SAN JOSE, Calif. - Urijah Faber was tired of hearing he didn't deserve an immediate rematch against Dominick Cruz for his UFC bantamweight title, so he took matters into his own hands and laid some lumber on Brian Bowles.
Faber crushed Bowles with an uppercut in the second. The Georgia native was stunned and eventually found himself on his back after Faber nailed him with a knee in close quarters. Faber went into overdrive on the ground. Bowles couldn't fend him off. Faber eventually got control of Bowles' head and locked him on a mean guillotine choke to get the submission victory at 1:27 of the second round at UFC 139 in the HP Pavilion.
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Just seconds after the fight was finished, Faber (26-5, 2-1 UFC) immediately turned his attention to his nemesis Cruz.
"Dominick, you can run but you can't hide. Throw some gel in that widow's peak and let's do some work. Let's battle," Faber said.
Faber and Cruz brawled for five hard rounds at UFC 132. Cruz won via unanimous decision, but Faber believes the judges blew it. Before Saturday's fight, he admitted he needs to play to the judges more to get a win against Cruz, who is a whirling dervish that wins over MMA judges with his high-volume style.
Tonight, Faber showed some stones trading shots with the heavy-handed Bowles throughout the first. Bowles' lone path to victory was probably landing a big right hand. Faber's movement, fakes and speed threw Bowles off. He wasn't aggressive.
In the second, Faber took advantage of a very flat-footed Bowles. The 5-foot-6 Faber covered roughly five feet of space in a split second and landed the huge uppercut.
"I feel really good man. I feel great. I came out looking for the win and get a big finish like that. I think Brian Bowles is a warrior. I like that guy a lot. I had a general game plan going out there but I had to be ready. I'm sad for him but I'm really stoked for me right now," Faber said.
Bowles simply couldn't recover from the bomb landed by Faber.
"It was a tough fight, there isn't really much I can say about it. I went out there and I just really never got in my groove. Took a big punch, got rocked. He gave me a couple pounds on the ground and I didn't recover. I was rattled when he got the choke and I just never got back," Bowles said.
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