(Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown; props to MMA Scraps.)

Last night’s WEC show drew 5,227 fans for a live gate of $563,578, according to MMA Weekly. $7,500 bonuses were awarded to the following fighters:

Fight of the Night: Donald Cerrone and Rob McCullough for their three-round undercard war that some are calling a fight-of-the-year candidate; too bad we had to see the Filho/Sonnen debacle instead. Cerrone took home the unanimous decision win.

Knockout of the Night: Mike Brown for his beating of Urijah Faber. Which was nice and all, though Aaron Simpson kinda got robbed.

Submission of the Night: Rani Yahya for his first-round guillotine choke of Yoshiro Maeda, also from the undercard.

TKO of the Night?: Leonard Garcia reportedly got an extra $7,500 for steamrolling Jens Pulver.

Full results can be found here. More videos after the jump…

(“Boys, please, can’t you settle your differences with words?” Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)

The California Kid invades Hollywood (Florida), Chael “RE/MAX” Sonnen aims to do a bit of closing on Paulo Filho’s middleweight title reign, and Leonard Garcia will be smuggling nothing but his fists and feet across the border that is Jens Pulver’s face. I’m coked-out Mauro Ranallo and I’ll be your liveblogger tonight — the specials are honor, glory, pumpkin crème brûlée, and maybe some championship gold?

Just kidding, it’s only me, BG. Hit that “More” link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest from tonight’s live event on Versus. Should be a monster.

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

The WEC has released the final lineup for next Wednesday’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Here’s what we’ll be seeing:

Main Card (airing live on Versus, 8 p.m. ET)
Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown (for featherweight championship)
Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen (for middleweight championship)
Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia (featherweights)
Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck (middleweights)
Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone (lightweights)

Undercard
David Avellan vs. Aaron Simpson (light-heavyweights)
Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins (featherweights)
Alex Schoenauer vs. Steve Steinbeiss (light-heavyweights)
Danny Castillo vs. Ed Ratcliff (lightweights)
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Rani Yahya (bantamweights)

The video promo above wonders if Mike Brown is the man to stop Urijah Faber’s reign of dominance in the WEC. Most likely, he isn’t — which should explain why Faber’s betting line is as high as -450 on sports wagering sites. The fight to really pay attention to here is Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen. Before the controversial armbar stoppage in their first match last December, Chael Sonnen was dominating Filho, beating the middleweight champ standing and scoring multiple takedowns. Filho entered treatment for chemical dependency shortly after the fight, and hasn’t competed since; Sonnen last fought at WEC 33 in March, where he won a decision over Bryan Baker. It’ll be interesting to see where Filho’s head is at. And of course, there’s no way Lil’ Evil vs. Bad Boy will be a dull fight. Not bad for free TV…

(Mike Brown better be preparing for Tropical Storm Faber.)

WEC 36 — which was scheduled to go down this Wednesday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida — has been rescheduled to November 5th due to safety concerns related to Hurricane Ike. From an official statement released by the WEC on Saturday:

“Due to the potential of a major hurricane hitting the South Florida area on Wednesday we were compelled to postpone the event,” said Vice President of Operations and Production Peter Dropick. “For the safety of our fans, the fighters and our staff we felt it was in the best interest to make this decision.”

Hurricane Ike is currently a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 120 MPH and is moving west/southwest toward South Florida according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory. The storm is on track to have impact on the Florida Keys and South Florida on Tuesday (9/9) into Wednesday (9/10).

“With Hurricane Ike approaching our area we have concern for the fans, fighters, our employees and the South Florida community in general,” said Bernie Dillon, Sr. Vice President of Entertainment for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. “We felt like it would be prudent and in everyone’s best interest to postpone the event. We certainly don’t want to cause any travelers or employees to get stranded here should we have a major storm.”

Unfortunately, the WEC may have jumped the gun a bit, as it now looks like Ike will miss Florida entirely, and make landfall somewhere between Alabama and Texas. Tickets purchased for the September 10th date remain valid and will be honored on 11/5; refunds can be obtained at the point of purchase. After the jump is the card you won’t be seeing on Wednesday…

(The Nightmare returns; photo courtesy of MMA Junkie.)

A couple of important fight bookings to pass along this morning…

First, MMA Weekly reports that a welterweight bout between Diego Sanchez and Thiago Alves will take place at UFC 90 (October 25th, Chicago); the UFC hasn’t officially announced any of the fights on the card yet. Originally, Sanchez/Alves was rumored to take place at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England, but with that lineup filling out it looks like the Nightmare vs. the Pitbull will be used to anchor the UFC’s first show in Chi-town.

Meanwhile, Leonard Garcia has reportedly agreed to face Jens Pulver in a featherweight match at WEC 36 (September 10th; Hollywood, Florida). WEC 36 is also slated to feature title fights between Urijah Faber and Mike Brown, and Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen. Garcia hasn’t fought since a TKO victory over Hiroyuki Takaya at WEC 32 in February, after which he was caught up in a minor misunderstanding over drug smuggling. Pulver had to undergo elbow surgery after his unanimous decision loss to Urijah Faber last month, but according to Lil’ Evil, “everything is good.”

Sherdog has confirmed previous rumors that WEC 36 — which is slated for September 10th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida — will be headlined by a featherweight championship match between 145-pound king Urijah Faber and highly regarded American Top Team fighter Mike Brown. Brown is coming off an impressive decision win over Jeff Curran at WEC 34, and has won 10 of his last 11 fights in organizations like Bodog Fight, HOOKnSHOOT, AFC, and DEEP. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, check out the above highlight reel from VulgarATT.

All of Faber’s WEC matches to this point have been held in Las Vegas or in his home state of California, but Brown will have the hometown advantage in this one, since he trains with ATT in nearby Coconut Creek, FL. WEC 36 will also feature the middleweight rematch between champion Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen, as well as bouts between Mark Munoz and Steve Steinbeiss, and “Razor” Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone.