“I thought they called it too early,” said a visibly bruised Tapia during a Sherdog video interview. “I still felt good. I know he rocked me, like, twice — well, I didn’t feel rocked.”

Despite his critical assessment of the stoppage, Tapia was still willing to acknowledge that Torres had inflicted serious damage.

“He got me,” Tapia shrugged in acknowledgment. “They stopped it because I got this little cut right here on corner of my eye. I guess that’s dangerous?”

But Tapia would voice protests over the stoppage again later in the interview.

“People say he’s pound-for-pound the best in the world. So who better to lose to than him?,” Tapia asked rhetorically, before continuing, “I still don’t feel like I lost. They just stopped it. I didn’t lose — they stopped it. I don’t know why.”

During the interview, Tapia indicated that he planned to take some time off following the loss but that he has every intention of returning to the WEC’s bantamweight division.

The victory improved Torres’ documented record to 35-1 and his record under the World Extreme Cagefighting banner to 4-0.

Torres, an Indiana native who once trained under the late Carlson Gracie in Chicago, improved to 2-0 while wearing the WEC’s 135 pound title after rocking Tapia multiple times before forcing the referee to call a stop to the bout at 3:04 of round 2.

The loss marked the first of Tapia’s career, with his record falling to 10-1-1. Considered to be one of the larger bantamweight fighters in the WEC, Tapia was still dwarfed by Torres during the fight’s obligatory pre-fight staredown.

During the tension-filled staredown, neither Torres or Tapia extended a hand to one another and the two avoided the customary “hand slap” that precedes the beginning of the first round in most MMA fights. The angst directed by Torres towards Tapia could be in response to Tapia labeling Torres as “overrated” earlier in the week.

Once the fight commenced, Torres’ reach advantage caused matchup problems for Tapia, who could not engage with Torres without being peppered by a strong left jab. The reach disadvantage prompted Tapia to remain out of Torres’ range for the most. When he did attempt to close the distance, Tapia attempted to land a right cross that never reached its intended destination.

Tapia refrained from trying to change the terms of the fight with an attempt to take Torres off his foot, instead opting to steer clear of the black belt’s renowned submission skills.

Torres’ emegerence from a well-respected regional fighter to nationally known fighter that is now recognized as one of the pound-for-pound best in the sport has created a void in the WEC, which now is lacking an obvious number one contender.

Making a case for a future title shot on the undercard was Brian Bowles of the Hardcore Gym in Atlanta, Georgia. Bowles improved to 7-0 following a third round submission over Will Ribeiro, who had entered the fight with an impressive 10-1 record.

In defeat, Ribeiro made a positive impression in his first major televised bout. A former member of the Brazilian Olympic boxing team, Ribeiro showed dynamic striking ability and a willingess to take risks in an attempt to knock Bowles out.

Despite Ribeiro’s striking prowess, Bowles also showed a willingness to stand and trade while displaying effective combination striking. He was eventually able to finish the native Brazilian with a guillotine submission at 1:11 of round 3.

In addition to wins by Torres and Bowles, the 10-bout card that emanated from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas also featured victories by several newcomers to the WEC roster.

Former IFL featherweight champion Wagnney Fabiano engaged in a war of attrition for position while locked in guard against fellow debuting top ten featherweight Akitoshi Tamura. Tamura spent most of the fight on his back and showed limited offensive ability from the position, yet displayed impressive defensive skills. The Japanese fighter was able to limit the amount of damage inflicted by Fabiano, who had achieved full mount at one point.

Tamura was only able to withstand Fabiano’s smothering for so long, as submitted to a arm triangle choke with just 12 seconds remaining in the fight.

Bantamweight Joseph Benavidez, who was coming off a first round submission over Junya Kudo at DREAM 5 in a bout that was nationally televised in Japan, made his WEC debut a successful one after recording a unanimous decision victory over Danny Martinez.

A protege of former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, Benavidez out-classed the rugged Martinez while improving his record to 9-0.

Lightweight Bart Palaszewski, another former refugee of the IFL, TKO’d Alex Karalexis, a veteran from the first season of Spike TV’s “Ultimate Fighter” reality show, at 1:11 of round 2.

