Fighters Only

Issue 036

April 2008

For the first time in over a year the WEC was on the road and leaving Las Vegas. Since being bought by Zuffa and from WEC 25 on, the event had made its home at the Hard Rock Café in Vegas, but recognition of the fact that much of it’s top talent comes from the New Mexico region saw them decamp to Albuquerque for a night of non-stop action.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 13th 2008

Report by Daniel Fletcher. Photos: Josh Hedges / Zuffa LLC.

Condit retains title

Carlos Condit is one of the most underrated welterweights in the world. With over 25 fights to his name, the 23-year-old local boy (he resides in Albuquerque) has held the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) welterweight title since March last year. He also made it through to the finals of the Rumble on the Rock welterweight tourney by stopping veterans Frank Trigg and Renato Verrisimo. For a young guy he has serious skills, as anyone who follows the WEC will know. As is the case with most fighters though, he has a glitch or two on his record, and the first loss he ever suffered (back in 2004) was courtesy of challenger Carlo Prater.

For Condit, this was a chance for redemption, and he grabbed it with both hands. From the off he used his long legs to keep Prater at bay, and wisely so. As soon as they clinched, Prater hoisted him up and dropped him to the mat, obviously the stronger of the two. Immediately Condit started attacking, alternating between submissions and strikes from his back, using effective chopping shots and short elbows to make space, then capitalising on Prater’s reactions by going for an arm or his neck. With a slew of submissions thrown at him, Prater calmly hung on but eventually succumbed to a tight guillotine choke midway through the first. Apart from that early takedown, he scored nothing else of note in the entire fight, and though Condit was on his back for the majority of the round, he easily controlled and outworked Prater in an excellent display of jiu-jitsu.

Varner upsets Razor Rob

Probably one of the most exciting lightweight fighters out there, ‘Razor’ Rob McCullough has always been criticised as being a one-dimensional kickboxer, but when you’ve got a record of 15-3-0 and you’re a two-time WEC champ, it’s hard to argue how that can be a bad thing. Jamie Varner could be called his opposite, with nine of his 13 wins being by submission, but in a shocking turnaround, it was Varner who dominated the striking in this fight.

Beating McCullough to the punch throughout the fight, Varner used his strikes to set up takedown opportunities, and though McCullough has a good sprawl and brawl game, Varner’s pressure and constant switching of attacks was hard to resist. This went on until a bizarre timeout in the third round, when Varner lost his gumshield in the middle of a heated exchange. Varner frantically signalled to the referee he had lost his mouthpiece, and McCullough backed off and allowed him to retrieve it. Around a minute or so later, ‘Razor’ Rob was left in a crumpled heap against the cage. Varner had battered him with punches and dropped him three times, finally sealing the deal with a brutal series of blows.

Whether the timeout gave Varner chance to recover is unclear. He didn’t seem too out of sorts when asking for his gumshield, and Rob was the one who backed off to allow him to retrieve it, but it does cast some doubt on an otherwise exciting and dominating finish for the new lightweight champ.

Torres takes Beebe’s bantamweight crown

Miguel Torres proved he has serious ground skills in taking Chase Beebe’s bantamweight title with a tight guillotine finish. The taller fighter, Torres showed excellent skills off his back attacking with a myriad of submissions. Beebe, a teammate of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Clay Guida, is an excellent wrestler and good all-rounder, but Torres jiu-jitsu was just too slick and he succumbed to a chain attack that saw Torres switch from sub to sub before locking in the finish.

In other action Leonard Garcia made his WEC 145lb debut in style with a KO win over Hiroyuki Takaya, countering a kick with a sharp one-two combo. Manny Tapia took a split decision win over Antonio Banuelos in a fight that was announced a draw, but later rectified due to the misreading of a judge’s scorecard, and UFC veteran Mark Hominick suffered a loss to Josh Grispi in another featherweight bout.