In a quick missive on his website, Miguel Torres responded to his firing from the UFC, specifically addressing it to his fans:

“I have a lot to be thankful for in my life, I have my beautiful wife and daughter, my family, my health, my gym, and in terms of my career, I succeeded to the biggest stage in the sport of mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I am very sorry for upsetting my bosses at the UFC, and also to my fans and everyone else who was upset by the language in my tweets. I understand it was wrong, and I meant no harm or disrespect. Given the chance, I will do whatever it takes to make things right. I am going to learn from this. I think life throws you opportunities that can make you a better person, and so that’s what I’m going to do here. That is how I am going to react. I am going to use this to improve myself, and I hope that my fans will continue to support me.”

It seems unfair that Torres was made a scapegoat for the recent rash of bad tweets and jokes made by UFC fighters. Here’s hoping that cooler heads prevail and Torres is reinstated into the UFC, the place where he belongs to compete at the sport he has given so much to.

Quick updates on Chicago area fighters…

- Miguel Torres is fighting Nick Pace at UFC 139. You may remember Pace from his insane flying knee KO of Collin Tebo back at Bellator 11. Torres will try to get back in the title picture after his loss to Demetrious Johnson. Pace is coming off a UFC 133 loss to Ivan Menjivar.

- Chicago’s Mike Russow is out of UFC 136 as his opponent Dave “Pee Wee” Herman tested positive for marijuana and steroids. No replacement was named so the fight was scratched.

It’s a tough break for Russow, who last fought at UFC Fight Night in March, when he beat Jon Madsen. Russow is 14-1 and has not lost since 2007, when he was submitted by Sergei Kharitonov at PRIDE 33.

- Dan “The Anvil” Stittgen will be fighting on October 8th at “King of the Cage: Interference” in Wisconsin. The MTC fighter recently won at Rockford Cage Fights and at XFO 39 in May. He is also a veteran of the TFC.

- The Supremacy MMA video game has hit stores, and it features local fighters Felice Herrig, Michele Gutierrez and Jens Pulver. Check out the game at their website.

Send any local fighter or school news to matt@chicagosmmna.com.

One dollar of every program they sell ( 2000 programs in total) goes to support the “Disabled Vet Fund” and a huge portion of the proceeds go to the “Wounded Warrior Project”.

Here is the card, as it currently stands:

185 lbs Ric Randolph vs. Anthony Jamison

145 lbs Tommy Benson vs. Reggie Brown

170 lbs Mike Rynearson vs. Stefan von Aulock

155 lbs Dan Darby vs. Mitchell Battle

135 lbs David Longoria vs. Casey Jones

155 lbs Adam Meneu vs. Billy Zumbro

145 lbs Brandon Hoess vs. Adrian Oday

155 Bobby Moffit vs. James Santoro

MCA is also giving away tickets to the event. You can register to win by subscribing to their e-mail newsletter at their website: www.mca-mma.com

You can also visit their Facebook page.

Matt Erickson reports at MMA Fighting that Brad Pickett has pulled out his scheduled UFC 130 fight against Miguel Torres. Torres will instead face Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.

The Pickett/Torres matchup seemingly would have been a more pleasing fight stylistically, as Pickett likes to push the pace and strike. But Johnson relies on his wrestling ability. He also stands just 5’3″, so we could see something very similar to the Torres/Banuelos fight. Torres could use his reach advantage to jab and keep Johnson on the outside, denying him the takedown.

Torres was criticized by some following the Banuelos fight, accused of playing it safe and providing fans with a boring fight. That was Torres’ first official fight in the UFC, so expect him to bring a bit more in the Johnson fight.

Johnson has been a grinder since joining the WEC. His first fight was a loss to Pickett, but then he rattled off 3 straight wins over Nick Pace, Damacio Page and Kid Yamamoto at UFC 126. All 4 of those WEC/UFC bouts went into the 3rd round, 3 of them going to decisions. Johnson does have plenty of speed, as he showed against Kid Yamamoto. But Torres is a much better fighter on the ground than Yamamoto.

UFC 130 will take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena is Las Vegas.

Two of the best MMA fighters to ever come out of the Chicagoland area did battle for the WEC Bantamweight title back in February of 2008. Here is the fight between Miguel Torres and Carson Beebe at WEC 32.

Miguel Torres is back with more viral video hilarity. Here Miguel takes “The Cinnamon Challenge”. Then he beats on some dude.

Miguel unveiled some new things on Thursday night. He is now fighting out of Montreal and Firas Zahabi’s Tri-Star gym, and he had a brand new stance. Some things were still like the old Miguel. “His mullet looks good,” Stephan Bonnar said. And like so many times in the past, Miguel Torres won. And he did it in convincing fashion.

After a feeling out process in the first, Miguel landed a nice combo that made Valencia cover up and retreat. Miguel worked him up against the cage. After a brief stoppage for an unintentional low blow to Valencia, Torres got back to work. Another combo dropped Valencia and Torres pounced, almost finishing Valencia with a barrage of ground and pound. Valencia escaped as the bell sounded.

A minute into round 2 Torres connected with a big right and quickly followed that with 2 head kicks — a right and a left — that sent Valencia to the ground.Valencia was able to get up but Torres quickly landed a knee that put him right back down. Torres worked some ground and pound methodically before taking Valencia’s back and securing a body triangle. From there he locked in a rear naked choke and Valencia tapped at 2:35.

Torres collected $10k and “Submission of the Night” honors. He also improved to 37-3.

Dethrone Jose Aldo WEC 51 Walkout Tee

The Boss said it’s casual Friday! Tappin’ ain’t gonna help — we’re not in the cage!

Chicago’s MMA wishes Miguel Torres a big win tonight at WEC 51.

h/t: Cagewriter

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Here’s the promo for WEC 51: Aldo vs. Gamburyan, an incredibly stacked card.

This card is absolutely loaded. So much so that we don’t even see Miguel Torres in the promo, nor do they mention former champ Mike Brown, the Mark Hominick vs. Leonard Garcia fight, the Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliff fight or The Korean Zombie. Yes — WEC 51 is stacked to the hilt.

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