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Posts Tagged ‘WEC’

WEC 48: Aldo vs Faber flashed across Pay Per View sets all over the country on April 24, 2010 for the first time. It showcased the power and the action that is World Extreme Cagefighting to the hard core UFC fans. It’s success proves that the little guys will provide us with entertainment that is worth paying for. Unfortunately for us cheapskates, they may have done their jobs too well. I think seeing the action in these fights will bring up the paydays for these hard working “everymen.” I like these bouts because they feature the Regular Joe type frames that are walking our streets. You could see yourself stepping into one of these fights and doing battle. Of course, you and I would get owned by these guys but it isn’t altogether inconceivable… I’m glad that Manny Gamburyan did well. I’ve always thought that he was robbed of much MMA love ever since he lost to Nate Diaz in The Ultimate Fighter 5. Maybe now the MMA gods will take notice and give him a shot in the big leagues.

Uriah Faber didn’t do too well this bout. Is it because he’s pushing 30 and at this size that really means that he’s losing a step to the youngsters? It could be. Aldo had him in check with his sound kicking technique. Faber is by no means washed up yet but if he lands on his face a few more times a la Jens Pulver, it may be time to go into surfing or coaching. Heavyweights can last well into their 40s because it usually takes brute strength to win their battles while lightweights rely on their blistering speed and flexibility. You don’t have that in your 30′s and beyond like the 20 year old punks.

So, Yay! and Boo! to a successful WEC or whatever this was 48 because we may not see as many freebie main events in the future or even a WEC. It’s possible that Dana White and Zuffa will reabsorb the little freaks back into UFC. We’ll see. For now, here are your results:

No Wanna See You Card:

* Bantamweight bout: Takeya Mizugaki vs. Rani Yahya
Mizugaki fooled the judges and beat up Yahya via unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, 29–28).

Drunk on the Couch or Pub Spike TV Fights:

* Featherweight bout: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung
Garcia fooled the judges and beat up Jung via split decision (29–28, 28–29, 29–28).

* Lightweight bout: Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis
Pettis choked the fight out of Karalexis via submission (Triangle Choke) at 1:35 in round 2.

* Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Anthony Morrison
Mendes choked the fight out of Morrison via submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:13 of Round 1.

Main PPV and/or Drunk at the Pub Fights:

* Featherweight Championship bout: Jose Aldo (c) vs. Urijah Faber
Aldo fooled the judges and beat up Faber via unanimous decision (49–45, 49–45, 50–45) to retain the WEC Featherweight Championship.

* Lightweight Championship bout: Ben Henderson (c) vs. Donald Cerrone
Henderson choked the fight out of Cerrone via submission (Guillotine Choke) at 1:57 of round 1 to retain the WEC Lightweight Championship.

* Featherweight bout: Brandon Visher vs. Tyler Toner
Toner put the hurt on Visher via TKO (Elbows) at 2:36 of Round 1.

* Featherweight bout: Mike Brown vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Gamburyan layed the smack down on Brown via KO (Punches) at 2:22 of round 1.

* Bantamweight bout: Brad Pickett vs. Demetrious Johnson
Pickett fooled the judges and beat up Johnson via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28).

* Lightweight bout: Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller
Roller choked the fight out of Njokuani via submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:21 in round 1.

* Bantamweight bout: Antonio Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen
Jorgensen fooled the judges and beat up Banuelos via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28).

That might leave a little mark… Miguel Torres isn’t looking like himself these days and may never again! I guess it’s kind of a “red badge of courage” thing for fighters to get nasty cuts. Guys with pretty faces just don’t make it in the pro ranks. I guess that’s why I never got to the big show… Anyway, WEC 47 delivered it’s usual high quality fights from the little guys. I think Torres will bounce back but he needs to get a grip on whatever is making him lose. I think the rest of the competition has figured him out. Jens needs to go ahead and retire from fighting already. He is an AWESOME coach and I think his stable of fighters will dominate for years to come. His stint on the Ultimate Fighter proved as much. Still, if Little Evil gets it together and puts some more wins on his record at WEC, it wouldn’t be unwelcome. Go Jens GO! Here are your results:

No Wanna SeeYa, Not Even For Free Card

* Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Erik Koch
Mendes fooled the judges and beat up Koch via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

* Featherweight bout: Leonard Garcia vs. George Roop
Garcia and Roop flailed around but couldn’t get a win. The judges made it a draw by scoring it 29-27 (Garcia) 29-27 (Roop) and 28-28. A point was taken away from Roop for a clean shot to the gonads of Garcia. OUCH!