The show also featured the debut of former multi-time NCAA amateur wrestling champion Johny Hendricks, who improved to 4-0 following a second round TKO over Justin Haskins in a welterweight encounter.

Mark Munoz, another former NCAA champion, improved to 5-0 with a first round TKO over Ricardo Barros. The victory marked the light heavyweight’s final fight in the WEC, as the promotion is closing its middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. Munoz’s next fight will come in the UFC’s Octagon.

Cub Swanson also made a triumphant to the WEC after his last fight for the promotion ended when he submitted to Jens Pulver just 35 seconds into their heated bout at WEC 31. Facing highly-regarded Hiroyuki Takaya, Swanson catapulted himself back towards the top of the featherweight division with a unanimous decision victory.

With Urijah Faber having lost his WEC featherweight title to Mike Thomas Brown at WEC 36 in early November, one could make the case that Torres is now the promotion’s top dog. But whether Torres can be a box office draw remains to be seen, as even Faber only managed to draw a 0.5 rating last month.

But Torres won’t have to carry Wednesday’s show alone, as he will be flanked by an impressive undercard that will feature top bantamweight prospects Will Ribeiro and Brian Bowles; world class featherweight newcomers Wagnney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura; and the WEC debut of Urijah Faber protege Joseph Benavidez.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has a complete preview of the four bouts scheduled to make the VERSUS telecast on Wednesday.

Miguel Torres vs. Manny Tapia for Torres’ WEC bantamweight title - Torres, owner of one of the most impressive records in MMA at 34-1, is finally getting a great deal of press and is being positioned as the WEC’s number two star behind former featherweight champion Urijah Faber.

The Chicago native was recently featured on the cover of FIGHT! magazine and the added exposure has caused some to speculate that the attention might be going to his head. However, the reality is that Torres holed himself up for his most recent camp in order to shut out all outside distractions, most notably Jeff Curran’s recent calls to begin to promote a future showdown between the two.

Curran is dropping to bantamweight for his next WEC fight and has aspirations to challenge for the 135 pound title sooner rather than later. However, Torres must get past Tapia first.

Tapia, undefeated at 10-0-1, had been scheduled to challenge Torres for the bantamweight title at WEC 34 on June 1 but had to pull off the show due to injury and was replaced by Yoshiro Maeda. However, Tapia wasn’t heading into the fight with a great deal of momentum following a disappointing showing in his last fight against Antonio Banuelos at WEC 32 this past February.

Tapia was declared the winner via split decision but the outcome caused a great deal of controversy, as Banuelos was originally announced as the winner to the crowd but an error in reading the scorecards was later realized and Tapia was named the winner.

As good as Tapia is, he might be outgunned. At 5’8”, Torres is freakishly tall for the bantamweight division. Torres’ height alone make him tough to gameplan for, but his outstanding groud game and standup skills makes him almost impossible to prepare for.

While he was only just recently promoted to black belt, Torres’ jiu-jitsu has been black belt level for several years now. Tapia is no slouch on the ground, but it’s an area where he doesn’t want to test Torres. The problem is, Torres’ striking has really improved over the course of the last 2 /12 years and standing and trading with him could prove to be a losing proposition for Tapia as well.

If Tapia pushes the fight and stays in Torres’ face for five rounds, perhaps we could see an upset. But I don’t see that being the case and I see Torres being able to finish Tapia in the third round via TKO.

Brian Bowles vs. Will Ribeiro - Brian Bowles and Will Ribeiro are prime examples of why the WEC is doing away with its light heavyweight and middleweight divisions. In events prior, there likely would have not been enough room to get this fight on the air, which would have been a crime because it has the potential to contend for “Fight of the Night” honors. Furthermore, it’s paramount that the WEC begin to build fighters such as Bowles and Ribeiro up more because the winner of this fight could be challenging for the bantamweight title in short order.

Training out of former UFC fighter Rory Singer’s Hardcore Gym in Atlanta, Bowles is an impressive prospect with a 6-0 record. In three fights under the WEC banner, Bowles has won all three in two rounds or less.

