Torres, Miguel (fighter)

Miguel Torres was born on January 18, 1981 in the city of East Chicago , Indiana , USA . At the age of seven, he began practicing taekwondo , then while studying at a local high school, he was seriously engaged in wrestling . He also mastered boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu , where he was later awarded the black belt ^{[1] [2]} .

Start of a professional career

He made his debut in mixed martial arts at the professional level in March 2000, beating his opponent by technical knockout at the tenth second of the first round. He fought in small American promotions, mainly in Indiana. He went out to the cage relatively often, so, for the first year of his career, he managed to overcome 12 rivals. For all that, the level of his opposition was not very high. Many of the fights held unofficially in nightclubs and bars, so they are not reflected in its statistics ^[3] .

A significant event in his biography was an acquaintance with the outstanding master of BZHZH Carlson Gracie , who noticed in him a great talent and for some time was his coach.

World Extreme Cagefighting

With more than thirty victories in his record, Torres attracted the attention of the large American organization World Extreme Cagefighting and in September 2007 he made his debut safely here, forcing Jeff Bedard to surrender using the “ triangle ”.

Thanks to a series of successful performances won the right to challenge the title of champion in the lightest weight category, which at that time belonged to Chase Bibi . The champion fight between them took place in February 2008, Torres showed a good percussion technique and successfully fought on the ground - in the first round he caught his opponent in the “ guillotine ” and forced him to surrender.

The resulting champion belt was able to defend three times, taking over such fighters as Yoshiro Maeda , Manny Tapia and Takei Mizugaki ^[4] . His impressive series of 17 victories in a row was interrupted only in August 2009 - the next challenger for the belt, Brian Bowles, in the first round of their confrontation sent Torres to a knockout.

Having lost the champion title, Miguel Torres continued to perform in the WEC cage. In 2010, he lost to Joseph Benavides and beat Charlie Valencia ^{[5] [6]} .

When in October 2010, the WEC organization was absorbed by a larger player in the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship , all the strongest fighters from there automatically switched to a contract to the new owner, including Torres ^[7] .

Ultimate Fighting Championship

He made his debut in Octagon UFC in February 2011, having met Antonio Banyelos with the same WEC immigrant - the confrontation between them lasted all the allotted time, in the end the judges gave a unanimous decision to Torres.

In May 2011, a battle was planned with Englishman Brad Pickett , but he was injured and was replaced by future multiple lightweight champion Demetrius Johnson . The fighters went the whole distance in three rounds. At the beginning of the battle, Torres allowed himself to be translated, but then he rose and generally looked more successful in the first round. However, in the second and third segments of the battle, most of the time he was under control from Johnson and lost with a close score of 29–28 ^[8] .

In November 2011, he was noted for a victory over points on Nick Pace , but in December, he had a little conflict with UFC President Dejna White , as a result of which the fighter was fired from the organization. White didn’t like a message posted by Torres citing a joke about rape from the TV series Workaholics . A few weeks later, the conflict was still managed to be settled, and the fighter was returned to the UFC roster ^[9] .

In April 2012, at the UFC tournament in Atlanta, Torres was knocked out by Michael Macdonald , and in this defeat, his collaboration with the organization now finally came to an end ^[10] .

World Series of Fighting

Torres did not long remain a free agent; in September 2012, it became known that he, among several other fighters, signed a contract with the newly established large organization World Series of Fighting ^[11] . In November, at the first WSOF tournament, he was confronted by Brazilian lightest weight avenue Marlon Morais . The Brazilian won this fight with a split decision and then for many years did not know defeat, winning and defending the championship belt.

The next fight in the WSOF cell, which took place in October 2013, was lost by surrendering to the little-known fighter Pablo Alfonso.

Torres is the owner and manager of his own martial arts hall in Griffith, Indiana, where about 300 students are trained.

• Miguel Torres (English) - statistics of professional fights on the site Sherdog