* Featherweight bout: Fredson Paixao vs. Courtney Buck
Paixao choked the fight out of Buck via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:39 of round 1.

* Lightweight bout: Ricardo Lamas vs. France Bendy Casimir
Lamas layed the smack down on Casimir via KO (knee) at 3:43 of round 1.

Main Free As In Natty ICE Beer Card

* Bantamweight Championship bout: Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz
Cruz rained the pain on Bowles via TKO (injury) at 5:00 of round 2 to become the new WEC Bantamweight Champion.

* Bantamweight bout: Miguel Torres vs. Joseph Benavidez
Benavidez choked the fight out of Torres via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:57 of round 2.

* Featherweight bout: Jens Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez
Vazquez choked the fight out of Pulver via submission (armbar) at 3:41 of round 1.

* Featherweight bout: Deividas Taurosevičius vs. LC Davis
Davis fooled the judges and beat up Taurosevičius via majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29).

* Lightweight bout: Bart Palaszewski vs. Armenia Karen Darabedyan
Palaszewski choked the fight out of Darabedyan via submission (armbar) at 4:40 of round 1.

* Bantamweight bout: Scott Jorgensen vs. Chad George
Jorgensen choked the fight out of George via submission (guillotine choke) at 0:31 of round 1.

* Lightweight bout: Danny Castillo vs. Anthony Pettis
Pettis layed the smack down on Castillo via KO (strikes) at 2:17 of round 1.

Main Card

* Lightweight Championship unification bout: Jamie Varner vs. Ben Henderson
Henderson defeated Varner via submission (guillotine choke) at 2:41 of Round 3 to become the undisputed WEC Lightweight Champion.

* Featherweight bout: Urijah Faber vs. Raphael Assuncao
Faber defeated Assuncao via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:49 of Round 3.

* Lightweight bout: Dave Jansen vs. Kamal Shalorus
Shalorus defeated Jansen via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).

* Featherweight bout: Mike Brown vs. Anthony Morrison
Brown defeated Morrison via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:54 of Round 1.

* Featherweight bout: Mackens Semerzier vs. Deividas Taurosevičius
Taurosevičius defeated Semerzier via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Preliminary Card

* Bantamweight bout: Charlie Valencia vs. Akitoshi Tamura
Valencia defeated Tamura via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).

* Bantamweight bout: Wagnney Fabiano vs. Clint Godfrey
Fabiano defeated Godfrey via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

* Featherweight bout: Mark Hominick vs. Bryan Caraway
Hominick defeated Caraway via submission (triangle) at 3:48 of Round 1. This bout, although preliminary, was aired on the live broadcast.

* Bantamweight bout: Eddie Wineland vs. George Roop
Wineland defeated Roop via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 20-27).

* Bantamweight bout: Coty Wheeler vs. Will Campuzano
Campuzano defeated Wheeler via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27).

Main Card

* Lightweight bout: Donald Cerrone vs. Ed Ratcliff
Cerrone defeated Ratcliff via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:47 of Round 3.

* Lightweight bout: Nigeria Anthony Njokuani vs. Chris Horodecki
Njokuani defeated Horodecki via TKO (strikes) at 3:33 of Round 1.

* Bantamweight bout: Joseph Benavidez vs. Rani Yahya
Benavidez defeated Yahya via TKO (strikes) at 1:35 of Round 1.

* Bantamweight bout: Takeya Mizugaki vs. Scott Jorgensen
Jorgensen defeated Mizugaki via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Undercard

* Lightweight bout: Poland Bart Palaszewski vs. Anthony Pettis
Palaszewski defeated Pettis via split decision (30-27, 27-30, 29-28).

* Lightweight bout: Muhsin Corbbrey vs. Zach Micklewright
Micklewright defeated Corbbrey via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

* Bantamweight bout: John Hosman vs. Chad George
George defeated Hosman via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

* Featherweight bout: Brandon Visher vs. Courtney Buck
Visher defeated Buck via KO (punches) at 4:45 of Round 1. This bout, although preliminary, was aired on the live broadcast after Benavidez/Yahya.

* Bantamweight bout: England Brad Pickett vs. Kyle Dietz
Pickett defeated Dietz via submission (Peruvian necktie) at 4:36 of Round 2. This bout, although preliminary, was aired on the live broadcast after Njokuani/Horodecki.

