COLUMBUS, Ohio – Early in the week, Dominick Cruz’s camp used the analogy of a matador and a bull to describe the game plan as Cruz went after Brian Bowles and the World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight championship.

But what if the bull broke a horn on its first charge? Bowles broke his right hand on the first punch he threw Saturday night, and Cruz’s speed, pace and elusiveness kept Bowles from having any meaningful offense in the first two rounds of the fight. When Bowles didn’t come out for the third round at Nationwide Arena, the 24-year-old Cruz captured the title via TKO.

Cruz (15-1), whose only career loss came as a 21-year-old challenging Urijah Faber for the WEC featherweight title, frustrated Bowles (8-1) throughout the fight with his movement. The hard-hitting Bowles missed badly on big punches and was picked apart for most of the fight.

Bowles was shaking his right hand through much of the second round and still throwing with it, but he could never connect solidly.

“I was surprised it was in the second round,” said Cruz, whose pace seemed to tire Bowles in the fight’s latter stages. “I thought it would end in the third or fourth round. I had him on the defensive. You could see it in his face. I felt it and was going for the kill.” Cruz’s arsenal of punches and kicks bloodied Bowles’ nose late in the first round. Bowles continued to throw with his injured hand but eventually abandoned the plan and went for takedowns, though Cruz avoided all of them.

“I picked up the pace [in the second round] because my corner told me to,” said Cruz, who grew up in Tucson, Ariz., but now fights out of San Diego. “I try to be like a video-game character and do exactly what they tell me to do. They prepare me for war. If I’d have broken my leg, broken my hand, broken my hip, I was going to keep fighting. You’re going to see me get better and better.”

Bowles was flat-footed by late in the second round but continued to throw hard, yet never landing the needed big bomb.

The crowd of 8,345, the company’s largest for a show not headlined by Faber, was stunned at the end of the long evening when Bowles, who had broken his right hand twice in the previous year, didn’t come out for the third round.

Bowles had also broken his hand in his last fight, when he won the title Aug. 9 in Las Vegas over Miguel Torres. Bowles was taken to the hospital after the fight with Cruz to check on his hand.

The crowd was quiet through most of the main event, perhaps emotionally spent after veteran Jens Pulver lost to Javier Vazquez earlier in the night. After that fight, Pulver gave tearful post-match interview.

Pulver strongly hinted that it may be the end of his career, without outright saying it. The first UFC lightweight champion, Pulver is considered the pioneer of the smaller fighters in the U.S. He broke down in the interview, talking about what the sport had meant to him. His breakdown led to an emotional response from much of the audience.

Going into Saturday night, odds were strong for a rematch between Bowles (8-1), ranked No. 7 on the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings, and the former champion Torres (36-3), ranked No. 9 in the same poll. The pair may very well meet again, but rather than a title fight, both will be on the rebound.

In Saturday’s other semifinal, Torres was submitted for the first time in his career due to a guillotine by Joseph Benavidez (12-1) at 2:57 of the second round.

Benavidez was able to mostly negate Torres’ 5-inch height advantage by getting inside. In the first round, he momentarily dropped Torres and also scored a takedown to win the round.

Torres finally got his rhythm going in the second round, establishing a jab to keep Benavidez off balance until Benavidez ducked a punch and exploded with a takedown. Benavidez said he believed an elbow to the forehead caused a deep cut on Torres, turning the fight into a bloodbath.

During the scramble, Benavidez clamped on a guillotine. It surprised both Torres, whose ground game is considered at the top of the division, and the pro-Torres crowd. The submission earned Benavidez a $10,000 bonus for the best submission on a show filled with impressive finishes.

“No, it wasn’t a surprise he tapped because I had the guillotine tight,” said Benavidez. “I think most fighters would have tapped to it. But it was a surprise when I saw the opening was there.”

Saturday night’s two surprise wins broke the 135-pound weight class wide open. Cruz had earned his title shot after beating Benavidez on Aug. 9, so even though Benavidez knocked off the former champion, he may not be getting the next title shot.

“I’d love to get a shot to avenge my only loss,” said Benavidez. “It was a great fight.”

“I’ll fight whoever they ask,” said Cruz. “I’m down to fight him again. I don’t pick my fights.”

WEC matchmaker Sean Shelby listed a number of potential opponents for Cruz’s first title defense, including Benavidez, Damacio Page (12-4 with two straight wins in a combined time of 80 seconds), Charlie Valencia (12-5 with three straight wins), Antonio Banuelos (17-5 with three straight wins), Scott Jorgensen (9-3, who finished Chad George earlier Saturday in 31 seconds) and Frank Gomez (8-1).

He said Page may be the frontrunner at the moment, but no decision will be made until after April 24, when Page faces Baneulos on the company’s first pay-per-view show from Sacramento, Calif.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=d ... &type=lgns

A Crux v Benevidex rematch would be sweet.

Still feel sorry for Torres though - with that much blood pouring into your eyes, the fact that you cant see, even if just for a moment is enough to not anticipate what your oppenent is doing, and bam.....tap tap....

ya would like to see that rematch and bowles torres same card would be sweet, even if he didnt tapp woulda been stopped as soon as ref got a good look at that cut. Torres will be back maybe this will be good for his career needs to focus more