Last December, the four-man bantmaweight tournament on Showtime got off to a roaring start, as Abner Mares topped Vic Darchinyan in a great 12-round war, while Joseph Agbeko got revenge on Yonnhy Perez in another terrific battle. The Showtime cameras rolled backstage before and after the fights, and caught some great shots during the bouts as well. You can relive a little of that with the excellent feature video below. (Language warning if you're at work.)
The tournament concludes this Saturday night from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, starting live on Showtime at 10:30pm EDT. We'll have a lot more coverage, including two in-depth fight previews and live round-by-round updates on Saturday night, plus immediate post-fight analysis. This is a truly great fight card, with Joseph Agbeko facing Abner Mares in the tournament final main event, and a significant co-feature fight for third place between Yonnhy Perez and Vic Darchinyan.
Also, if you missed it, our friend Luke Thomas of SBNation MMA recently gave us an exclusive interview with Yonnhy Perez that I highly recommend. Not the usual call-and-response stock questions/answers, and a great insight into how Perez is as a man and a fighter.