Brian Bowles had the night Kenny Florian should’ve had.
Last weekend was a Zuffa dominated weekend of MMA that featured UFC’s Philadelphia debut as well as another up-and-down excellent WEC show both of which saw stunning knockouts, both of which the people at the show and many watching didn’t see coming. Anderson Silva may have cemented his pound-for-pound number one status with a quick and brutal knockout of Forrest Griffin in a fight unanimously viewed as a real test for Silva considering it was at 205-lbs. and it was a capable 205-lb. fighter this time around; the other shocker was Brian Bowles knocking out Miguel Torres in only his eighth career MMA fight to end Torres’ win streak at 17 and taking the WEC Bantamweight title in the process. UFC also had another surprise ending for their Philadelphia show in the form of B.J. Penn continuing to dominate the lightweight division choking out Kenny Florian in round four of a fight that most including myself saw as the final step to Florian taking his rightful position atop the lightweight division; apparently the man on top prior to the fight still deserves that spot. And, you read it here, this will be the last time I will ever doubt B.J. Penn going into a fight unless he wants a third shot at GSP.
While UFC had the star power, WEC had the total package as once again they provided a thoroughly entertaining show with more fights and more action than most UFC shows this year. Plenty of fights went the distance resulting in a pretty even dispersing of unanimous and split decisions with some being closer than others. Jeff Curran nearly stole one from Takeya Mizugaki in a fight that appears to be underrated when the reviews came in. The two put on a slower paced fight that involved a lot of groundwork from both that saw the decision very much in doubt until it was announced as Mizugaki dominated the cage and was always in the dominant position when things went to the ground, but Curran was by far the busier fighter and nearly choked Mizugaki out in the final thirty seconds of the fight via a Guillotine, but Mizugaki ended up surviving with the split decision. On the flip side, Joe Benavidez suffered a unanimous decision loss to Dominick Cruz in what was in my opinion the best 135-lb. fight of the year despite the fact that Cruz deserved the decision and Benavidez never had a chance to win the fight on the scorecards. The fight was fast paced for the whole fifteen minutes with neither man slowing down a bit and continuously throwing or shooting or trying to make something happen that would up their chances of taking home a win. With two fighters that had a combined record of 23-1 going in, you would normal expect (and get) a fight that featured two fighters more tentative because of their record and the fact that it was such a big fight for both men. It didn’t happen and it turned into a masterpiece for Cruz and a loss that Benavidez can still hold his head high about.
A while back I wrote that I didn’t believe the Georges St. Pierre/Anderson Silva fight would ever happen; I still believe that, but after Silva’s knockout of Griffin and the domination that preceded it, I think the fight needs to happen in order to truly determine the world’s pound-for-pound king. It has to, otherwise we’re going to be waiting for one of these guys to lose and that may not happen for a while or, in the case of Silva, ever as his career could be in its final fights if he sticks to his guns about retirement after his UFC contract ends. The domination of these two in recent time is pretty staggering considering the parity that UFC possesses (specifically in the 205-lb. division) that it is downright amazing that you have two guys who simply can’t lose at this point no matter who you throw at them; I thought B.J. had a good chance to beat GSP, I thought Alves was the best test for GSP, I thought Griffin would be a test for Silva, I thought Hendo could beat Silva when they fought last year, and every time I was dead wrong. These two are simply untouchable at this point, and depending on how many of his remaining fights are at light heavyweight, Silva may very well retire with the middleweight title. Then again, GSP has a lot of time left in his career and he may retire with UFC’s welterweight title!
Now to the main-events of both shows, both of which were the opposite of the expectations people had of them.
