(Props: YouTube.com/WEC)

This Saturday’s WEC 47 card presents a bantamweight title fight between two guys who have more similarities than differences. Champion Brian Bowles and challenger Dominick Cruz both came from underprivileged backgrounds, but put their lives on an upward trajectory thanks to athletic competition, specifically wrestling. Both are undefeated at 135 pounds, and have dominated their opponents with a relentless, well-rounded attack. Cruz says this matchup is one of "power vs. speed," but both competitors bring plenty of each. The only real difference is their finishing percentage. While Bowles has stopped all eight of his professional fights, Cruz has gone the distance on his last four (scoring unanimous nods on all of them).

Bowles’s shock upset of Miguel Torres last August reminded us of another changing-of-the-guard in the WEC: Mike Brown’s dethroning of Urijah Faber in 2008. In both cases, the challengers used solid fundamentals and raw power to overcome flashier, risk-taking champions. But as Mike Brown himself learned, it isn’t easy to hang on to the belt when there’s always another younger, hungrier challenger coming up behind you. Could this be the year that Dominick Cruz breaks out?

After the jump: Junior Dos Santos discusses his 3/21 matchup with Gabriel Gonzaga, and promises that you’ll see his jiu-jitsu skills one of these days.

(Bowles didn’t just shock the world — he threw a toaster into the tub while the world was trying to relax in it with a glass of red wine and the latest Nora Roberts novel.)

After scoring one of the biggest upsets of the year in August — knocking out the seemingly-indestructible Miguel Torres in the first round of their bantamweight title fight at WEC 42 — Brian Bowles is ready to defend his crown. The WEC announced yesterday that Bowles (8-0) will next compete at WEC 47, which is slated for March 6th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. His opponent will be 15-1 contender Dominick Cruz, who has won his last four WEC fights by decision, and whose only career loss came in a featherweight bout against Urijah Faber back in March 2007. Cruz most recently won a unanimous decision over much-hyped up-and-comer Joseph Benavidez at WEC 42, earning the event’s Fight of the Night award.

Miguel Torres is also slated to compete on the card against a yet-unnamed opponent. And even though he basically retired in June, Jens Pulver will be fighting at the Columbus event as well. WEC 47 — which will take place during the weekend of the annual Arnold Sports Festival — will mark the organization’s first show in Ohio.

Semi-related: No matter how his fight against Ed Ratcliff turns out this Saturday at WEC 45, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone plans to drop to featherweight for his next fight.

(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.”