Category — WEC

Joel Gerson from Revolution MMA just sent me a text regarding Jose Aldo’s easing up on Urijah Faber during the later rounds of Saturday’s WEC main event. I’d taken Aldo to task for not finishing Faber off, the latest in a string of lopsided title fights that went to the judges when it clearly shouldn’t have.

But Gerson believes that Aldo eased back (in the fifth round, in particular) not out of some fear of taking risks or inability/unwillingness to end the fight, but out of respect for Faber. He didn’t want to humiliate him in front of Faber’s hometown and wanted to let him go out like a champ.

True or not, I like the theory a lot. It certainly makes sense. Aldo never mocked or clowned Faber at any point, always showed him the utmost respect, and anyone who’s seen his flying knees knows he’s not averse to taking risks. Thanks, Joel, I actually feel much better about the bout and it makes the entire card that  much more satisfying.

Sometimes words just aren’t enough. But here are a few to describe WEC 48’s three-round Fight of the Night (and possibly of the year) between Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung: Jaw-dropping, sloppy, gutsy, thrilling, relentless, unpredictable, entertaining as hell.

For three rounds, Garcia and Chan played rock ‘em sock ‘em robots in a preliminary fisticuffs that set the stage for a fantastic card and reminded a lot of people of  the classic Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar go-for-broke donnybrook.

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Again the issue of fighters not finishing fights rears its ugly head. This time at Saturday’s WEC 48, or whatever you want to call the non-WEC-branded event that probably had a lot of casual fans thinking they were watching the UFC (and paves the way for a further melding/absorbing of the WEC/UFC brand).

No, Jose Aldo didn’t clown Urijah Faber the way Anderson Silva did Demian Maia, but the WEC featherweight champ’s decision to play it safe and allow Faber to limp his way to a lopsided unanimous-decision loss certainly put a damper on the top-to-bottom most-exciting MMA card so far this year.

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After a couple of lame UFC cards, a Strikeforce bust and a Bellator that bored, I’m afraid to get my hopes up too high for Saturday’s WEC 48. It’s got such a stacked main card, it’s hard not to. And with UFC president Dana White taking over the captain’s chair and running the show for the promotion’s first pay-per-view card (and Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg taking over the commentating duties), you know that parent company Zuffa is taking the need to deliver very seriously.

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Consider yourself on notice: Book a babysitter, call your buddies, mark on your calendar – you do not want to miss this fight. The first time Ben Henderson met Donald Cerrone at WEC 43 it was the fight of the year. Hands down, no contest. Here’s what I wrote at the time back in October:

Last night’s WEC interim lightweight title bout may not have been the most technical display of mixed martial artistry but it was easily the most-exciting back-and-forth, end-any-second, go-either-way battle not featuring Clay Guida this year. Definitely a Fight of the Year candidate.

Henderson, a 3-1 underdog, survived multiple submission attempts – guillotines, triangles, D’arce chokes, armbars, omo platas, kimuras, the kitchen sink – to earn the five-round unanimous decision victory over Donald Cerrone.

“Survived” is the operative word as Henderson appeared on the verge of being choked out or having his arm separated from his shoulder on several occasions – at one point he spent an uncomfortable, mesmerizing minute locked into a deep arm-triangle choke that had me holding my breath, while a fifth-round kimura mangled his arm into such a horrifying position that there was an audible gasp from the audience when he was able to give the ref the thumbs up before escaping and popping to his feet as fresh as a daisy.

I’m sure Henderson – henceforth and forever to be known as Bendo – requires no oxygen and that when he went to the hospital after the fight for x-rays they came back negative because he has no bones.

A few things have been stuck in my craw ever since Saturday’s WEC 47. Things that just don’t sit right, like Brian Bowles throwing in the towel with a busted hand after just two rounds.

You can call it a doctor’s stoppage but the only way for the doc to know the hand is busted is to x-ray it – or have the fighter confess that it’s broken. And Bowles seemed pretty calm and matter-of-fact about the whole thing even though it meant he’d just lost the bantamweight belt. I alluded to this in my fight recap story – I know not everyone can break a hand (or two) and keep fighting a la Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown. But it’s as though Bowles knew he was outclassed and getting his ass kicked – which he was, by a very nimble Dominick Cruz – and the broken hand was a way out.

I could be wrong but that’s how I read it. I’m not the only one, as Cory Brady over at Five Ounces of Pain makes the same call and lays out a few more pet peeves from the event that I agree with top to bottom. I especially like his trouble with tears and his assessment of Miguel Torres’s less-than-impressive performance.

Anti-climactic. That just about sums up Saturday’s WEC 47. Whether it was Jens Pulver being armbarred into retirement (again) in the first round, or former bantamweight superstar Miguel Angel Torres being choked out by a fighter half his size or champ Brian Bowles throwing in the towel after two rounds because of a broken hand, the rug was repeatedly pulled out from under the card.

In fact, Bowles’ inability to continue – and his admission that the broken hand hampered his mental game, his ability to focus on not getting his ass kicked – was jarring and disappointing. I even cracked that Urijah Faber broke both hands in the first round against Mike Brown and still went the distance, throwing wild elbows instead, and all Bowles managed was a few more minutes of damage avoidance before giving up. Not fair, I know. I stub my pinky toe and I’m on the DL for a week. Still, the quit-factor was disappointing.

