C’mon now, boys and girls, let’s give UFC 126’s featherweight debutants the benefit of the doubt, that they really climbed the Octagon to impress. (And do penance for booing!)
Miguel “Angel” Torres, renowned among WEC fans for rousing fights that more often than not ended with winning finishes, faced Antonio Banuelos, who like his ‘master” Chuck Liddell is reputed for his effective take-down defense and powerful punches.
A former WEC and US Shooto bantamweight champion, Torres holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and has unquestionable muay thai skills, which contributed to his compiling an exceptional 39 – 3 fight record.
The crowd was anticipating the taller 5-ft-9 in Angel to turn devil and finish the 5-ft-3 in Banuelos quickly, but the former seemed to live up to his nickname.
An impressive finish may have been what Torres intended; enjoying an immense reach advantage, he stalked Banuelos but the latter proved to be a pretty peripatetic prey.
Torres may have wanted to follow-up his jabs with a fight-finishing straight, hook or roundhouse, but his opponent was a difficult target, constantly moving side-to-side with nifty head movement.
Bringing the fight to the ground could have been Torres’s best option, but perhaps Banuelos’s respectable take-down defense was a valid concern for the ex – WEC champ.
And so we bore witness to three five-minute rounds of stand-up fighting, with Torres maximizing his reach advantage and connecting more with slick jabs. Banuelos, in turn, managed to sneak in a few bombs, usually in the dying seconds of each round.
In the end, the taller and longer Torres was awarded the decision win, for landing more punches, mostly (or all?) jabs, over Banuelos who launched a number of power shots which mostly fell a foot short off his target.
There were unconfirmed reports that after their fight, the air inside the Octagon was bleeding, profusely.
Diane Kruger Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson
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