* Featherweight bout: Jameel Massouh vs. Erik Koch
Koch defeated Massouh via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

Main Card

* Featherweight Championship bout: Mike Brown (c) vs. Jose Aldo
Aldo defeated Brown via TKO (strikes) at 1:20 of round 2 to become the new WEC Featherweight Champion.

* Featherweight bout: Armenia Manvel Gamburyan vs. Leonard Garcia
Gamburyan defeated Garcia via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).

* Lightweight bout: Rob McCullough vs. Karen Darabedyan
Darabedyan defeated McCullough via split decision (30-27, 27-30, 29-28).

* Lightweight bout: Danny Castillo vs. Shane Roller
Roller defeated Castillo via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:32 of round 3.

* Lightweight bout: Kamal Shalorus vs. Will Kerr
Shalorus defeated Kerr via TKO (strikes) at 1:26 of round 1.

Undercard

* Featherweight bout: Diego Nunes vs. LC Davis
Davis defeated Nunes via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26).

* Featherweight bout: Cub Swanson vs. John Franchi
Swanson defeated Franchi via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:50 of round 3.

* Bantamweight bout: Antonio Banuelos vs. Kenji Osawa
Banuelos defeated Osawa via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

* Lightweight bout: Ricardo Lamas vs. James Krause
Lamas defeated Krause via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

* Bantamweight bout: Seth Dikun vs. Frank Gomez
Gomez defeated Dikun via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28).

WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver sneaked up on me so fast I didn’t know what hit me. Kind of like the way all of the fighters in this league operate. This was one heck of an action packed event. The main fight between Jens Pulver and Uriah Faber was great in its own right but there were a couple of other fights that deserve some props. Here’s how the last of the Troubles (they come in threes, remember?) went.

Kenneth Alexander vs. Rob McCullough This was one of the slowest moving fights. They mostly did the stick and move, stick and move deal. Good for boxing but not so good for MMA. We want action and blood. If these guys expect to get bigger paychecks, they’d better review the tape and study how *not* to fight in the WEC. Oh yeah, Razer Rob won the match on a split decision. Next time don’t leave it to the judges Alexander.

Chuck Grigsby Vs. Mark Munoz Now we’re talking. These guys went straight to grappling and grinding after a bit of the stick and move. The difference here though was the action. Munoz just dominated his much more experienced opponent. At nearly the end of the 1st, Munoz rained punch after punch and that was that. Mark wins out over Grigsby.

Donald Cerrone Vs. Danny Castillo This match was decided pretty quickly. That being said, the match still was plenty good. The action moved from the stand up to ground and pound. Of course, Castillo didn’t appreciate the action as he was submitted by armlock early in the first. Sorry Danny, maybe you don’t offer up your arm for your opponent next time. Or, if you work it out right, you can get an XBox360 like one of the Ultimate Fighter 7′s losers did!

Yoshiro Maeda Vs. Miguel Angel Torres This was easily the best match of the night. I know that Pulver and Faber was the headliner but these two really laid it out on the line. Their match was pretty cleanly fought i.e. not so many shots to the gonads as in a LOT of these fights! They moved from solid standup action complete with plenty of kicking to the head and sharp, sharp jabs square in each of their noses. When they got tired of beating the hell out of each other, it was ground game time. At one point they were both locking in a foot/leg bar? Since I’m still a newbie I don’t know the move’s name. Nevertheless, it looked like it hurt! The match was like a Rocky movie because both fighters were giving each other the business, talking and gesturing to each other. Finally, Torres popped Maeda in the face a few times… like ten! The ref saw that Yoshiro had had enough and stopped it. Torres retained the belt and Maeda showed a heckofa lot of heart. The rematch should be already in the works unless the WEC is as stupid as the UFC with the way they schedule fights. Let’s hope we see these two in action again.

Uriah Faber Vs. Jens Pulver This headlining match of the night turned out to be the longest drawn out fight as well. Luckily, it was Little Evil and California kid for 25 minutes instead of some shlubs that couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag… that’s to *you* Kalib Starns! Still, this is the case where the two fighters showed almost too much respect for each other. They were about as evenly matched as you can get and if not for a few mistakes on Pulver, it would have finished with Lil Evil on top. They did a lot of standup sticking and moving but not much in the way of brawling. You have to respect the punching and elbowing power of Uriah though. Standing up right next to him is a recipe for disaster. Of course, getting in his guard or letting him ground and pound you isn’t much of a better alternative. That Jens could make it through all 25 minutes of this fight shows that he is for real win or lose. I worry for Jens’ next opponent. He won’t give Little Evil nearly the amount of fight that Uriah Faber did. With this win, Uriah needs to find an even bigger fish to fight. He may not find it at this weight class. What would happen to him at 155? He could try his luck in the crowded division in the UFC. I think the fighters there had better prepare for the California Kid. He looks ready to jump out of the little pond and into the huge ocean that is the lightweight division in the UFC.

