Expect sparks when Brown and Aldo clash at Wednesday’s WEC 44

Wednesday’s WEC 44 has the potential to be the best card of the week. (And how great is it to say “card of the week” as opposed to month?)

The headliner features featherweight champion Mike Thomas Brown (22-4) defending his title for the third time against feared Brazilian striker Jose “Junior” Aldo (15-1). This has barn-burner written all over it with Aldo’s insane striking game clashing with Brown’s wrestling and ground-and-pound. I’m predicting Brown by TKO in the later rounds – if he can survive the early heavy-handed assault of Aldo.

The other big fight on the card is a battle of two ormer UFC lightweight fighters turned WEC 145-pounders Manny Gamburyan (9-4) and Leonard Garcia (13-4). Again, it’s style vs. style, with Gamburyan’s ground game against Garcia’s lightning stand-up. My call? It’s a race to see who imposes their game plan first, but I expect Garcia to see most of the fight from his back in a TKO loss.

Rounding out the card are ex-champ Rob McCullough (17-5) vs. Karen Darabedyan (8-1). A win by McCollough puts him back into lightweight contention. Shane Roller (6-2) takes on Danny Castillo (8-1) caps things off in a toss-up, odds-wise.