Issue 071
January 2011
In 2011 the UFC will merge with its ‘little bro’,World Extreme Cagefighting. Who’ll be the stars of the new ‘lower-weight divisions’ created? And why do titchy fighters make for such great scraps?
Mixed martial arts can make for a volatile mistress. Yet while there are few guarantees in life, much less the cage, there are still some constants that bring comfort and balance. Bruce Buffer will always sport a healthy St Tropez glow; Arianny’s hot pants will be just a smidgen too small; and the 155lb and under fighters of the WEC – soon to be seen in the UFC – will deliver a barnstorming show. The promotion bought by UFC owners Zuffa in December 2006 was originally christened World Extreme Cagefighting by cofounders Reed Harris and Scott Adams in June 2001. ‘Extreme’ is ‘to be of a high, or highest, degree of intensity’ – a definition that encapsulates the relentless pace and non-stop action that the WEC’s become synonymous with over the last few years. “We always focus on the fights,” WEC general manager Harris tells Fighters Only, “that’s been our claim to fame ever since the beginning – we have some of the best fights in the business.”
Zuffa absorbed all but the WEC’s lightweight (155lb), featherweight (145lb) and bantamweight (135lb) divisions into the UFC two years after original purchase. And now it’s doing the same with those ‘lower-weight divisions’. Cult favourites like Jose Aldo, Urijah Faber, Donald Cerrone and Benson Henderson will now grace the ultimate proving ground: the Octagon. “[The lighter champions will be] main and co-main events,” says UFC president Dana White, “A lot of people haven’t seen how exciting these guys are. I’d like to have a 125lb championship, too.” Top-level scraps for some WEC stars are already slated. The winner of the WEC lightweight title battle between Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis at WEC 53 in December – slated to be the promotion’s final event – will face the winner of the UFC lightweight title contest between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard at UFC 125. WEC featherweight champ and pound-for-pound contender Jose Aldo makes his UFC debut against Josh Grispi at UFC 125 on January 1st too. Be all prepared for the biggest MMA event in recent memory as Fighters Only fills you in on the UFC’s fresh diminutive heroes – and a certain new ring girl who we hope will be appearing, too…
THE BANTAMWEIGHTS
Dominick Cruz
Bantamweight champion (16-1-0)
Recommended viewing:
Cruz vs Benavidez I at WEC 42: Torres vs Bowles. Ending the ten-fight unbeaten run of wrestling powerhouse Joseph Benavidez, Cruz upset the odds with a ‘Fight of the Night’ coming-out-party performance for the 135lb division’s new kingpin.
Originally arriving at the WEC as a 9-0 featherweight, the only loss on the 25-year-old’s 17-fight career is his promotional debut – a 2007 title match against long-time champion Urijah Faber. Since the defeat Cruz has come to find a more natural home at bantamweight, winning the 135lb belt in March this year with a second-round (T)KO over then-unbeaten Brian Bowles. Tall for the division (5’8”), and packing abs to make Georges St Pierre blush, the Californian is noted for exceptionally fast and effective footwork that complements heavy hands, with six career (T)KOs on his résumé. With the ‘Dominator’ currently riding a seven-fight win-streak, and Faber dropping down to join the realms of the bantamweight division, 2011 could be the year we see one of the promotion’s most eagerly anticipated rematches. “Cruz has the belt right now,” says Faber. “I’ve got a win over him, and I’m his only career loss, so there’s a story right there.”
Other notable 135lb WEC fighters
Urijah Faber
If you only know one WEC fighter, chances are you know ‘The California Kid’. One of the most famous faces in all of MMA, let alone the WEC, Faber is the most dominant champion in the promotion’s history – of any weight class. Now fighting at 135lb following a career spent largely at 145lb, Faber launches a bid for his fifth career title against dangerous Japanese striker Takeya Mizugaki at the self-titled WEC 52: Faber vs Mizugaki in November this year.
Miguel Torres
A wizard on the mat, with laser-guided Muay Thai skills, the former bantamweight champion has an exceptional 38-3-0 career record that includes 23 submission victories. In need of a win following consecutive defeats to Brian Bowles and Joseph Benavidez, Torres bounced back in style at WEC 51: Aldo vs Gamburyan with a comprehensive stoppage victory over Charlie Valencia.
