Brian Bowles Talks Deja Vu Win At UFC On Versus 3

The stars aligned for Brian Bowles at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday.

The bantamweight fighter defeated Damacio Page for the second time at the 3:30 mark of the first round by guillotine choke.

In other words, he beat a guy at the exact same time by the exact same submission on two separate occasions. The odds of that are astronomical!

“When I heard it in the end I said, ‘man, that sounds familiar.’ It’s just a little ironic. I didn’t really catch on to it. Everyone in the back was telling me it was the same exact time, same submission and everything,” said the former WEC bantamweight champion. “It’s kind of weird.”

Bowles hadn’t fought in nearly a year prior to “UFC on Versus 3.” It had been 362 days to be exact since he lost the 135-pound title to Dominick Cruz at WEC 47 on March 6, 2010.

“It felt great to be back. I’ve been looking forward to this day a long time especially to be in there with the UFC, just to be back, to be healthy and be out there fighting,” said Bowles at the post-fight press conference.

Even with the layoff, Bowles felt comfortable and attributed his victory to hard work in the gym over the past year. Ring rust was not an issue.

“My timing was pretty much spot-on when I went out there. He opens up hard and fast and I just didn’t want to open up like he does. I wanted to fight at my pace and make it my fight,” said Bowles.

“That’s the way he always opens up. He always opens up real aggressive, real emotional, banging real hard. I had really worked on my footwork, just trying to circle off from that because I knew that’s what he did. I really just drilled circling off, and what I worked on worked for me. “

 

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