WEC 37: Torres TKOs Tapia to Retain Bantamweight Belt

WEC Bantamweight Champion Miguel Torres (35-1) defeated challenger Manny Tapia(10-1-1) via TKO in the second round at WEC 37 in Las Vegas Wednesday night to retain his title.

As round one opened, Torres utilized his nine-inch reach advantage by throwing repeated unanswered jabs to the face of Tapia.  Tapia was able to return some punches of his own in the form of hooks to the body of Torres.  Torres seemed unfazed by any striking from Tapia and began to mix in leg kicks with his jabs.

Late in the first round Torres attempted a rolling axe kick which completely missed Tapia, but was enough to freeze his opponenet for a moment while he regained his footing.  The round ended with Tapia putting up his best offensive burst of the fight with several hooks to the body and head to Torres.

Round two looked to be more of the same from Torres as he kept Tapia at arms length with jabs to the face and leg kicks to the thigh.  Tapia attempted several punches to the body just to be met with a thrust kick that sent him back into the cage.  Torres followed the kick up with a spinning back fist that connected; however, Tapia was able to get back to his feet.

Tapia again began to step in attempting to overcome the reach advantage of Torres, just to have Torres connect with a right cross to the head, knocking Tapia to the ground.  Torres immediately swarmed Tapia attempting what appeared to be a guillotine choke and landing several elbows to Tapia’s back.  Tapia was again able to make it back to his feet.

Torres followed up with another right cross and Tapia again was knocked to the ground.  This time Torres went to mount and was able to pin Tapia on his side and rain down punches to the face.  The referee called a stop to the fight at 3:04 of the round.

Torres remains the WEC Bantamweight Champion.