(Fred Sanford, bitch. Photo courtesy of the WEC 40 weigh-ins gallery on Combat Lifestyle.)

From tonight’s "Torres vs. Mizugaki" show at the UIC Pavillion in Chicago, Illinois:

Rafael Dias def. Mike Budnick via unanimous decision
Akitoshi Tamura def. Manny Tapia via unanimous decision
Rani Yahya def. Eddie Wineland via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:07 of round 1
Wagnney Fabiano def. Fredson Paixao via unanimous decision
Dominick Cruz def. Ivan Lopez via unanimous decision [fight halted in third round after Lopez took an illegal knee and couldn't continue; match went to the scorecards, with the incomplete third round included]
Anthony Njokuani def. Bart Palaszewski via TKO, 0:27 of round 2

(McCullough with squeeze Lexxi Tyler, via MySpace.  You might remember her from a couple blue movies she’s been in, such as "Boobs of Hazzard," "Muff Bumpers 5," and "Rack Em."  All actual titles.)

According to MMA Weekly’s Insider Blog, the WEC’s Rob McCullough is going to be out of action for a while, as he’s going on the next season of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab” to get his sex addiction looked at.  How ’bout that?

Apparently McCullough had surgery on the hand that he broke in his snoozer of a bout with Marcus Hicks at WEC 39, and since he has to take some time off anyway he might as well see if he can achieve his two lifelong goals of being on a reality show and putting an end to his compulsive fornicating all at once.  That’s called making efficient use of your time.

Depending on the source, this may just be part of the third season of the popular “Celebrity Rehab” show that seeks to exploit the substance abuse problems of kind of famous people for ratings, or it may be a spin-off of that show devoted entirely to sex addiction, which would be the perfect place for McCullough to meet chicks now that he and porn star Lexxi Tyler are reportedly no longer dating. (Edit: okay, so they’re still dating, and possibly engaged. Who can tell with porn stars?  I mean, when you think about it?) 

Now begins the great debate as to which MMA fighter made out better in the porn actress dating pool: Rob McCullough or Tito Ortiz?  McCullough managed not to get his porn star girlfriend pregnant (we hope), while Ortiz landed one who was more, um…I guess the word I’m looking for here is “prolific.”  Some comparison photos are after the jump to better aid the discourse.

(Hold on, guys. I don’t know how to say this, but it seems like one of you is really embracing your character here and one you, cough*Miguel*cough, is still holding back. Let’s try it again, with some feeling this time.)

Fresh off a profitable UFC Fight Night 18, the Gambling Addiction Enabler is ready to throw all his winnings away on Sunday night’s WEC event and then fall into a deep depression that leads to him holding up a liquor store just to get gambling money for next week’s Strikeforce event.  Yes, that might sound a little too detailed, but if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.

Odds, come today from BestFightOdds.com:

Miguel Torres (-600) vs. Takeya Mizugaki (+450)
Ben Henderson (+120) vs. Shane Roller (-150)
Jeff Curran (-130) vs. Joseph Benavidez (even)
Fredson Paixao (+275) vs. Wagnney Fabiano (-345)
Akitoshi Tamura (+130) vs. Manny Tapia (-160)
Jameel Massough (+275) vs. Rafael Assuncao (-345)
Dominick Cruz (-450) vs. Ivan Lopez (+370)
Eddie Wineland (+240) vs. Rani Yahya (-300)
Anthony Njokuani (+135) vs. Bart Palaszewski (-165)
Mike Budnik (+250) vs. Rafael Dias (-310)

Thoughts…

(Props: MMA Mania)

In part one of a new video feature from the WEC, bantamweight king Miguel Torres gives us a look at his fight preparation, his family (including his father, the true originator of the Torres Mexi-Mullet), and the sacrifices he makes to guide the next generation of martial artists. Torres will make his next belt defense at WEC 40 (April 5th, Chicago), where he’ll be welcoming Shooto/GCM standout Takeya Mizugaki to the U.S.

Below: On a recent episode of Sports Science, Fedor Emelianenko out-choked a python, then choked-out the show’s host. ("You’ll be okay, don’t worry," says Fedor, trying in vain to console the human test dummy.) It’s an interesting look at the mechanincs behind how fighters get choked out, and how little effort it really takes to make that happen. For the beginning of Fedor’s segment click here. Sorry for the video quality; please turn up your sound.

(Props: TheGarv)

(Welcome to the world, Jameson twins.  You’re screwed.)

Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson have put the unfathomable power of their two super-brains to work and come up with names for their newborn twins: Jesse and Journey Jett. 

You know, considering who their parents are, I’d say these kids got off pretty easy.  Although it is a bit of a screw-job to give one kid a normal name and then name the other after a band that won’t even be ironically cool anymore by the time they’re in junior high.  But hey, as long as they’re both carrying around the illustrious Jameson surname neither one of them is going to be lacking in emotional baggage.

