(Brown vs. Garcia)

If you didn’t believe it after he pulled out a first-round TKO over Urijah Faber in November, believe it now — Mike Brown is a freakin’ monster. Brown’s first featherweight title defense ended in quick, violent fashion, as the American Top Team fighter needed less than two minutes to pound #1 contender Leonard Garcia into helplessness, then end the fight with an arm-triangle choke from the top. Things looked bad for Garcia right away, with Brown smashing him to the mat with an overhand right just 18 seconds into round 1. From there, Brown worked some brutal ground-and-pound, bloodying Garcia’s face. Garcia was able to stave off a rear-naked choke attempt, but Brown relentlessly worked to finish the fight on the ground, and made Garcia tap at the 1:57 mark. After the fight, Brown picked up a $7,500 Submission of the Night bonus, and welcomed a rematch with Faber, calling it the fight that fans want to see the most.

Speaking of bonuses, bantamweight Damacio Page earned a $7,500 Knockout of the Night bump for his 18-second storming of Marcos Galvao — who, somewhat unsurprisingly, had to leave the cage on a stretcher — while Johny Hendricks and Alex Serdyukov each took home an extra $7,500 for their action-packed Fight of the Night, which Hendricks won in a unanimous decision despite a late comeback from Serdyukov. Hendricks vs. Serdyukov was the last welterweight match to be featured in the WEC; both fighters are rumored to move to the UFC.


Completely unworthy of a bonus was the lethargic sparring/clinching session put on by Rob McCullough and Marcus Hicks, which was marked by long periods of inactivity and an audibly upset crowd. At one point, the referee even threatened to call the fight a no-contest if the fighters didn’t engage; McCullough eventually won a majority decision. But as usual, featherweight rising star Jose Aldo made up for the lack of excitement in his bout, which saw him land some nasty knees to the body of woefully outmatched WEC newcomer Chris Mickle before unleashing a barrage of punches with Mickle trapped against the cage, prompting an end to the action at the 1:39 mark of round 1. 

Full results are below…

— Mike Thomas Brown def. Leonard Garcia via submission (arm-triangle choke), 1:57 of round 1
— Ricardo Lamas def. Bart Palaszewski via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
— Jose Aldo def. Chris Mickle via TKO, 1:39 of round 1
— Rob McCullough def. Marcus Hicks via majority decision (29-29, 30-27, 29-28)
— Danny Castillo def. Phil Cardella via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
— Damacio Page def. Marcos Galvao via KO, 0:18 of round 1
— Johny Hendricks def. Alex Serdyukov via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
— Kenji Osawa def. Rafael Rebello via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 27-30)
— Alex Karalexis def. Greg McIntyre via TKO, 4:19 of round one
— John Franchi def. Mike Budnik via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
— Mike Pierce def. Justin Haskins via TKO, 3:39 of round 3