Yoshiro Maeda vs. Miguel Torres is up next and this should be a good fight. Maeda with an *impressive* choice for ring entrance music, using “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys. Miguel Torres follows to a traditional mariachi song, which is perfectly acceptable due to the lengthy pedigree of *badass* Mexican fighters who’ve done likewise. It’s hilarious how completely the ring announcer is copying Michael Buffer. Of course if you’re going to copy someone might as well copy the best in the business. He even used the ’someone’s ‘oh’ has got to go’ catch phrase earlier in the evening. Herb Dean is your ref for this one…

ROUND 1:

Fighters circle each other to start, Torres tried for a kick. Maeda grabs his foot and his opponent slips. Torres with a knee, he slips on a straight right hand. Go practice some boxing guys–you can learn to throw punches and stay on balance. Maeda has a weird style that is apparently giving Torres some trouble. Torres with an armbar that has Maeda in trouble for a moment, but the Japanese fighter extricates himself nicely. Hard to call the action not because its boring but because its just a nonstop melange of punches and kicks. Takedown by Torres back to standup, fighters exchange knees and kicks. Torres pulls guard. Torres is a freak–he’s using back heel kicks. He misses with a kneebar attempt and we’re back to standup. Just a ton of action with so much going on that its tough to catch it all. Pace slows a little bit as they size each other up. Torres throws a punch that’s blocked and then a bodykick. Close round, but Torres gets it 10-9.

ROUND 2:

Maeda throws a spinning back fist and Torres drops under it but it almost looked like a knockdown. Big punch sends Torres down, Maeda throwing wicked kicks to the leg but Torres catches Maeda with a nasty up kick. Just a must see fight–not classic form but they’re fighting like the proverbial crazed weasels, which is the highest praise I can give to a fighter. Fans start to boo, and if they’ll boo this fight they’ll boo anything. Torres hurting Maeda with knees against the cage. Madea pulls a takedown and goes for a heel hook a la Josh Barnett. Torres counters with a heel hook/toe hold and kicking each other with their free legs. Insane. Torres tries to take Maeda’s back, Maeda counters with a reverse elbow. Torres with a triangle attempt but misses the arm. Bloodthirsty fans *finally* cheer for what may be a fight of the year in the making. Torres tries for a guillotine but moves to a full mount. Torres taking Madea’s back trying for a rear naked choke. Round ends and this will go on a short list of the best rounds in MMA history. Torres wins with his several choke attempts at the end. 10-9 Torres, 20-18 for the fight.

ROUND 3:

Fighters size each other up in the center of the ring with a few tentative punches thrown. Knee by Torres. No matter who wins or loses I’ll gladly pay to see either of these guys fight anywhere anytime. Nice straight left by Maeda. Pace slowing a little bit which will no doubt bring out the boos–these bloodthirsty meth addicts just saw a ‘best round ever’ candiate and they’re not happy. Fighters exchange hard combinations of punches. Maeda looks to be getting the worst of it for now. Maeda fakes a back kick. Torres misses with the knee–big mouse over around and through it appears Maeda’s eye but of course he keeps walking right in to the punches and retaliating with his own combinations. Torres misses with a big kick, then follows up with a combination. Maeda looks to be more fatigued and Torres superior striking taking over. Out of nowhere Maeda gets Torres to the ground and lands some big punches. Madea on top but not doing anything with it. Maeda’s right eye looks worse than James Thompson’s ear did last night. It may be stopped soon as Maeda ate a punch to the eye and you can tell it hurt him. Round drawing to a close but not sure how much longer Maeda can continue with that eye–might be stopped between rounds as he’s noticeably wincing every time it gets hit and for a tough SOB like Maeda to do that it must be a mess. Torres wins the round 10-9, 30-27 he leads the fight.

Just as predicted Herb Dean examined the eye and stopped the fight. Maeda may have the nastiest eye you’ll ever see. Fighters raise each others arms and parade around the ring together–just an amazing fight. Finally, the fans show some brains as they give the two men a round of applause. Hopefully a rematch is in the offing…

MIGUEL TORRES WINS BY TKO (REF STOPPAGE)

Add that to the list of serious contenders for ‘fight of the year’. Torres gives a gracious postfight interview and if the WEC doesn’t put together a rematch between these two fighters they’re insane. Torres comes off like a real nice guy and general class act. If you didn’t watch this fight live make sure to check the Versus website for a replay as this is as good of a fight as you’ll ever see.