Making his WEC debut against Charlie Valencia at WEC 28 in June of 2007, Bowles submitted the hard nosed veteran with a rear naked choke at 2:50 of round 2. He returned in December of the same year, knocking out Marco Galvao at 2:09 of round 2 during the undercard of the same show that featured Urijah Faber defending his title against Jeff Curran.

However, it was Bowles’ win first round submission over the Greg Jackson-trained Damacio Page at WEC 35 this past August that finally garnered him some press. That being said, Bowles is still vastly underrated and is in dire need of the television exposure that Wednesday’s show will provide.

But Ribeiro is in the same boat, because despite an impressive 10-1 record, only the hardest of hardcores know about him. The native Brazilian earned a spot in the WEC following a first round knockout over Andre Lobo during a Shooto event in Brazil.

The win over Lobo was then proceded by his WEC debut at WEC 34 this past June against former WEC bantamweight champion Chase Beebe. Beebe, who represented Ribeiro’s toughest competition to date, would go on to lose via unanimous decision in a mild upset.

Despite his strong record, there are still questions about whether Ribeiro is truly ready to contend for the WEC 135 pound title. Most of his early wins were built up against inferior competition and his only victories over quality competition were against Beebe and William Vianna.

Beebe might be more experienced than Bowles, but Bowles still represents the greatest challenge of Ribeiro’s career. The uncertainty over Ribeiro’s degree of readiness for the spotlight makes the pick of Bowles via unanimous decision an easy one.

Wagnney Fabiano vs. Akitoshi Tamura - The WEC continues to expand its roster of talent and this bout will feature not just one, but two, top ten-caliber featherweight newcomers.

Leonard Garcia is expected to get the first crack at Mike Thomas Brown’s featherweight title but the winner of this fight could move themselves into a position where they are one to two wins away from from a shot at the 145 pound belt.

Fabiano is a former IFL featherweight champion who originally began competing for the promotion as a lightweight. The native Brazilian performed quite well as a lightweight, compiling a 4-0 record before moving down in weight. However, once he made the move, Fabiano began to earn recognition as a world class fighter.

Known for his tremendous submission game, Fabiano is an underrated wrestler. His slick jiu-jitsu coupled with his ability to control position makes him a very dangerous fighter. Making him even more lethal is are his improving standup skills. In his first IFL featherweight title defense this past April at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., Fabiano needed just one punch to knock out Shad Lierley 37 seconds in their fight.

Fabiano was favored but the quick finish was still surprising because while competing at 155 the year prior, Lierley took Chris Horodecki the distance in what will go down as one of the greatest fighters in IFL history. Already considered a top ten featherweight in most major polls, Fabiano will be a consensus top five pick if his standup continues to evolve.

Tamura is a veteran of Shooto, a Japan-based promotion that essentially the Far East equivilient to the WEC in that it features lighter weight fighters. At 12-6-2, Tamura’s record may not be the overly impressive but he’s ranked as a top ten featherweight because he’s surged over the course of the past two years.

In his last six fights, Tamura is 5-1 with his only loss coming via split decision to Hideki Kadowaki, another highly-ranked featherweight. His most recent victory was on May 3 against Rumina Sato, a lighterweight pioneer who might have been a little before his time. The year prior, Tamura avenged a previous loss to Takeshi Inoue, another fighter considered to be one of the best in the world at 145.

Tamura will be able to hang with Fabiano on the ground and may even be more versatile when it comes to the standup, however, the concern here is that Tamura is not a finisher. If it the fight goes the distance, which I believe it will, Fabiano will hold the advantage.

Joseph Benavidez vs. Danny Martinez - Benavidez is a top bantamweight prospect who will be making his WEC debut. He’s been flying under the radar for quite some time now but garnered some press after submitting Junya Kudo with a guillotine choke at DREAM 5 this past July.

Benavidez was originally scheduled to face Kid Yamamoto in that matchup, with DREAM promoters looking to capitalize on Benavidez’s affiliation with former WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber. Benavidez trains out of Faber’s “Ultimate Fitness” gym in Sacramento and the idea was to play up a future dream match between Faber and Yamamoto.

