Miguel Torres vs. Manny Tapia Odds
The main event of the evening sees WEC Bantamweight Champion Miguel Torres defend his crown against #1 contender Manny Tapia (-700 / 400 odds ) in a fight that will determine not only the WEC Championship, but the title of world’s #1 Bantamweight. The fight is guaranteed to be a barn burner, as both guys are well known for putting on exciting shows, not to mention that it is an interesting stylistic matchup.
Manny Tapia, known as “The Mangler”, came by his nickname honestly. Well known for going toe to toe with his opponents and blasting them out with dynamic punches, Tapia is the kind of fighter fans love to watch perform. His gameplan going into this fight with Torres will be identical to his gameplan in every fight: bring the pain to his opponent, square off, and let leather fly with reckless abandon. If he can lure Torres into standing and trading shots, Tapia’s chances of securing a victory are very high.
For his part, Torres will most likely be looking to avoid exactly those kinds of exchanges. While his Muay Thai is powerful and precise, it would not benefit him to stand and trade with a puncher of Tapia’s caliber. Instead, I would expect the champion to do everything in his power to get the fight to the ground, where he is the vastly superior fighter. As his current 15 fight win streak proves, Torres is an expert at playing to his strengths and exploiting the holes in his opponents’ games. While he will no doubt take some punishment, I think Torres should be able to effectively close the distance and eventually secure a takedown, at which point it is only a matter of time before his superior grappling pays dividends.
Torres takes this one with a hard-fought submission victory late in the third round.