WEC commentator Todd Harris says: “As for fights I have called, I would have to say the Brown-Faber rematch (WEC 41: Brown vs Faber 2) was an instant
classic, as was the Torres-Mizugaki fight (WEC 40: Torres vs Mizugaki). Whenever a fight goes the distance, and both fighters lay it all out there, it’s a great night!”
See also:
Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez and number-one challenger Scott Jorgenson.
THE FEATHERWEIGHTS
Jose Aldo
Featherweight champion (18-1-0)
Recommended viewing:
WEC 44: Brown vs Aldo – With 12 (T)KOs in a 19-fight career, Aldo is the epitome of a walking highlight reel. Yet for a snapshot of what makes the Brazilian so good, his November 2009 destruction of then-red-hot Mike Brown was the inauguration ceremony of WEC’s crown jewel.
Considered by many to be an iron-clad member of the great pound-for-pound debate, Brazilian-born Jose Aldo is presently nigh untouchable on the WEC’s famous royal blue canvas.
At 8-0 since joining in June 2008, and unbeaten in almost five years, Aldo has laid waste to all before him on a tear to the title that includes an eight-second mauling of Cub Swanson at WEC 41: Brown vs Faber 2, and a five-round leg-kick master class against Urijah Faber that sent the former long-time champion limping out of the 145lb division. At just 24 years of age, Aldo is as near a complete and fearsome a fighter as there is on planet MMA today. He boasts lightning-fast strikes, explosive power and a creativity inside the Octagon on a par with any of the sport’s premium dynamos – Jon Jones and Anderson Silva included. Fresh off a two-round destruction of former UFC lightweight Manny Gambruyan, Aldo holds the record for consecutive WEC victories (eight) and a BJJ black belt, rarely seen on account of his phenomenal stand-up arsenal. A front-runner for the Fighters Only World MMA Awards, Aldo is a future great, here today and an absolute joy
to behold.
Other notable 145lb WEC fighters
Manny Gamburyan
Since dropping from 155lb to 145lb, and joining the ranks of the WEC in June 2009, the former UFC lightweight, and Ultimate Fighter 5 finalist, fought his way to a September title matchup on the back of three straight victories.
Mike Brown
A former featherweight champion,
Brown has notable wins over Anthony Morrison, veteran Jeff Curran and most famously Urijah Faber – twice. While Brown has struggled to fulfill the expectation of a unique 2-0 record over Faber, an emphatic first-round (T)KO of Cole Province last month is proof that the 35-year-old is still very much a dangerous opponent for any featherweight with title aspirations.
See also:
Diego Nunes, Mark Hominick, ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung, unbeaten Chad Mendes and WEC 1 veteran Leonard Garcia.
THE LIGHTWEIGHTS
Ben Henderson
Lightweight champion (12-1-0)
Recommended viewing:
Henderson vs Cerrone 2 at WEC 48: Aldo vs Faber. If their barn-storming 25-minute whirlwind of crazy submission attempts, reversals and non-stop action at WEC 43 was a contender for 2009’s ‘Fight of the Year’ then the rematch showcased exactly why Henderson is now considered one of the best lightweights in the world, not just the WEC, choking out the talented and durable Cerrone in just 1:57 of round one.
Counting notable UFC lightweights BJ Penn and Kenny Florian among past training partners, two-time NAIA All-American Ben ‘Smooth’ Henderson is not a fighter to be confused with the typical graduate of collegiate wrestling’s much-maligned ‘School for Lay ‘n’ Pray’. Combining a solid wrestling base with non-stop hustle (even by lung-busting WEC standards), and an aggressive jiu-jitsu offense, the 26-year-old bookworm, who relaxes by spending time in his local public library, fought to the WEC’s lightweight title on the back of ten stoppage victories – eight by the power of submission.
Other notable 155lb WEC fighters
Anthony Njokuani
The Lagos-born Nigerian-American enjoys the same patchy record of any exciting knockout artist, but his highlight-reel knockout of Chris Horodecki has made it to the shortlist for ‘KO of the Year’ at the FO World MMA Awards.
