Category — WEC

I don’t usually promote personal appearances by fighters, but when it comes to the Korean Zombie I’ll make an exception. If you don’t know Chan Sung Jung (aka the Korean Zombie), then you should. Seriously, he’s the awesomest zombie ever, and that includes the one that punched the shark in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie 2.

He put on the most-exciting fight of 2010 against Leonard Garcia at WEC 48, a back-and-forth crowd-rousing battle that was truly edge-of-your-seat. And he pulled off the first twister submission in professional MMA history in their rematch at the recent UFC Fight Night. Oh yeah, and he’s also got an awesome T-shirt, which I’m sure you’ll be able to get signed when Jung stops by Fight Planet in Hamilton on Saturday.

Anthony Johnson put Dan Hardy’s UFC career on life support, and Phil Davis proved that he’s got a long way to go before he’s even close to being ready to challenge newly minted light heavyweight champ Jon Jones, but it was Chan-Sung Jung who stole the show with the first-ever twister submission in UFC history.

Last night’s UFC Fight Night card took place nearly a year after Jung (aka the Korean Zombie) lost a split-decision slugfest to Leonard Garcia at WEC 48 in what was easily the most entertaining fight of 2010 (hell, he was so impressive in that fight I bought a T-shirt). But the rematch wouldn’t make it into the judges’ hands. While Garcia threw haymakers (the only strike he seems capable of throwing), Jung launched flying knees and crisp punches before pulling off the spine lock in the final second of the second round. More impressive – he learned the move by watching twister inventor Eddie Bravo’s videos and had never been successful with it before. In fact, he only went for the twister because it was the dying seconds of the middle frame and he had nothing to lose.

Meanwhile, Anthony Johnson made easy work of Dan Hardy for the unanimous decision. He proved Hardy’s takedown defense is made of Swiss cheese and handed him his third straight loss, which has to put Hardy’s stay in the UFC on shaky ground (although he would still make a good division gatekeeper). I’m betting the key to Johnson’s victory had less to do with Hardy expecting (or at least hoping for) a stand-up fight and more to do with Johnson’s size: Johnson made the 170-pound welterweight limit after cutting from 230 pounds but stepped into the cage at 195 pounds.

Phil Davis earned the decision over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira despite being severely out-boxed and stymied in the takedown department for much of the first two frames. Indeed, beyond raw physical ability, there’s little in Davis’s game that impresses. Then again, it is pretty substantial raw physical ability. Give the 5-0 UFC fighter a bit more seasoning and then we’ll talk about championship potential.

To call it a highlight-reel kick would be an understatement. To call it “the greatest move in MMA history” or “MMA move of the decade,” well, that’s a lot to live up to and I’m not quite sure it does. Still, it’s something only a Hollywood screenwriter could dream up, maybe one of the Matrix guys. But there it is.

In the final moments of the final round of the final fight in WEC history, the promotion went out with a bang. Living up to to his nickname, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis launched himself off the side of the cage, spun mid-air and then delivered a  roundhouse kick to the jaw of lightweight champ Ben Henderson, knocking him to the ground. Indeed, Henderson’s wasn’t the only jaw that dropped at the acrobatic feat.

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Now that injury has forced newly strapped UFC featherweight champ Jose Aldo to withdraw from his first title defense since the WEC was swallowed by its big brother, the card for UFC 125 is looking a lot less like something I want to battle a New Year’s Day hangover to see.

Now, it’s not a total write-off. There’s the lightweight title bout between champ Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard and the always-entertaining Clay Guida facing off with the reignited Fireball Kid, Takanori Gomi. But the remainder of the card is all Chris Leben and Brian Stann and Brandon Vera and Thiago Silva and Nate Diaz and Dong Hyun Kim – which is to say, it’s middling with a chance of exciting finishes. But can’t you say that about any card?

The absence of Aldo, one of the most dynamic and exciting fighters in all of MMA, is like a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking. The UFC needs to do something to make the card more presentable, especially because it’s their year-ending/year-beginning showcase.

So what should UFC prez Dana White do? Well, Aldo was expected to face Josh Grispi, who will now take on Dustin Poirier in a bout likely headed to the undercard – not exactly the kind of introduction White hoped for his newly acquired stable of WEC fighters. So he should consider moving the WEC bantamweight title fight between champ Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen off December 16’s WEC 53 card and into the UFC 125 co-headliner slot and make it a battle for the UFC bantamweight belt. WEC 53 already has lightweight champ Ben Henderson against Anthony Pettis anchoring the event, so one less title bout is no great loss, especially considering it’s the last WEC event and ratings are a moot point. Conversely, he could move the Henderson/Pettis bout into the co-main event position, with the winner of that fight taking on the winner of the Edgar/Maynard main event. Now that would cause some fireworks, I’m sure.

The world of MMA just got bigger – and smaller. UFC boss Dana White’s “big announcement” on Thursday was that the UFC will merge (i.e., absorb, swallow, consume) with its little brother, the WEC. The shuttering of the WEC will be finalized by the end of this year, with WEC 52 on November 11 and WEC 53 on December 16 the final cards for the promotion.

That means we can expect a showdown between the UFC and WEC lightweight champs, although White didn’t provide a timeline for when that clash might occur. WEC champ Ben Henderson and challenger Anthony Pettis will square off at WEC 53 while UFC belt holder Frankie Edgar faces Gray Maynard at UFC 125 on January 1. The winners of those bouts will meet in a title unification bout.

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WEC 53 is still two months away but I’m already a little excited. A card featuring a lightweight title bout between champ Benson “Bendo” Henderson and Anthony Pettis, a bantamweight title tilt between Dominick Cruz and challenger Scott Jorgensen and a lightweight contender match-up between Donald Cerrone and Chris Horodecki? Christmas comes a little early with this card, scheduled for December 16.