But give credit to his opponent, the new champ Dominick Cruz. Busted hand or not, Bowles looked like a statue opposite the fleet-footed, stance-switching firecracker. Cruz’s manager, Matt Stansell, predicted the fight would resemble a bullfight, and Cruz was every bit a matador, dancing around Bowles, peppering the increasingly frustrated fighter with punches and kicks and the occasional takedown. I’ve little doubt that broken hand or not, Bowles wouldn’t have left the cage with the belt around his waist.

While Bowles goes back to the drawing board, the win sets up a rematch between Cruz and Joseph Benavidez. Cruz took their first encounter by unanimous decision, handing Benavidez his only loss at the same time.

Benavidez overcame an 11-inch reach disadvantage to stun Torres with a second-round guillotine submission. He waded into the pocket to land overhand rights that left Torres looking bewildered, he took Torres to the ground and opened a nasty cut on his forehead that left him looking scared, and he finished him off with the choke after a failed armbar attempt that left him and me and a lot of other people in shock. It was the former 135-pound champ’s second straight loss (he surrendered the title to Bowles last year).

Pulver, a former UFC lightweight champ and semi-legend, was a step or two behind in the few minutes he lasted against Javier Vasquez. He got taken down three times, reversed it twice but on the third found himself in an armbar that hyper-extended his elbow and in all likelihood shortened his cage career.

A couple of other notables from the card. How did Bart Palaszewski manage to hang on to Karen Darabedyan’s wrist tightly enough to pull off that armbar? By a thread, I’d wager. And Scott Jorgensen’s standing guillotine 31 seconds into the opening round that lifted Chad George off his feet and rendered him unconscious even as he was tapping was one of the most vicious I’ve seen.

Tonight’s WEC 47 card is tight. Undefeated bantamweight champ Brian Bowles (8-0) headlines against challenger Dominick Cruz (14-1). It’s Bowles’ first title defense since taking the belt from Miguel Torres last August. Torres (37-2) is also on the card. He’ll face Joseph Benavidez (11-1) in a 135-pound tilt that will fast-track the winner to a title shot.

But the fight I’m really eyeing is Jens Pulver (22-12-1) against Javier Vazquez (13-4). Some say the former UFC lightweight champ is washed up and maybe he is. Pulver has dropped six of his last seven, after all. But consider who those six winning opponents were – BJ Penn, Urijah Faber (twice), Josh Grispi, Leonard Garcia and Joe Lauzon. It’s not as though Pulver is taking the easy way out of the game. And I’m curious to see what he still has left.

Jonathan Snowden over at Brawl Sports has a good interview with Pulver that covers the ups and downs of his entire career. Pulver is a lot smarter, or at least a lot more self-aware and introspective, than his cage persona indicates. And if you’re at all familiar with his abusive white-trash upbringing, you’ve got to respect what he’s done with his life.

Yippee ki yay, muthafucker! The most-exciting fight from last year is about to happen all over again. WEC lightweight champ Ben Henderson will make his first defense of the 155-pound title against Donald Cerrone at April 24’s WEC 48. Bendo defeated the Cowboy at WEC 43 to take the interim belt and advance to the unification bout against champ Jamie Varner, whom he choked out at WEC 46. Cerrone, meanwhile, choked out Ed Ratcliff at WEC 45 to earn the rematch.

Hopefully, round two will be a lot like round one, which saw Bendo survive unbelievable submission attempts (see photo above) to bang out a win in one of the few edge-of-your-seat showdowns on any MMA card in the last couple of years.

And that’s not the only fireworks we can expect from WEC 48. In addition Henderson vs. Cerrone II, the card will feature a co- main event between former 145-pound champion Urijah Faber and reigning division kingpin Jose Aldo, which could be one of the most-exciting fights of 2010.

I’ve never been much of a Jens Pulver fan (unless he was fighting BJ Penn). I admire his feral tenacity, but that’s about as far as it goes. But I have to give him a lot of credit for making something of himself considering where he’s come from. It’s no secret Little Evil had an abusive white trash upbringing. When he was seven, his father stuck a gun in his mouth and then deciding he wasn’t worth the bullets. And his whole fight career seems to have been built around literally battling those demons. Every time he steps in the cage, he imagines his opponent is his father.

Well, this trailer for a film about Pulver called Jens Pulver: Driven has me intrigued. If the final film pays off what the trailer promises – in-depth, honest, emotional, raw, and most-importantly insightful and self-reflective – then I’m there. It’s also got a Friday Night Lights quality about it – I suspect it’s the choice of music – and that’s a good thing.

I’ve been in touch with the filmmaker, Gregory Bayne, so expect an interview with him in the next couple of weeks.

As for Pulver, who dropped his last four fights to Urijah Faber (twice), Leonard Garcia and Joseph Grispi, he plans to unretire on March 6 at WEC 47. The former UFC lightweight champ (as well as PRIDE and WEC veteran) will face Javier Vazquez on a card that also features WEC bantamweight champ Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz, Leonard Garcia vs. Diego Nunes and Miguel Torres vs. Joseph Benavidez.