In other news…

(The first taste is free, but the second dose is going to cost you.)

Taking full advantage of his position at Versus.com, Ariel Helwani just posted an interview with WEC Vice President Peter Dropick where they discuss the future of the organization and rumors of a move to pay-per-view.  Dropick was all too eager to confirm those rumors, telling Helwani that the first WEC pay-per-view will be headlined by the much-anticipated rematch between Urijah Faber and WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown, and it could happen as soon as this June.

If you’re worried about how you’re going to afford all the MMA this summer, you’ll be glad to hear that Dropick also promised the price of a WEC pay-per-view would be less than a UFC event, though he didn’t specify by how much.  As for what else might appear on that card, he wouldn’t rule out an appearance by Miguel Torres, saying he wants the pay-per-view to be “stacked.”

Obviously, the WEC is considering Sacramento, where they’ve done extremely well in the past, as a potential venue for this event, but Dropick said there were “three or four different cities” they were considering as well.  He also commented on the status of the lighter weight classes in the WEC, and the potential for Gina Carano to head up a women’s division at some point in the near future.  The whole interview is worth a read, so give it a look.

(Props: World of MMA)

File under: Things that would be kind of amazing, but don’t have the slightest chance of actually happening. In this quickie interview with Fabricio Werdum, the former UFC heavyweight says his next fight will be for Strikeforce, likely in May (cool!), and his opponent "is possible, maybe, Kimbo" (oh no!). Throwing Ferg against a seasoned killer like Werdum seems to contradict Scott Coker’s previously stated plan to build Slice back up slowly, so we’re raising an eyebrow at this one. But for the record, Fab says that his gameplan would be to take Kimbo down and submit him. Smart thinking, player; you don’t want none of Kimbo in a stand-up war.

Below: Versus chose not to show the direct aftermath of Damacio Page’s Knockout of the Night over Marcos Galvao at WEC 39, and with good reason — Galvao was completely stiffened after the KO, and then suffered a brief seizure. Check out the gruesome fan-shot video below. Fortunately, Galvao was quickly released from the hospital with no apparent injuries, but it was a scary moment for the fighter and his supporters.

(Props: Fightlinker)

When Ariel Helwani informed us that he was leaving MMA Rated – once the go-to spot for video interviews that often became instant internet classics, now an anemic shell of a website – amid hard financial times, we naturally assumed that this meant our Canadian friend would soon be reduced to selling fake Nikes and knock-off Affliction shirts in Times Square.  Then he got the job working on “UFC Primetime” and it seemed like things might be all right until production shut down following UFC 94 and he was forced to get some sleep and go back on his all Ramen Noodles diet.

But lo and behold, “The Franchise” is back in business.  We’re pleased to tell you that Helwani is now beefing up the MMA coverage at Versus.com.  That’s right, as in the people who air the WEC events you enjoy so much.  In other words, Helwani is working for The Man.  The good news?  The Man pays well, and on time.

He tells us that Versus.com will be covering the MMA world as a whole and not just the WEC, and we’re encouraged by the fact that they hired a real MMA journalist for the job and not some punk-ass corporate lackey.  If you want to check out Helwani’s first effort – a recap of last night’s WEC – you can read it here.  

Congrats, Ariel.  The Potato Nation looks forward to reading your work until you are inevitably fired for stealing office supplies and sexually harassing interns.  Should be a fun three weeks.

(There’s my boy.  Photo courtesy of WEC.tv)

As some of you have noted in the comments to our Gambling Addiction Enabler series, following our betting advice seems likely to lead to financial ruin.  Weird, I know.  It’s almost as if you shouldn’t make financial decisions based on what you read for free on the internet while you’re supposed to be working.

But in an effort to bring accountability and transparency to the Gambling Addiction Enabler, here’s how I did following my own advice for WEC 39.

The Bet: $20 on Mike Brown at -185 (BetUs.com)
The Outcome: Won a cool $10.81 (plus, you know, my original twenty back). 
What I Learned: Yes, I know I’m betting small here but it’s the WEC, which is basically the dog track of MMA.  You don’t want to blow hundreds of dollars on some greyhounds that will be euthanized four months from now, so to speak.  (To really lose your ass, you go to Santa Anita.  Which for the purposes of this ill-fated analogy, is the UFC.)  My faith in Brownie paid off here, albeit in meager fashion.  But I’m building my gambling fortune empire and like they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.  It also wasn’t built on twenty-dollar bets on guys who were favored at almost 2-1, but I’m conveniently ignoring that fact in order to savor this win.

(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.

(Mike Brown prays to Krom for victory.  But if Krom does not help, then to hell with him, Brown will do it himself.)