This past week has come over me like a storm and I’ve been amiss in commenting on the MMA action from WEC and EliteXC that went down. We’ll cover just a little bit of each because I have to get my head straight for what will be another packed month of action. There were championships on the line in both the WEC 33 and EliteXC events. We got to see some action from Doug Marshall and Brian Stan on the WEC side. Cung Le and Frank Shamrock were battling on the EliteXC side. Who would stand and who would fall? Let’s find out!

Both champs underestimated their opponents. Let us begin with my favorite organization, the WEC. Doug Marshall came out swinging like a mad man and was seemingly doing ok with Stann in the standup game. This was his undoing. Stann was the bigger man with a better reach. At about a minute and a half in the first, Marshall fell like a brick. He might have had a chance in the ground game as Stann is relatively new at this but Marshall hasn’t showed a lot of submission work so far. Stann looks like the real deal and it will be difficult to come up with a fighter that can match him. There’s probably a few guys in the UFC that are fighting at the crowded light heavyweight division there that might chance it.

Other fights in the WEC 33 event were pretty great as well. Chael Sonnen gave the unbeaten Bryan Baker a clinic in submissions and takedowns. This puts him back into contention for the championship against Paulo Filho. Maybe this time he won’t get his arm caught in a weird position at the very last minute? Steve Cantwell took down and submitted Tim “The Wrecking Machine” McKenzie. Rich Crunkilton bloodied up Sergio Gomez something fierce. I thought they would stop the fight but Gomez didn’t seem to be affected by all that blood sloshing out the back of his head. Next time keep your hands up Gomez!

OK, EliteXC. I’ll be covering this more when the Saturday Night Fights come into play on CBS. For now, lets just say that a new King of San Jose was crowned on Saturday, March the 29th. King of San freakin’ Jose???!? I guess that makes me the King of South East La Mesa 7-11′s Back Alley. Frank Shamrock had no answer for Cung Le’s legwork. I wish I could have seen this in person. Finally! A MMA’r that knows how to kick! Cung kept piling on the kicks to Frank and kept him at arms length which is exactly what kicks are great for. Shamrock was able to get inside a few times and lay the wood down on Le, but it was too little too late. He complained in between rounds that his arm was killing him. He was right, there was a fracture and he couldn’t continue. Cung is KING! well… of San Jose at least.

Holy Smokes! We’ll be getting a bunch more action from both WEC and EliteXC later this month. EliteXC will get major support from CBS TV for its Saturday Night Fights. It also helps that Kimbo (Flippin’) Slice will be headlining that card. WEC 34 will feature a title match between Little Evil Jens Pulver and Uriah Faber. Wow. That will be something else. Best part of all? It’s all free as in BEER! Let’s all pop a frosty beverage and get comfortable for some good old fashioned head smashing!

The WEC is putting on a show tomorrow, Wednesday March 26th. These guys don’t mess around with hugging each other until someone gets weirded out. No, it will be a lot of fists and elbows cracking skulls and I can’t wait. Definitely a great bunch of matches to whet our appetites for UFC 83 and UFC’s Fight Night which are right around the corner! Let’s just see who is going to kick sand in who’s face tomorrow!

Hiromitsu Miura Vs. Blas Avena Hiro is the stand up guy in this one with Blas being the submission specialist. They both have pretty light experience with Hiro having the edge there with a 7-3 record. Blas has a 4-1 record though so he hasn’t felt the bad taste of losing as much as Hiro. Even though they chose the dumb nickname of “Last Samurai” for him, I’m going with the standup dude since that’s the kind of pain I like to see.

Steve Cantwell Vs. Tim McKenzie Tim the “Wrecking Machine” has been out of the game for a while and Cantwell brings a 4-1 record with him. Not much to say about these two although the Machine hasn’t worked recently so a little ring rust may be his undoing. Cantwell actually faced the headliner for this event. Unfortunately he didn’t get the best of the marine just a KO. I see Cantwell putting it together and beating McKenzie back to the couch with the rest of us.