Kenny Florian came into his title match with B.J. on a roll and looking as dominant as he’s ever looked and seem primed to take the throne; B.J. on the other hand had his reputation take a hit the “Greasegate” rumors and accusations after being thoroughly outclassed by GSP back in January. However, in true B.J. Penn fashion, he rebounded and came back better than ever. People didn’t believe B.J. would beat Hughes the first time they faced off, but he did, many believed that he was the one at the end of the road when he faced Jens Pulver, but it turned out to be the other way around, and people believed Florian had what it took to snatch the title away from Penn just over a week ago, but he didn’t. Instead, Penn showed why he has the reputation he does despite four of his five career losses being in big fights. KenFlo really shouldn’t be too discouraged by this loss (he should be disappointed by it), but the fact remains that if you’re a young guy and you lose to a man with legend status or at least the status of an elite fighter in a title match, you can be right back in that title picture with a win or two. Remember how everyone was saying KenFlo was so dominant and so good and B.J. was dead, and all that? Well that all doesn’t just fade away because B.J. whipped him; the man has a 9-3 record in UFC with all losses being to credible competition, the B.J. loss was his first in two and a half years, and was his first loss in his last seven fights. In short, B.J. is still the king at 155-lbs. and KenFlo may still be the heir to the throne, but Diego Sanchez may have some rightful objections to that.
As for Brian Bowles, he did exactly what I wrote at the beginning of this article: he had the night Florian should’ve had. Apparently all too aware of Torres’ reputation and versatility—evidenced by going the distance with Mizugaki in April with two stoppages (in-cage and doctor) and two submission wins coming before that—Bowles left nothing to chance and went for the jugular right from the onset. The plan nearly backfired as Torres fought through Bowles’ opening barrage with one of his own, but one slight opening allowed Bowles to land the devastating punch that sent Torres to the canvas followed by the even more devastating one that instantly knocked him cold. It was a sight that shocked many including myself and may have made WEC’s 135-lb. division the most entertaining in the sport. I know it may be a stretch, but with Torres no longer the champ, the division doesn’t have the dominating force that all other weight divisions have. Combine that with the performances of Mizugaki, Curran (newly at 135-lb.), Cruz, Benavidez, and Bowles that Sunday night, as well as the fact that Torres is still a force in the division despite the loss, and you’ve got a packed division the likes of UFC’s light heavyweight division.
Finally, the major news outside of the cage that weekend was Dana White’s announcement that UFC may try to run Fenway Park next year. This comes a little under two weeks after Sherdog’s blog reported that Aloha Stadium might be in UFC’s sights as well. Both sites all mean the same thing: Dana wants the UFC’s paid attendance record back in the U.S. After UFC’s two ventures into Canada netted bigger paying crowds than Couture/Sylvia and no U.S. show as gotten close to reaching the 21,000 mark (both Canada shows were just past that mark), Dana must have been frustrated by that, or his ambition for the promotion has moved up a level. Either way, I do think it’s a good thing since this kind of ambition can be backed up by years of success and the money to make it happen, as well as enough of backup to not be destroyed by a disastrous outing. If it was a choice between Aloha Stadium and Fenway, I would lean towards Aloha Stadium, but neither is a guarantee for a big payday despite UFC’s influence. With Aloha Stadium, they have the benefit of having Hawaii-native B.J. Penn and the hometown boy coming home for a title match nonetheless would be big. People forget, but a K-1 show in Hawaii in 2005 that was main-evented by B.J.’s fight with Renzo Gracie drew 12,000, a mark that few if any K-1 show in Hawaii has done since, and that was before UFC’s breakthrough and MMA’s breakthrough in the U.S. occurred. As far as Fenway goes, it’s not on an island and thus travel for people with tickets would be more convenient, but they don’t have a hometown boy and that is vital in terms of drawing power. The other issue in both cases—evidenced by K-1’s disaster at the L.A. Coliseum back in 2007—is that since Fenway is a baseball stadium, there’d be all that open space along with the 40,000 or so seats that are already in place. The same issue plagued K-1 in L.A. and could very well plague UFC here as Dana and the Fertita’s would want only one thing if they were to run Aloha Stadium or (especially) Fenway: butts in the seats. And considering the most they’ve gotten (paid and comped) in the U.S. is around 20,000, it may seem like a venture not worth attempting yet.
