Brad.Taschuk
04-05-2009, 03:09 AM
Another Kevin Iole gem...
The parallels are so striking between the situation Urijah Faber faced in November and the one that Miguel Torres must confront on Sunday when he defends his World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight title against Takeya Mizugaki at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, it’s eerie.
Six months ago, it was Faber who was riding a years-long winning streak.
It was Faber who was crisscrossing the country to promote the WEC.
It was Faber who was heavily favored to successfully defend his featherweight title in a nationally televised bout on Versus. And it was Faber whom some were suggesting might just be on the verge of becoming the finest mixed martial arts fighter in the world.
Nearly six months to the day that Faber was knocked out by Mike Brown, it’s Torres’ turn.
He will bring a five-and-a-half-year, 16-fight winning streak into his bout with Mizugaki.
It is Torres who has been on the media blitz, spreading the gospel of both the WEC and mixed martial arts.
And it is Torres, who is ranked fourth in the world in the Yahoo! Sports poll and who is steadily closing the gap on leaders Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre.
Torres, though, doesn’t see himself falling into a trap.
“Not at all,” he said. “The only way you fall into a trap or get caught off guard is if you’re not prepared. Believe me, I will be prepared.”
Before Faber fought Brown, few other than those who knew how physically strong and heavy-handed Brown was were giving the American Top Team star much of a chance to win.
And not many are giving Mizugaki much of a shot to get past Torres. Jeff Curran, who faces the Faber-trained Joseph Benavidez on the undercard, expects Torres to continue his roll.
“I think Miguel’s going to steamroll him, personally,” said Curran, who down the road hopes to land a shot against Torres. “Mizugaki’s got a dangerous right hand, but I don’t think he can handle Miguel on the ground. Every video I’ve watched of Mizugaki, he’s got the reach advantage, and he doesn’t have that so much with Miguel, so he’s not going to be able to just hang out on the outside, and then create space and land that hard right. And … I don’t think he’s on the same playing field personally, but we’ll see.”
Torres’ only defeat came on Nov. 19, 2003, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Ryan Ackerman. He avenged that loss two years later, gaining a first-round submission with an arm bar, a victory that is part of his current 16-fight winning streak.
Mizugaki, who landed the fight when top contender Brian Bowles had to withdraw in February because of an injury, didn’t exactly sound as if he were brimming with confidence when he discussed Torres.
He said he’d trained with fighters who had seen the first Torres-Ackerman fight and they’ve shared their opinions of Torres with him.
“They gave me plenty of useful advice, so I know exactly what I need to do to win,” said Mizugaki, who has a Master’s degree in electrical engineering. “My plan is still the same; I am going to strike. I want to win the WEC belt and I’m prepared to break Miguel down.”
Saying he’s going to break Torres down is kind of like an NBA player saying he’s going to keep LeBron James from going to the basket. It sounds good, but it usually doesn’t happen.
If the fight gets to the ground, it will likely only be seconds before Torres is able to pull off a submission.
But punching power can be the great equalizer. Mizugaki doesn’t have to be leading on the scorecards to win the fight if he can get his right hand home. And as Yoshiro Maeda showed against Torres in one of 2008’s best fights, Torres can be goaded into a slugfest.
So Mizugaki has at least the hope that he can land a powerful shot that can either knock Torres out or hurt him badly enough that Mizugaki will be able to finish with ground-and-pound assault.
The problem from Mizugaki’s standpoint is that Torres has more weapons than most people have socks. In his last fight, a second-round TKO over Manny Tapia in Las
Vegas, Torres executed a move he calls his suicide kick.
He essentially does a cartwheel and as he get close to his opponent, boots him in the head with an axe kick.
Torres grinned after the fight and said, “I have a lot of tricks in my bag.” And while he wouldn’t mind if the move would end a fight, he said it’s frequently one he uses to set up something else.
“I do that sometimes to get the guy to come into my guard, so I can do the up-kick or a leg lock or something,” Torres said.
It’s one of many unconventional moves that Torres has the ability to pull off. But Torres has to be careful that he doesn’t put himself into harm’s way by attempting to entertain the hometown crowd.
He’ll probably win, and he’s heavily favored to do so, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Mizugaki could land a right hand that leads to a monumental upset.
If Torres doesn’t believe it, all he has to do is seek out Faber.
Source (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AhB5rVziNK9gseDhVySYWk49Eo14?slug=ki-wecprev040209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
Great point Kevin... ummm, except for the fact that everyone and their mother who knew anything about MMA knew that Faber was wildly overrated, and expected him to lose the FW belt in the near future (not necessarily to Brown, but definitely to whoever he faced first out of Fabiano or Aldo).
Did anyone really ever consider Faber as the top P4P fighter in the world either? What was his best win? An inexperienced Bibiano Fernandes? An undersized Jeff Curran? A washed up Jens Pulver? Ooh, ooh! How about a DQ win against Ivan Menjivar?
The Faber hype train got way out of hand for no good reason, other than the guy being marketable. It couldn't have been derailed any faster for me.
I'm not saying that Torres is the best fighter in the world, but at least we're all pretty much in agreement that he's head and shoulders above the rest of the BW division.
