Mixed Martial B0nes

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!

WEC!!” width=”500″ height=”281″ align=”middle” />

In honor of the WEC:Outside the Cage events that happened last night, we’ll be looking at the WEC:OTC in a “get-in-get-your-punch-get-out” style… You ready? You ready? Then, LET’S GIT IT ON!!!

• Anyone notice a Big John McCarthy appearance last night? I guess he’s not completely retired from officiating. There can be only ONE Big John “Let’s Git It On” McCarthy. Let’s hope he’s retired only from the UFC.
• I thought Jens Pulver was going to stink up the joint last night but I was sorely mistaken. If you blinked, you missed his match against Cub Swanson. For some reason known only to Cub, he walked right into a guillotine/anaconda choke and was submitted by Little Evil in something like 0.145 seconds. OK OK, so it took a bit longer than that but 1… 4… 5 seemed to be the theme song for Evil after that match. Look out WEC, Jens is on the warpath.
• Instead of a ground and pound knockout fest between Doug “The Rhino” Marshall and Arel Gandulla, it turned out that an armbar did the trick. Gandulla slammed The Rhino down and tried to do some pounding but quickly got caught into a triangle and then a wicked arm bar 55 seconds in. Marshall went wild and jumped into the crowd after that. He almost looked like he wanted to fight someone else out there since he spent so little time in the cage!
• The submission special of the night was the match between Paulo “Eli” Filho and Chael Sonnen. Sonnen controlled the entire match in both the stand up punching and submissions as well as the ground game. Let’s restate that… Sonnen HAD control up until the very end when his flexible arm got caught in an armbar by Eli. Chael let out some sort of “hep me hep me” sound but didn’t tap out. That was all the ref needed to hear and he awarded the match to Filho, even though Sonnen had repeatedly said not to end the match. It really looked like Sonnen’s arm was going to break if he didn’t tap out. I hate it when you have to leave a match to the ref/judges to decide. Maybe Sonnen got robbed on this one. Watch for the rematch!
• The Urijah “California Kid” Faber vs. Jeff “Big Frog” Curran fight was action packed throughout. Most of this action came from Faber. He was landing some fierce shots, controlling the ground game, and punching and kicking with the best of them. Faber was playing a very agressive game here. Faber was really landing some devastating elbows that opened up cuts on Curran’s eyes. Faber eventually won by guillotine.
• This whole thing was definitely an eye-opener. WEC has some serious action and should be a part of all MMA fans viewing schedules. I now have a new “Season Pass” on my tivo box!!!

With the WEC:Outside the Cage coming up tomorrow night, some of us newbies are wondering, “What the heck is WEC?” WEC(World Extreme Cagefighting) has actually been around for a long time. It was started 2001 by Scott Adams and Reed Harris. They lasted as owners for about five years. During this era, the cage was pentagonal(five sided for you non-math geeks). The main events were also staged in California. It featured all weight classes from bantam and flyweight to super heavyweight.

In 2006, UFC’s current owner Zuffa, bought out the WEC and with that ushered in a new era for the MMA world. They got rid of the pentagon cage and went with the octagon, albeit a smaller one than the UFC model. They also made the emphasis on smaller fighters by getting rid of the heavy and super heavyweight divisions. All of their main events are based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The rules of engagement are the same as UFC and most other MMA organizations following the New Jersey and Nevada Athletic Boards rules. Since the fighters are of a smaller weight class and the fighting area is smaller, the matches tend to be more action packed. Less looking and dancing around going on. Thank goodness!

Tomorrow should be interesting to TUF5 fans as Jens “Little Evil” Pulver will be making his WEC debut vs. Cub Swanson. This will be a big challenge for Pulver since he has been fighting at the heavier weight of 155 and doing poorly. He claims that he is back at his normal fighting weight of 145 and that his success at that weight will continue. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Jens is just part of the large undercard. There are three title defenses:

Urijah “California Kid” Faber vs. Jeff “Big Frog” Curran will be the main draw. Frog is a 31-8-1 fighter with experience all over the world. Faber is 19-1 and the current Featherweight champion. Curran will be quite a handful for him.

Doug “The Rhino” Marshall vs. Ariel Gandulla will pit brute strength against brute strength in a Light Heavyweight match sure to feature a few crunches and body slams.

Finally, Paulo “Eli” Filho will defend his Middleweight championship belt against Chael Sonnen. They are both grappling and submission specialists. The ground game should feature big in this match. Look for a tap out or “sleepy time bye bye” moment in this one.

I’m going to give WEC a try. MMA is more than just UFC and these fighters look like they’re the real deal.