Miguel Torres welcomes WEC rematch with Yoshiro Maeda
Days after successfully defending his WEC bantamweight title for the first time, Miguel Torres (34-1) can't wait to step back in the cage for another war with the man he defeated Sunday night, Yoshiro Maeda (23-5-2)
Torres reflected on the bout while a guest on Tuesday's edition of TAGG Radio (
www.taggradio.com), a content partner of MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com).
"He's a guy that I would love to fight again," Torres said about Maeda. "We're going to have to fight again, for the fans' and for our sakes. He didn't want the fight to stop. He's a warrior, and he wanted to keep going. He just couldn't see out of his eye. We'll for sure have to do it again in the future."
While the Urijah Faber-Jens Pulver main event received the bulk of the promotion and attention heading into WEC 34, Torres and Maeda put on an exciting back-and-forth battle that some are saying deserves to be considered among the best of the year. Torres eventually earned the victory when Maeda's battered and swollen right eye forced the cage-side doctor to put a halt to the action at the conclusion of the third round.
Torres explained that, though the fight did not go as expected, the Indiana native was pleased with the outcome.
"The fight didn't go the way I planned it," Torres said. "I knew it was going to be a war. I wanted it to be a little bit more cleaner fight than that, but my emotions got the better of me. [Maeda] cut me real early in the fight, and I just kind of went crazy after that, man. My whole game plan went out the window until the third round. It was an exciting fight, just a little sloppy in the beginning. But the fans really liked it, and I was happy to be able to defend my belt in such a style like that."
The 27-year-old said the blood that trickled down his face in the first round stirred his emotions, and it caused Torres to move forward with near-reckless abandon.
"That logo in the center (of the cage) was real slippery," Torres said. "I threw that first kick, and when he caught it, I slipped. And I think he clipped me with a punch. It wasn't a full blow, but it was a glancing one, and he cut me right open. No one's ever made me bleed my own blood like that, so I kind of went crazy."
As the fight continued Torres was able to regain his composure and begin to execute his initial strategy.
"I calmed down; I got my rhythm going," Torres said. "[Maeda] was a little tricky, dropping his hands. I knew he likes to drop his hands to get guys to come in, and he would catch them with a big knee or a big kick. So I caught that whole tricky game of his."
Torres, who used his long reach and quick jab to frustrate his opponent, said he made the decision to engage Maeda in a stand-up battle after hearing that some fans felt the challenger would be able to earn a knockout victory.
"I had a couple buddies that are always on [the online forums], and they were telling me about [those fans' predictions]," Torres said. "[My friends] said, 'Dude, they're saying this guy's going to knock you out.' I was like 'There' no way he's going to knock me out. ... I wasn't pissed, but I was a little hurt with that. I was like, 'Dude, I've got pretty good stand-up.' That was another thing in the back of my head why I stood up with him, too, because I wanted to shut a couple of people up."
With another victory in the books, his 15th in a row, Torres now believes the WEC will try again to put together a match-up with undefeated challenger Manny Tapia. Afterward, Torres hopes to face Maeda again. Regardless of the opponent, the bantamweight champion knows he must be ready to perform at the highest level at all times.
"Every guy that I fight from now on is going to give me that fight the way Maeda did," Torres said. "He's going to bring 100 percent of his game. He's going to train to beat me. He's not jut going to show up, and it's going to be a fight. It's going to be a world title fight every time."
