(Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Nothing lasts forever — even cold November rain, and the seemingly untouchable bantamweight championship run of Miguel Torres. No, Torres did not ruin Brian Bowles’s boyish face at last night’s WEC 42, as many (everybody?) assumed he would. Instead, Bowles nearly knocked the former champ’s mullet off during a violent belt-taking that was reminiscent of Brown vs. Faber 1.

Torres was in trouble from the beginning of the match, as Bowles sent him to the canvas with a heavy right hand. After Bowles dropped some elbows from the top, Torres was able to kick Bowles off of him. Moments later, Torres launched forward with a barrage of punches that had Bowles on his heels, but Bowles fired off a sharp right hook that dropped Torres again, and started throwing down bombs until Torres was in dreamland. Brian Bowles — who picked up a $10,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for his shocking of the world — is the new WEC bantamweight champ. “No excuses,” Torres said after the fight. “Brian is going to be a good champion, but he’ll see that the responsibilities that go along with being the champion are not easy.”


Bowles/Torres wasn’t the only upset at the event. Dominick Cruz overcame heavy favorite Joseph Benavidez in a bantamweight match, using his frantic pace and aggressive wrestling to score a unanimous decision win. The thrilling three-rounder scored both men $10,000 Fight of the Night checks; Cruz will most likely get the first shot at Brian Bowles’s title.

In other action, Rani Yahya earned his third-consecutive WEC victory as well as the event’s Submission of the Night bonus by choking out John Hosman in the first round of their fight. Leonard Garcia used his striking to squeak out a split-decision victory over Jameel Massouh, despite being caught in a d’arce choke attempt in the second round that nearly put him to sleep. And the L.C. Davis/Javier Vazquez featherweight bout that was moved over from Affliction: Trilogy ended in a controversial split decision victory for Davis, after Vazquez controlled the majority of the fight with his standup. Full results are below…

MAIN CARD
– Brian Bowles def. Miguel Torres via KO, 3:57 of round 1
– Dominick Cruz def. Joseph Benavidez via unanimous decision
– Danny Castillo def. Ricardo Lamas via TKO, 4:15 of round 2.
– Takeya Mizugaki def. Jeff Curran via split decision
– Leonard Garcia def. Jameel Massouh via split decision

PRELIMINARY CARD
– Cole Province def. Fredson Paixao via unanimous decision
– Shane Roller def. Marcus Hicks via unanimous decision
– Ed Ratcliff def. Phil Cardella via unanimous decision
– Rani Yahya def. John Hosman via submission (north-south choke), 2:08 of round 1.
– Diego Nunes def. Rafael Dias via unanimous decision
– L.C. Davis def. Javier Vazquez via split decision

CLARIFICATION: Frank Mir is not really on suicide watch; it was just a joke, geniuses. Although he did score the first round 10-9 for Torres…