(Props to smoogy; Tapia somehow felt this was an early-stoppage.)

Due to the lengthy main card fights and care-free pacing of last night’s WEC show — yes, we get it, there’s going to be another Punisher movie, and Urijah Faber has no fear — we didn’t get to see any undercard scraps. Which is unfortunate, since two of them were worthy enough to produce end-of-night bonuses. First, the full results:

MAIN CARD
Miguel Torres def. Manny Tapia via TKO, 3:04 of round 2
Wagnney Fabiano def. Akitoshi Tamura via submission (arm triangle), 4:48 of round 3
Brian Bowles def. Will Ribeiro via submission (guillotine choke), 1:11 of round 3
Joseph Benavidez def. Danny Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)

UNDERCARD
Johny Hendricks def. Justin Haskins via TKO, 4:07 of round 2
Mark Munoz def. Ricardo Barros via TKO, 2:26 of round 1
Diego Nunes def. Cole Province via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bart Palaszewski def. Alex Karalexis via TKO, 3:49 of round 2
Cub Swanson def. Hiroyuki Takaya via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Shane Roller def. Mike Budnik via submission (guillotine choke), 1:01 of round 1

$7,500 bonuses were handed out to the following fighters:

— Featherweights Cub Swanson and Hiroyuki Takaya for their three-round throwdown that stood out as the Fight of the Night.
— IFL vet Bart Palazewski for knocking out TUF 1 alum Alex Karalexis.
— Brian Bowles for his guillotine choke over Will Ribeiro.

Spend it wisely, men. A few morning-after thoughts on the event past the jump…


As if I wasn’t disappointed enough after WEC 36, I’m even more upset now that Urijah Faber lost his title to Mike Brown. If Faber was still the featherweight champion today, a Torres/Faber superfight would be a no-brainer to headline the WEC’s first pay-per-view show. I think that fight still needs to happen at some point, though the lack of a "champion vs. champion" hook hurts it from a marketing standpoint. That being said, Brian Bowles definitely earned his shot at the bantamweight belt last night. Hopefully Will Ribeiro learned a lesson about shooting in on guys whose chokes are that good.

Joseph Benavidez should just go ahead and change his nickname to "Baby Faber." Great wrestling + wild, unpredictable striking = scary dude with tremendous potential. Danny Martinez was never in that fight.
I expected more fireworks from the Fabiano/Tamura match, but blame for the positional stalemates on the ground should be placed on Tamura, not Fabiano. Tamura’s strategy seemed to be entirely defensive. His "lockdown" technique on Fabiano’s legs may have stopped his opponent from ending the fight sooner, but not once did he threaten Fabiano with anything offensive. It’s a shame that Fabiano might be judged as a boring fighter by people seeing him for the first time. He should be the one taking on Urijah Faber next, not Jens Pulver for a second time. (Don’t get me started on Faber/Pulver II. It’s a needless rematch with too much downside for both guys.)

Miguel Torres is a straight-up killer, dog. There’s not much else you can say. The only way his domination of Manny Tapia could have been more complete is if he landed that Harold Howard kick and knocked Tapia out. "Totally fucking epic" would be an understatement if that happened…