Brian Bowles: I don’t know what a lucky punch is

By Brett Okamoto

Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010 | 12:05 a.m.

Brian Bowles prides himself on having plenty of weapons to finish opponents.

Despite what anyone says, he doesn't consider a 'lucky punch' one of them.

"I don't exactly know what a lucky punch is," Bowles said during a conference call Thursday. "You're out there fighting. You're throwing punches, trying to hit somebody and you hit them. I don't know how that's lucky."

Although the undefeated Bowles (8-0) has a reputation for finishing fights — none of his professional contests have gone the distance — his knockout win over Miguel Torres for the WEC bantamweight title last August has been chalked up, by some, as no more than blind luck.

After having his bell rung by Torres early in the first round, Bowles backed up to the cage and looked to be moments away from suffering his first loss.

With Torres charging in for the finish, Bowles landed a huge counter right hook that caught Torres by surprise and put him on the canvas.

The punch, lucky or not, earned Bowles the championship belt, but not necessarily the respect that usually comes with it, as many pound-for-pound rankings still place Torres ahead of him.

Bowles said Thursday that he hasn't been surprised by the reactions to the fight.

"It's kind of expected, when somebody is as big of an underdog as I was, fighting a dominant champion, that's the way it works out," Bowles said. "It's just like the lucky punch question. Would I have been better off to win by decision and have half the people say the decision should have gone to him?

"There's always going to be naysayers. I just have to know what happened. I have to know that I trained my butt off for that fight and I did things right."

Bowles will receive his first chance to prove he deserves the belt when he makes his first title defense March 6 against Dominic Cruz (14-1) in Columbus, Ohio.

To prepare for the fight, Bowles spent a brief time working out with members of the American Top Team in Florida, one of which he now has a lot in common with.

In November 2008, Mike Brown defeated the popular Urijah Faber for the WEC featherweight championship with a first-round knockout.

Similar to Bowles's experience, Brown's win often was characterized as a fluke because of mistakes Faber had made.

Eventually Brown was able to quiet his critics by defending the belt twice, once over Leonard Garcia and again in a rematch with Faber last June.

"It's just like that," said Bowles, comparing his situation to Brown's. "Urijah was a dominant champion, he gets beat and now nobody knows what to do or what to say. They didn't know if he was a fluke or if he was really that good.

"He beat Garcia and kept winning and then you realize, maybe he did deserve that win. So, that's what I have to do — keep winning."

When asked what he thought of Bowles's win over Torres, Cruz was clear he didn't consider Bowles's win a fluke and said the punch that ended Torres's night looked like an intelligent counter to him.

"I don't see it as a lucky punch," Cruz said. "I think that anybody that fights knows that if you have a standup battle with four-ounce gloves on, somebody is going to get knocked out.

"Brian has good power in his hands and he hit a calculated counter. It's something they obviously went over in camp. You could see it in the video. People can say what they want, but you know what you've done to prepare for a fight and I'm sure that's what's going through Brian's head now."

Bowles and Torres will be in one another's company again in March, as Torres is set to face Joseph Benavidez in his first fight since losing the belt.

If both fighters win, it could set up what would be one of the most anticipated rematches of the year.

Although Torres has already proclaimed he wants to fight Bowles next, even if the belt isn't on the line, Bowles said he hasn't really considered a rematch yet and is just focusing on what's in front of him.

"At this moment, all I'm focusing on is Cruz," Bowles said. "That's easy to say, but that's what I'm doing. If it works out (Torres and I) fight again, cool. If it doesn't, whatever. All I have to do right now is worry about defending my title."

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com. Also follow him on twitter: LVSunFighting.