MMA’s Greats of the States | West Virginia: Brian Bowles

Mixed martial artists come from every corner of the globe, bearing a variety of styles. Sometimes, fighters are products of their environment, favoring disciplines prevalent in the country or state from which they hail. Various regions of the United States are considered factories for great fighters, though that certainly is not the case with each state. In this weekly Sherdog.com series, the spotlight will shine on the best mixed martial artist of all-time from each of the 50 states. Fighters do not necessarily need to be born in a given state to represent it; they simply need to be associated with it.

***
Brian Bowles carved out a memorable mixed martial arts career for himself while it lasted.

Though he only had 13 professional fights, the Charleston, West Virginia, native climbed the bantamweight ladder quickly in World Extreme Cagefighting before eventually finding his way to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Bowles made his WEC debut in June 2007 with a second-round submission of Charlie Valencia and followed it with a knockout of Marcos Galvao at WEC 31 six months later. Submission wins over Damacio Page and Will Ribeiro moved The Hardcore Gym representative into position to challenge Miguel Torres for the WEC bantamweight championship. Bowles faced Torres in the WEC 42 main event on Aug. 9, 2009 and knocked out the Carlson Gracie protégé in the first round. Torres was 37-1 at the time and entered the cage on a 17-fight winning streak.

Bowles’ stay at the top was short-lived. He surrendered the WEC title to Dominick Cruz in March 2010 and went on to enjoy a four-fight stint in the UFC, where he compiled a 2-2 mark -- wins over Page and Takeya Mizugaki were offset by losses to Urijah Faber and George Roop. He was arrested on felony drug charges in Georgia on Jan. 14, 2015 and was subsequently released by the UFC. Bowles, 37, has not fought since.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Dustin Hazelett, Jason Butcher