Much like Faber, Benavidez is a good wrestler with a slick submission game. Undefeated at 8-0, he’s a tremendous addition for the WEC’s bantamweight division and is future championship material. However, he’s not being given a tomato can in his debut.

Martinez is 12-2 and trains out of Southwest MMA in Tempe, Arizona. Thus far, Martinez has made his bones on the Arizona regional scene competing for promotions such as Rage in the Cage and Total Combat.

TKO promoter Stephane Patry brought Martinez out to lose to Mark “The Machine” Hominick at TKO 31 in Decemember of 2007. Despite fighting a class up in weight, Martinez hung tough and took Hominick the distance, losing a unanimous decision.

Seeing Martinez win here wouldn’t be a surprise, as he might be better as far as standup. However, Benavidez has an advantage on the ground and I believe he’ll end up winning a unanimous decision.

Dustin Hazelett was awarded Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night bonuses for his performance Saturday night. This bout was on the undercard so many UFC fans didn’t get to see it. UFC.com has pushed this fight video to its video player for viewers to watch for free (they usually charge $1.99 for fight video).

WATCH Hazelett vs. Burkman fight video.

Check out more TUF 7 Finale content on FiveOuncesofPain.com

Hazelett, a member of Team Jorge Gurgel in Ohio, fought Josh Burkman during the non-televised portion of the fight card. Despite giving up noticeable strength to Burkman, Hazelett still walked away the victor after executing an armbar following a whizzer.

The beautiful sequence earned Hazelett a bonus for “Submission of the Night,” which will be paid to him on top of his guarantee and win bonus. However, Hazelett was awarded a second bonus when both he and Burkman were awarded”Fight of the Night” honors.

The value of each bonus for the event is $20,000, meaning that Hazelett will receive a total of $40,000 in bonus money.

Drew McFedries was also awarded a bonus for the “Knockout of the Night,” following his lopsided first round TKO over veteran Marvin Eastman.

News and Views:

– A source has revealed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is likely to defend his interim UFC heavyweight title against Frank Mir during the UFC’s year end event on December 29.

– Conspicuous by its absence from the card was an advertised undercard matchup between Tim Credeur and Cale Yabrough. The UFC did not make an official announcement that the bout had been canceled. However, Five Ounces of Pain learned from a source speaking on the condition of anonymity that the bout was pulled from the show because Credeur failed a drug test. The source indicated that Credeur tested positive for Adderall. While we were not able to contact Credeur for comment, the source indicated that the drug is prescribed to Credeur to help counteract the effects of Attention Deficit Disorder.

– There was a rumor making the rounds at the Palms Hotel & Casino that former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz had re-signed with the company. When contacted by Five Ounces of Pain via text message, Ortiz indicated that the rumor was false.

Speaking of Ortiz, as he had stated on the Underground forum, he was indeed in attendance during the TUF 7 Finale. However, there was no confrontation of any kind between he and UFC President Dana White.

– No one can dispute that Hazelett vs. Burkman was a great fight, however, my vote would go to the undercard welterweight matchup between Matt Brown and Matt Arroyo. Saturday’s bout was actually a rematch between the two, as they had fought each other once outside of the UFC in 2006. Brown was victorious in the first encounter and won last night’s bout as well. However, it didn’t look like he was going to come away a winner initially. Arroyo got out to a fast start and stunned Brown. Showing improved standup since his last UFC appearance, the Gracie Tampa product was able to bruise Brown’s face in several places.

The outcome of the fight could have proved differently had Arroyo not injured his ankle in the first round. Brian Bereck sponsored Arroyo through his company The Abacus Group and also cornered him as well and according to him, Arroyo was taken to the hospital following his fight. His ankle was so swollen that there was concern it might be fractured. Arroyo had not gotten his test results back as we went to press.

Arroyo and Brown were very verbal during their fight. During the fight’s finish in the second round, Arroyo was on his back while Brown was reigning down punches on him. According to Arroyo’s corner, he kept challenging Brown to drop down in order to test his jiu-jitsu. Brown obviously declined and finished the fight via strikes. Arroyo’s corner indicated that Brown’s posture during the closing sequence was superb and made it difficult for Arroyo to escape.

