The “UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampman” event will take place this Thursday, March 3, from Louisville, Kentucky.
The first fight to air on the Versus channel will be a bantamweight match-up between former WEC champion Brian Bowles and Damacio ” The Angle of Death” Page.
These two fighters have history in that they fought one another back at WEC 35, with Bowles submitting Page with a guillotine choke in the second round.
Bowles went on to eventually win the WEC bantamweight strap before losing to current champion Dominick Cruz at WEC 47.
That’s the last time we saw Bowles in action as he’s had to recover from a couple of injuries since then.
Bowles comes into this fight with a career record of 8-1 with five wins via submission and three wins via TKO/KO. That’s a 100% finishing rate in his victories ladies and gentlemen.
Bowles was the first bantamweight to make Miguel Torres seem human as he dispatched him in the very first round. Bowles has good power in his hands, solid wrestling, and is versed in submissions.
Page comes into this fight off a loss in his last WEC fight against Demetrious Johnson. Page has a career record of 12-5 with six wins via TKO/KO and five wins via submission. Page is a scrapper and as tough as they come, holding notable wins over Scott Jorgensen and Marcos Galvao.
It has almost been a year to the day since Brian Bowles last fought. Page faced the same scenario going into his last fight and lost.
I’m sure that Bowles is coming into this one fairly confident since he’s already beaten Page before, but that fight took place two and a half years ago. It also was a fairly quick win in the first round.
I expect Bowles to come out and try to acclimate himself to the cage during the first couple of minutes in this fight. We must remember that the UFC Octagon is much larger than the WEC cage these guys fought in before.
I mentioned that Page is a scrapper, so he’ll be looking to take advantage of the cage rust and may start fast in this fight. Page is prone to submissions though, and I eventually expect the larger Bowles to get him to the ground and end it in that fashion.