Ed Ratcliff Vs. Marcus Hicks This is the “Well, daig nabbit! Someone’s gotta lose” special of the night. They both have 6-0 records and that they aren’t fighting for a title is a bit bewildering but in their division at 155, there is steep competition. Maybe they need to eat a bit more corn and get in to the big boys room? I’m going to play hometown favorite here and give it to another striker: Ed for the win or FTW for you Interweb Weenies!

Chael Sonnen Vs. Bryan Baker We last saw Chael lose in a weird fight with Paulo Filho. I’m pretty sure he wants another crack at him and will try to put Bryan Baker in his place. He has an extensive record of 21-8-1 and has lots of experience in WEC as well as UFC. Lately his game has been a bit dicey though with two losses in a row. He’s not getting a cream puff in Baker here. His record is 6-0 and he’ll probably try and duplicate other efforts against Sonnen and submit him. I think Sonnen’s experience will help him and get him over the hump in this one.

Doug Marshall Vs. Brian Stann Here is our championship match of the evening. We last saw Doug Marshall totally destroy Ariel Gandulla in something like 50 seconds. He then jumped into the crowd and tried to goad someone into fighting some more. Luckily no one was dumb enough to take him up on his offer. His challenger is Brian Stann, a marine fighting out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Stann doesn’t have nearly the record that Marshall has at 4-0, but Marshall’s 7-3 record doesn’t have him flying over to Iraq to bash the skulls of terrorists with bullets and whatever else is needed. This should prove to be an interesting match. For some reason, I think the marine is going to smash Marshall and grab the Light Heavyweight belt for himself. How does it go? HooRAH!

WEC 32 served up some really fine MMA goodness on VS TV. The three title defenses were the main meat of the event but the other action was tough and exciting in its own right. The guys fighting for belts were hungry and it showed as two out of the three titles changed hands that night. The one that didn’t wasn’t too much of a surprise as fighting in front of your home town audience will get that adrenaline flowing.

For those of us that like it, the matches were largely standup specials. A lot of punches and kicks were served and the fighters hung in there like the champs that they were/are/would be. So, let’s get to it and quickly because these tough little guys move fast and will take you down when you least expect it.

Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Leonard Garcia This fight ended pretty quickly. Hiroyuki and Leo matched each other kick for kick. Then Garcia said, “eff this” and started flinging right hand punches at Takaya. It was a matter of seconds before one found Hiro’s head and sent him to Fantasy Island. He tried to get up to complain about room service to Tattoo but the ref decided he’d had enough and stopped it at 1:31 in the first.

Manny Tapia vs. Antonio Banuelos These two guys slugged it out for three full rounds. It was a great display of standup goodness. When either fighter found an opportunity to take it to the ground or submit, it seemed as though they either couldn’t follow through or just didn’t know how to do it. Maybe it’s my newbie eye, but I saw a lot of submissions and rear naked choke opportunities gone to waste in this battle. It still was a helluva fight all the way to the final bell and beyond! The judges couldn’t decide who won as both Tapia and Banuelos made some great strikes and a few clinches. So, they threw their hands up and called it a draw… BOOOO!!!! went the crowd. We almost thought that was it but then the judges decided that 2+2 didn’t equal BOOOO!!! and recounted the cards. Manny got the decision and kept his unbeaten streak alive.

Lesson for the kiddies (and Antonio) here: DON’T leave it up to the judges!

Miguel Torres vs. Chase Beebe We all knew where this fight was going: Beebe wins easily against Torres. Oh but NO. Again, the standup game was featured in the beginning with a few kicks to soften each other up. Then Torres smacked Beebe upside his head. Chase was startled just enough for Torres to start working his submissions. Chase was able to wrestle free from most of them but it was too much for the Champ and he got caught by a guillotine-like choke out that relieved him of his Championship belt late in the first.

Jamie Varner vs. Rob McCullough Here was another “sure-thing” match. Razor Rob was the easy pick to retain his Championship. It looked that way for the entire three rounds of this match. McCullough fought off Varner’s takedowns and did some mean striking in the first round. Varner was just getting started though. The second match saw our Champ hang back for a breather round trying to figure out a way to last to the end. Jamie kept battling by punching repeatedly and landing body and head shots. In the last round, the Champ finally showed some life and knocked Varner’s mouthpiece out with a great right punch. Varner called “time” (Which I didn’t know you could do in the middle of a fight??!?) so he could get his icky mouthpiece back. I guess the taste of ring dirt didn’t agree with Jamie because he roughed up the Champ and sent him eating the canvas twice. It really looked like Rob was going to barely make it out of this one but Varner was the better man.