The parallels are so striking between the situation Urijah Faber faced in November and the one that Miguel Torres must confront on Sunday when he defends his World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight title against Takeya Mizugaki at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, it’s eerie.
Six months ago, it was Faber who was riding a years-long winning streak.
It was Faber who was crisscrossing the country to promote the WEC.
It was Faber who was heavily favored to successfully defend his featherweight title in a nationally televised bout on Versus. And it was Faber whom some were suggesting might just be on the verge of becoming the finest mixed martial arts fighter in the world.
Nearly six months to the day that Faber was knocked out by Mike Brown, it’s Torres’ turn.
He will bring a five-and-a-half-year, 16-fight winning streak into his bout with Mizugaki.
It is Torres who has been on the media blitz, spreading the gospel of both the WEC and mixed martial arts.
And it is Torres, who is ranked fourth in the world in the Yahoo! Sports poll and who is steadily closing the gap on leaders Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre.
Torres, though, doesn’t see himself falling into a trap.
“Not at all,” he said. “The only way you fall into a trap or get caught off guard is if you’re not prepared. Believe me, I will be prepared.”
Before Faber fought Brown, few other than those who knew how physically strong and heavy-handed Brown was were giving the American Top Team star much of a chance to win.
And not many are giving Mizugaki much of a shot to get past Torres. Jeff Curran, who faces the Faber-trained Joseph Benavidez on the undercard, expects Torres to continue his roll.
“I think Miguel’s going to steamroll him, personally,” said Curran, who down the road hopes to land a shot against Torres. “Mizugaki’s got a dangerous right hand, but I don’t think he can handle Miguel on the ground. Every video I’ve watched of Mizugaki, he’s got the reach advantage, and he doesn’t have that so much with Miguel, so he’s not going to be able to just hang out on the outside, and then create space and land that hard right. And … I don’t think he’s on the same playing field personally, but we’ll see.”
Torres’ only defeat came on Nov. 19, 2003, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Ryan Ackerman. He avenged that loss two years later, gaining a first-round submission with an arm bar, a victory that is part of his current 16-fight winning streak.
Mizugaki, who landed the fight when top contender Brian Bowles had to withdraw in February because of an injury, didn’t exactly sound as if he were brimming with confidence when he discussed Torres.
He said he’d trained with fighters who had seen the first Torres-Ackerman fight and they’ve shared their opinions of Torres with him.
“They gave me plenty of useful advice, so I know exactly what I need to do to win,” said Mizugaki, who has a Master’s degree in electrical engineering. “My plan is still the same; I am going to strike. I want to win the WEC belt and I’m prepared to break Miguel down.”
Saying he’s going to break Torres down is kind of like an NBA player saying he’s going to keep LeBron James from going to the basket. It sounds good, but it usually doesn’t happen.
If the fight gets to the ground, it will likely only be seconds before Torres is able to pull off a submission.
But punching power can be the great equalizer. Mizugaki doesn’t have to be leading on the scorecards to win the fight if he can get his right hand home. And as Yoshiro Maeda showed against Torres in one of 2008’s best fights, Torres can be goaded into a slugfest.
So Mizugaki has at least the hope that he can land a powerful shot that can either knock Torres out or hurt him badly enough that Mizugaki will be able to finish with ground-and-pound assault.
The problem from Mizugaki’s standpoint is that Torres has more weapons than most people have socks. In his last fight, a second-round TKO over Manny Tapia in Las
Vegas, Torres executed a move he calls his suicide kick.
He essentially does a cartwheel and as he get close to his opponent, boots him in the head with an axe kick.
Torres grinned after the fight and said, “I have a lot of tricks in my bag.” And while he wouldn’t mind if the move would end a fight, he said it’s frequently one he uses to set up something else.
“I do that sometimes to get the guy to come into my guard, so I can do the up-kick or a leg lock or something,” Torres said.
It’s one of many unconventional moves that Torres has the ability to pull off. But Torres has to be careful that he doesn’t put himself into harm’s way by attempting to entertain the hometown crowd.
He’ll probably win, and he’s heavily favored to do so, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Mizugaki could land a right hand that leads to a monumental upset.
If Torres doesn’t believe it, all he has to do is seek out Faber.
Source (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AhB5rVziNK9gseDhVySYWk49Eo14?slug=ki-wecprev040209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
Great point Kevin... ummm, except for the fact that everyone and their mother who knew anything about MMA knew that Faber was wildly overrated, and expected him to lose the FW belt in the near future (not necessarily to Brown, but definitely to whoever he faced first out of Fabiano or Aldo).
Did anyone really ever consider Faber as the top P4P fighter in the world either? What was his best win? An inexperienced Bibiano Fernandes? An undersized Jeff Curran? A washed up Jens Pulver? Ooh, ooh! How about a DQ win against Ivan Menjivar?
The Faber hype train got way out of hand for no good reason, other than the guy being marketable. It couldn't have been derailed any faster for me.
I'm not saying that Torres is the best fighter in the world, but at least we're all pretty much in agreement that he's head and shoulders above the rest of the BW division.