Donald Cerrone
One half of one of the WEC’s more malevolent grudge matches, (the other being ex-UFC fighter and controversy magnet Jamie ‘C-4’ Varner), the ‘Cowboy’ is a member of Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting camp boasting five ‘…of the Night’ bonuses and a smack-talk repertoire straight out of the ‘Frank Mir Guide on How to Stir up a Sh*t Storm’.
Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis
With only one loss on his 12-fight record – a split decision dropped to veteran Bart Palaszewski in December 2009 – the Duke Roufus prodigy recently earned himself a title shot courtesy of a submission victory over Shane Roller with just nine seconds of their WEC 50: Cruz vs Benavidez 2 bout left.
See also:
Shane Roller, ex-TUF housemate George Roop and 18-0 ‘Mongolian Wolf’ Tie Quan Zhang.
Small Ones Are More Juicy
What makes a lower-weight WEC fighter so explosive?
Speed
Having a good engine is one thing, but put a four-stroke V8 engine in a three-ton tractor and it’ll get you 0–10km/h in roughly two lifetimes. Stick it in state-of-the-art carbon-fiber bodywork and it’ll get you 0–200km/h in about the same time it takes Jose Aldo to hand out a flying double-knee (T)KO.
Noted for exceptionally fast striking, footwork and jack-in-the-box-like explosiveness, WEC fighters are the hyper-performance vehicles of the MMA world. What they lack in brute-force torque of their larger peers, they make up for in lightning-fast combinations, transitions and all-round execution.
Technique
“Their technique is so good because, if you think about it, the smaller guys have got to have better technique. They can’t win based on strength alone,” considers Reed Harris. So what happens when they apply that technique inside the cage? Of all lighter-weight class fights, almost 60% in the Zuffa-era have ended inside the distance.
Cardio
Sporting a set of 18” biceps and Herculean ‘traps’ may attract the glances of admiring fair maidens, but they can make for every fighter’s worst nightmare inside the cage: lactic acid – a condition that saw Shane Carwin literally punch himself out of a heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar earlier this year at UFC 116.
Yet being upwards of 40lb lighter than even their middleweight contemporaries, and half the body mass of some top-end heavyweight behemoths, WEC fighters are finely tuned packets of lean muscle tissue, and low body-fat percentages, that make even a belching Clay Guida appear, well, sluggish. “Their cardio is so good that with WEC fights you never see guys laying on each other – it’s fast-break MMA,” says Reed Harris.
TRUE BLUE
WEC ring girl Brittney Palmer
A professional dancer with the critically acclaimed, and critically hot, X-Burlesque show, the 22-year-old WEC ring girl is also a skydiving daredevil and former boxing ring card girl – but don’t hold that against her. “There’s really no comparison,” says Ms Palmer. “When you’re watching boxing, it’s like, ‘Okay, they can throw punches.’ But when you’re watching WEC it’s just so much better. When you’re happy to be there and happy to watch it, you’re happy to be working.”
War record: a history of the WEC
2001
June 30, 2001. WEC 1: Princes of Pain debuts at the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino, Leemore, California. Headlined by UFC Hall-of-Famer Dan Severn and veterans’ veteran Travis Fulton, the event draws 4,000 fans
2003
March 27, 2003. After more than three years ‘retired’, MMA legend Frank Shamrock marks his comeback by winning the inaugural light heavyweight championship at WEC 6: Return of a Legend, his only fight for the promotion
2006
December, 2006. Zuffa, LLC, parent company of the UFC, purchases the WEC
for an undisclosed sum
2007
June 3, 2007. First-ever live event is broadcast on the Versus channel
January 20, 2007. Heralding the dawning of the new Zuffa era, WEC 25: McCullough vs Cope sees the promotion’s first Las Vegas card. Reports of a Bengal tiger in the bathroom are unfounded
2008
November, 2008. Former match-making assistant to Joe Silva, Sean Selby is announced the WEC’s new matchmaker
2009
March 1, 2009. Current UFC fighter Johny Hendricks beats Alex Serdyukov by decision in the promotion’s last-ever welterweight bout
2010
June 20, 2010. WEC’s first-ever show held outside of the US draws close to 6,000 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
September 7, 2010. UFC presents: Best of WEC released on DVD and Blu-Ray. Santa confirms: “Christmas has come early”
October 28, 2010. Dana White announces the anticipated WEC/UFC merger, to widespread acclaim from fans and fighters
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