– Many people, including the fighters themselves, had speculated that the loser of Saturday’s main event between Kendall Grove and Evan Tanner would be released by the UFC. However, the UFC itself has never made such a proclamation. And while Tanner did not look like the fighter he’s been in the past, he still went the distance and showed amazing toughness. Nobody can say for sure, but I consider it highly unlikely that the promotion will drop him at this point.

– According to a public relations official from the UFC, the TUF 7 Finale was a sellout.

– The TUF 7 finale was the first event I have ever seen at the Pearl at the Palms. I must say, that it is without question the best venue I’ve ever seen an MMA show in.

– Matt Riddle now trains with Todd and Trevor Lally of Arizona Combat Sports, which is also home to C.B. Dalloway. The 22-year old still looked somewhat green, but showed marked improvement. Also showing tremendous signs of improvement were Hazelett, Arroyo’s standup, and Diego Sanchez’s standup. In regards to Diaz, it was the longest duration in which we’ve seen him fight on his feet.

– Phil Baroni was in attendance at the event and has stated publicly that his next fight will be at welterweight. Baroni looked extremely slim and it doesn’t appear as though cutting down to the 170 pound weight limit will be too much of a problem for him.

– It’s a shame the undercard wasn’t televised, because it was outstanding. There wasn’t a bad fight on it.

This adds to what is already a stacked card and the result is bad news for Josh Koscheck and Dustin Hazelett. The fight between the two welterweights will occur prior to the live telecast and will only appear on the pay-per-view if time allows.

Former UFC middleweight champion, Tanner last fought in 2006 when he defeated Justin Levens at UFC 59. He then dropped out of fighting despite numerous rumors of his return. He has had a string of bad luck, including the sinking of his boat, much of which he has attributed to his problems with alcohol.

Okami holds a 21-4 record, including five wins and one loss in the UFC. He has recently defeated Jason MacDonald and Mike Swick. His single loss in the UFC has come at the hands of former champion, Rich Franklin.

The rest of the card officially includes:

• Anderson Silva vs Dan Henderson for Silva’s middleweight title.
• Heath Herring vs Cheick Kongo

Read more Evan Tanner, Josh Koscheck, and UFC 82 content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

MAIN CARD
• Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson (for the UFC Middleweight Title)
• Heath Herring vs. Cheick Kongo
• Alessio Sakara vs. Chris Leben
• Yushin Okami vs. Evan Tanner
• Chris Wilson vs. Jon Fitch

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Jake O’Brien vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Luigi Fioravanti vs. Luke Cummo
• Dustin Hazelett vs. Josh Koscheck
• John Halverson vs. Jorge Gurgel
• David Bielkheden vs. Diego Sanchez

Check out all UFC 82 content here on FiveOuncesOfPain.com

– UFCjunkie.com is citing a report in the Biloxi Sun-Herald middleweight Alan Belcher has signed a new four fight contract with the UFC. His next fight is scheduled for UFC 77 in Cincinnati on Oct. 20 against Kalib Starnes. If Belcher can string together a few more victories then you never know what might happen in the wide open UFC middleweight division.

– According to The Fight Network, Dustin Hazelett has been offered a chance to fight Jonathan Goulet at UFC Fight Night 11 on Sept. 19 as the injury replacement for Mike Swick.

– Ryan from FightLinker.com is reporting that according to Jorge Oliviera, Evan Tanner could end up fighting Dean Lister at UFC 79. Right now UFC 79 is looking like it will be taking place on Dec. 29 at either the MGM or Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (although, one would hope the UFC would try and book the Thomas & Mack if Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva ends up being signed). According to Ryan, Oliviera is a training parter of Tanner’s. I enjoy Ryan’s site and I’m not questioning him on his info, but I won’t believe that Tanner is coming back to the UFC until I actually see him enter the Octagon again.

– My recently conducted interview with UFC president Dana White could be appearing on CBSSports.com sometime today. I’ll post an update here when it goes live.