attempts by Bowles. Still game, and hoping for a knockout Riberio had to concede after getting caught with a guillotine choke a minute and a half into the third round.

Joseph Benavidez impressively gutted out three rounds of action against Danny Martinez at the Joint in Las Vegas. Although neither fighter visibly had their opponent hurt, the two never slowed the pace while trying to make that happen. Benavidez stood with his hand raised via 30-27 unanimous decision.

Justin Haskins looked strong while controlling Johny Hendricks in the first, however Hendricks came out with more intensity in the second and stunned Haskins with a left uppercut. Hendricks unloaded shots to his downed opponent to finish him off.

Referee Steve Mazzagotti was Ricardo Barros’ only saving grace at the WEC when Mark Munoz forced Barros to the mat and delivered massive punishment from the side to prompt the stoppage in under three minutes of the bout.

Diego Nunes went a full fifteen minutes with Cole Province that went in favor of Nunes at the end. Province had his chances to end the fight including taking Nuens’ back twice, but was unable to finish and ultimately lost the bout.

Alex Karalexis was looking for the big payoff with heavy shots until Bart Palaszewski dropped him twice early in the second round and finished him off with strikes. Karalexis immediately contested the stoppage as his corner-man Chuck Liddell visibly disagreed with the stoppage as well.

Cub Swanson had a though three-round scrap with Hiroyuki Takaya to take home a 30-27 (twice), 29-28 unanimous decision.

Shane Roller, a true wrestler, transitioned from the mount to take Mike Budnik’s back to secure a rear naked choke that ended the fight just ninety-one seconds in the first.

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