Carlo Prater vs. Carlos Condit The big featured match of the night was the Condit/Prater title match. Carlos was the hometown boy going after a Brazilian Jui Jitsu expert in Prater. He immediately went after Prater by kicking him low in his legs. Then Carlo fought back and took down Condit. That was his last mistake because then Condit worked his submissions and escapes. Prater managed to get loose from an armbar but then Condit found the guillotine and that was that. Tippity, tappity and score one for the hometown boy and the only Champ to stay at the top that night!

This is what MMA should be when we pay up the ying yang for UFC events. It could be the weight class or maybe the hunger that these guys feel because they are close but not at the top of the MMA food chain. I called them “little guys” at the top of this post but they are just regular Joe size like you and me. As they say in the fight world, “pound for pound” they are some of the toughest individuals to walk the Earth. Hopefully, they will be rewarded for their superior skills!

The World Extreme Cagefighting League is putting on another show on VS TV, Wednesday, February 13. If it’s anything like the last WEC event, we’re in for a heluva treat. Top it all off with the fact that it is free, as in BEER, to watch if you have VS as a cable or satellite television station! There are three title defenses on the main card and a bunch of up and comers on the other cards. Since it is WEC, we’re going to be in a smaller octagon and we’ll be looking at lighter fighters. That may be a downer for some but I’ve got to say that these guys do NOT play around and stay in shape and in the fight. No waking guys up from the couch after a three year lay off in these fights. Even the lowly undercards are active not only in their training but their time in the ring as well. Well, as our Governator would say, “ENOUGH TYPE!”

Carlo “Neo” Prater vs. Carlos “Natural Born Killer” Condit These guys will be fighting for the Welterweight Championship. They both have similar records. 21-5-1 for Neo and 21-4-0 for NBK. The difference is Conduit is the Champion and he’s come home to fight. Will there be blood? For sure and some aiiish kicking to boot. This is a Brazil vs. USA match with Prater being the fighter with BJJ in his veins and Prater merely a good student of the art. I think the homecoming is going to set Carlos on fire and Carlo back to Brazil to eat some barbeque and wonder what went wrong.

Jamie Varner vs. Rob “Razor” McCullough Our second Championshop match features a striker in Razor versus a more complete fighter in Verner. Jamie’s record is 13-2-1 and his last three fights were won with submissions for the first two and a TKO for his latest. Razor has a well trodden record of 15-3. His records and titles span a number of different arts going from kickboxing to muay thai to K1 and, of course to his current WEC title as a lightweight. This will be a big challenge for Varner as he hasn’t faced someone with quite this pedigree. I’ll have to go with Razor here.

Miguel Torres vs. Chase Beebe The last Championship up for grabs is the Bantamweight Title. Chase, with a record of 13-1-0 is the current champion and he looks to stay that way against the jiu jitsu specialist Torres. Miguel’s record of 19-1 includes a recent fight with Jeff Bedard where Torres won by submission. This one is hard to call. I’ve taken the safe bet above by going with the current champion but in this case, I think a change is in order. I would say that Miguel’s experience will carry him through this fight and Beebe will have to give up a shiny belt buckle.

Manny Tapia vs. Antonio Banuelos Tapia has been on an unbeaten streak(9-0-1) and plans on continuing to lay the smack down. Tapia beat his last opponent by TKO at 3:17 in the second. Banuelos (15-4) is no slouch himself as he’s coming off an decision win. We’ve already seen one unbeaten record fall. I think another is in order. Sorry Manny.

Josh Grispi vs. Mark Hominick Josh is going to fight his first match with WEC competition. He’s a young punk kid at age 19 but he brings a record of 10-1. Hominick 15-7 will figure to welcome the young man into the WEC in fitting style: KO in the first.

Leonard “Bad Boy” Garcia vs. Hiroyuki Takaya Bad Boy at 14-3 has come to the WEC to fight at his weight class of 145. Takaya with a 9-4-1 record, will try to send him back to eating bon bons and fighting at a heavier class. This may be the fight of the night. I think Hiroyuki will kick the Bad out of Garcia and down him in the third.

There are even more matches happening this coming Wednesday. For a freebie, we are really going to be filled to the gills with striking and submitting goodness. I don’t know what it is, but Zuffa seems to be doing a better job with this organization than the UFC. Hopefully, WEC doesn’t become the burning city of Rome that the UFC is. Dana, put down that fiddle and save the UFC!