Brocktoberfest is well under way and so far it’s been a bunch of small meals leading up to the main course – UFC 121’s heavyweight title bout between champ Brock Lesnar and challenger Cain Velasquez.

Just this past weekend, while those of us here in Canada stuffed ourselves with Thanksgiving turkey, Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz used his superior reach to out-point (and bust the jaw) of KJ Noons in their ire-filled rematch while Marloes Coenen tore 135-pound women’s champ Sarah Kaufman’s arm off in a surprising upset that saw Coenen unintentionally hold the armbar submission just a bit longer than necessary.

Weirdly, the Noons loss might be the first time anyone’s blamed their hair for a bad performance, although I suspect a few of Clay Guida’s opponents have a similar feeling about battling through his sweaty mop top. Speaking of Guida, he’ll face Takanori Gomi at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day. Also slated for the card are headliners Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard in a lightweight title bout and Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson in  a heavyweight tilt.

Decision or no decision, it didn’t stop Diaz from opening his mouth and inserting his foot – he  issued a challenge to UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre (and just about anyone else who wants to climb into the cage with him). Two things about that:  first, there’s little chance that the UFC will sign Diaz, who’s more than a little unpredictable and more than a lot obnoxious (although stranger things have happened and it would give the promotion an opportunity to team Diaz with his brother, Nate, should they ever want to implement tag teams); second, Diaz is not at the same level as GSP in any sense and would quickly find himself on his back eating fists (which would be about the time he’d want to think about tagging in his brother).

Before I look ahead to the rest of Brocktoberfest, lets take one last look back at the event that all the others need to live up to – WEC 51. Jose Aldo retained his feathwerweight title and extended his unbeaten streak to 11 with a second-round KO of Manny Gamburyan. There’s a reason he’s at or near the top of most people’s pound-for-pound list.  Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner explored their mutual dislike through three explosive rounds, Miguel Torres showed a little of the old spark as he subbed Charlie Valencia, Mark Hominick took a split decision against Leonard Garcia and George Roop stopped the Korean Zombie, Chan Sung Jung, in his tracks with a head kick that dropped him so fast he kneed himself in the head on the way to the mat.

That’s a tough card to beat in terms of pure entertainment value. And this Saturday’s UFC 120 has little hope of bettering it. Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama is the de facto headliner, while you’ll find Dan Hardy, Cheick Kongo, Claude Patrick, Carlos Condit and Spencer Fisher scattered among the line-up. Thankfully, this one’s free on Spike.

I won’t dig into UFC 121 just yet. I think we’ve had enough turkey to digest already (I’m looking at you, Ultimate Fighter).

While I’m glad that UFC president Dana White made good on his promise that fighters at last Saturday’s WEC 48 Aldo vs. Faber would get a bigger payday than usual, there’s still something rotten in the state of Denmark.

The event exceeded expectations at every level, from the quality of the fights to the number of viewers. It pulled in a gross live gate of close to $800,000 and drew somewhere north of 150,000 pay-per-view buys, close to double what White would’ve settled for a couple of weeks ago.

So with all of the success, something’s out of whack when there are still fighters on the main card who only earn $7,000 for their efforts. Crazier still, Manny Gamburyan cashed the biggest cheque – $101,000 – although that includes an $18,000 win bonus and $65,000 Knockout of the Night bonus.

Now, I’m not begrudging Gamburyan a good payday. He knocked Mike Brown out in stunning fashion, literally and figuratively, and he trains as hard and as long as anybody else. But when featherweight champ Jose Aldo, one of the most exciting, dominating fighters in the sport, only makes 40 grand, half of which was a win bonus, there’s something wrong with the math.

And don’t get me started on the preliminary card fighters, like Demetrius Johnson, who earned just $3,000 for his troubles and doesn’t have the same kind of exposure and thus sponsorship dollars coming his way. And yes, I know that if he was a better fighter he’d be making bigger paydays; that’s not the point. The point is simply that being an MMA fighter just doesn’t pay and no matter how much White and Zuffa want everyone to believe being a WEC fighter is like being an NBA star, that cheque bounces like a rubber ball.

This is what I like to hear from fighters. Mike Brown, who got his bell rung by Manny Gamburyan at last Saturday’s WEC 48, has come forward to say that his loss had nothing to do with any personal issues he may have been dealing with.

UFC president Dana White said during post-event interviews that Brown was going through a bad breakup and had missed a couple of weeks of training camp, which may have factored into the upset loss. No so, says Brown. He tells MMA Junkie that personal problems had nothing to do with getting KO’ed, Gamburyan’s right fist did.

How refreshing, how excuse-free, how stand-up and take responsibility of Brown. How very un-Tito Oriz.

Urijah Faber says he’s still got a few fights left in him, but that hasn’t stopped his hometown newspaper, the Sacremento Bee, from calling for his retirement following his lopsided leg-killing loss to WEC featherweight champ José Aldo on Saturday.

“Without Faber, the WEC would not have had its first pay-per-view event Saturday night at Arco Arena. Without Faber, the WEC still would be in the shadows of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Without Faber, WEC fighters would not make the money they do in and out of the ring. But featherweight champion José Aldo delivered a message to Faber – through numerous, painful leg whips – that should have come through loud and clear: Retire. Retire now, not after another loss in which you’re cheered entering the octagon and booed leaving it. Faber couldn’t beat Aldo on Saturday night or any other day of the week. No shame in that. Aldo is a young, powerful kid. He didn’t even use most of his aggressive arsenal against a foe he truly respected. Faber has made Sacramento proud, restoring pride to a once-great fighting city. He’s a true warrior who has survived many battles. Why risk tarnishing that image or risk the chance of injury? Take a bow, Urijah.”

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