WEC 47 Preview
Bowles vs. Cruz
Mar 6, 2010
Any fight fan who knows his foot from Royce Gracie
knows that the annual Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio,
ushers in some quality MMA. This year the WEC is upping the ante by
dropping Saturday’s WEC
47 right in the middle of the Arnold Sports Weekend.
Airing live on Versus from the Nationwide Arena, the headliner features reigning bantamweight kingpin Brian Bowles taking on the fleet fists of Dominick Cruz. Backing up that main event manliness is wolf-cut connoisseur Miguel Torres and Urijah Faber protégé Joseph Benavidez in a bout that will likely decide the next challenger for the bantamweight strap.
Throw in up-and-coming Armenian face-smasher Karen
Darabedyan, Jens Pulver’s
flat-lining left hook and a batch of prelims that will have
everyone jonesing for some speedy main card bouts, and there is
clearly no reason why you shouldn’t sacrifice your Saturday evening
to the fight Gods.
Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz
Counting out a guy with a telescoping jab and takedown defense like a skyscraper is never a good idea. Cruz proved the versatility of his striking repertoire in his bout with Joseph Benavidez at WEC 42. Although Bowles has the edge in pure power, getting inside on Cruz’s reach will be about as much fun as a New Jersey Nets game.
Not fun at all, but not impossible either. Bowles knows when to ditch studied savvy in favor of wild-eyed aggression. Swarming like an army of bee-eating wasps is a Bowles’ specialty, and Cruz will have to be careful about getting into extended exchanges that favor power over reach.
The other big concern for Cruz is staying off the mat for five rounds. He hasn’t finished any fights in the WEC, and staving off takedowns for 25 minutes is a grueling exercise that may be beyond the limitations of Cruz’s gas tank, especially considering Bowles will press the pace every chance he gets.
If Cruz does end up on the floor, he’d do well getting upright since Bowles is an underrated grappler with a guillotine choke that he rents out to the local fire department as the jaws of life. The point here is that working a conservative game plan and picking up three-round decisions is one thing, and trying the same in a five-round championship fight is another.
The Bottom Line: Cruz is a tough fight for anyone at bantamweight, and Bowles is hardly the exception. With that said, Cruz is no Pernell Whitaker. He relies more on his reach to frustrate opponents than any real defensive talents. Bowles is eventually going to drag Cruz into the phone booth, and he won’t let him out until everyone is clear on who runs the show at 135 pounds.
Airing live on Versus from the Nationwide Arena, the headliner features reigning bantamweight kingpin Brian Bowles taking on the fleet fists of Dominick Cruz. Backing up that main event manliness is wolf-cut connoisseur Miguel Torres and Urijah Faber protégé Joseph Benavidez in a bout that will likely decide the next challenger for the bantamweight strap.
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Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz
The Breakdown: The number of people
outside of Bowles’ immediate family who expected him to knock
Miguel
Torres into another dimension can be counted on one hand. The
fact is, however, he’s the new bantamweight standard bearer and a
walking target for everyone that was once locked on Torres.
Dominick Cruz will be the first man to try and cash in on Bowles’
bounty in a fight that is inexplicably an assumed win for Bowles,
according to a great many of the MMA cognoscenti.
Counting out a guy with a telescoping jab and takedown defense like a skyscraper is never a good idea. Cruz proved the versatility of his striking repertoire in his bout with Joseph Benavidez at WEC 42. Although Bowles has the edge in pure power, getting inside on Cruz’s reach will be about as much fun as a New Jersey Nets game.
Not fun at all, but not impossible either. Bowles knows when to ditch studied savvy in favor of wild-eyed aggression. Swarming like an army of bee-eating wasps is a Bowles’ specialty, and Cruz will have to be careful about getting into extended exchanges that favor power over reach.
The other big concern for Cruz is staying off the mat for five rounds. He hasn’t finished any fights in the WEC, and staving off takedowns for 25 minutes is a grueling exercise that may be beyond the limitations of Cruz’s gas tank, especially considering Bowles will press the pace every chance he gets.
If Cruz does end up on the floor, he’d do well getting upright since Bowles is an underrated grappler with a guillotine choke that he rents out to the local fire department as the jaws of life. The point here is that working a conservative game plan and picking up three-round decisions is one thing, and trying the same in a five-round championship fight is another.
The Bottom Line: Cruz is a tough fight for anyone at bantamweight, and Bowles is hardly the exception. With that said, Cruz is no Pernell Whitaker. He relies more on his reach to frustrate opponents than any real defensive talents. Bowles is eventually going to drag Cruz into the phone booth, and he won’t let him out until everyone is clear on who runs the show at 135 pounds.
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