You may have forgotten all about WEC 39 on Sunday night, such is your excitement for our party with Fight! Magazine in Columbus, Ohio, but we remembered because someone has to keep things in order around here.  In case you’re not content just watching a night of free fights on Versus, we’ll also help you throw away your money betting on them.  Because that’s how little we care about your welfare and happiness.

Here are the sweetest lines out there, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com:

Mike Brown (-165) vs. Leonard Garcia (+160)
Marcus Hicks (+134) vs. Rob McCullough (-144)
John Franchi (-118) vs. Mike Budnik (+108)
Johny Hendricks (-312) vs. Alex Serdyukov (+300)
Chris Mickle (+700) vs. Jose Aldo (-850)
Damacio Page (-140) vs. Marcus Galvao (+130)
Alex Karalexis (-175) vs. Greg McIntyre (+165)
Phil Cardella (+151) vs. Danny Castillo (-160)
Rafael Rebello (even) vs. Kenji Osawa (-110)
Justin Haskins (+180) vs. Mike Pierce (-193)
Bart Palaszewski (-272) vs. Ricardo Lamas (+260)

Thoughts…

(Takeya Mizugaki vs. Daichi Fujiwara, 6/22/08. Fight starts at the 1:08 mark; Mizugaki’s in the white trunks. Videos of two more Mizugaki wins are after the jump.)

MMA Weekly reports that the WEC‘s #1 bantamweight contender Brian Bowles has suffered an "undisclosed injury" [update: it was a back injury suffered during a training session at ATT] and has been forced to pull out of his title scrap with #4 P4P fighter Miguel Torres at WEC 40 (April 5th, Chicago). It’s an incredibly tough break for the undefeated Bowles, but on the bright side, the WEC has managed to pull a very credible replacement directly out of their asses. Stepping in for Brian will be Takeya Mizugaki, an 11-2-2 veteran of Shooto and GCM Cage Force who’s on a five-fight win streak, and who MMA Weekly currently ranks as the #6 bantamweight in the world. Mizugaki is expected to sign a five-fight contract with the WEC.

Speaking of which: WEC 39 is this Sunday in Corpus Christi, and will be broadcast live on Versus. The card will feature the featherweight title fight between Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia, Jose Aldo vs. Chris Mickle in a featherweight contender match, and lightweight bouts between Bart Palaszewski and Ricardo Lamas, and Rob McCullough vs. Marcus Hicks.

("Brow down, bitches!")

Remember when the WEC’s featherweight division just consisted of Urijah Faber and the handful of dudes who were sent in to get trounced by him? Now we’ve got Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia fighting for the title, and guys like Wagnney Fabiano and Jose Aldo slaying their way up the ladder. It’s an exciting place to fight, and the division got even deeper this week with two high-profile additions to the 145-pound roster.

On Monday, MMA Junkie reported that #10-ranked featherweight Rafael Assuncao was signed to a multi-fight deal, with his debut possibly coming at WEC 40 (April 5th, Chicago). Assuncao is 12-1 with eight wins by submission, and holds career wins over Joe Lauzon and Jorge Masvidal. Most recently he scored a 12-second knockout over Joe "The Triangular Strangler" Pearson at an Ironheart Crown show in November. Though he was previously associated with Unit 2 Fitness in Atlanta, Assuncao will be moving to American Top Team, the home of current WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown. Said Assuncao’s manager Malki Kawa: 

(Quit it, Fredson — Mario is in no mood.)

Contradicting an earlier report that said top WEC featherweights Wagnney Fabiano and Urijah Faber would be fighting each other at WEC 40 on April 5th, it now appears that Fabiano will instead be facing Fredson Paixao, and Faber won’t be on the Chicago card at all. A four-time Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion and instructor at Gracie Barra Las Vegas, Paixao holds an MMA record of 8-2 — with wins over Rani Yahya, Masakazu Imanari, and Thomas Denny — but has only competed once in the last two years. He was supposed to make his WEC debut against Jose Aldo last month at WEC 38, but was pulled off the card for undisclosed reasons. Anyway, it’s no Faber/Fabiano, but Fabiano/Paixao could turn into an epic ground battle.

Faber may not see action again until this summer; it’s possible that his next fight will be against the winner of Mike Brown vs. Leonard Garcia at WEC 39 (March 1st; Corpus Christi, Texas).

(Fabiano complicates Tamura’s life at WEC 37. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv.)

According to a new article on Tatame.com, highly-regarded WEC featherweight/former IFL champ Wagnney Fabiano may be taking on Urijah Faber in his next fight. Said Fabiano:

Fabiano most recently choked out Akitoshi Tamura in the closing seconds of their fight at WEC 37 in December, while Faber bounced back to the W column last month with his quick submission of Jens Pulver. Faber and Fabiano currently sit at #2 and #3 on CagePotato’s Featherweight Power Rankings, and the winner would very likely earn a shot at the winner of WEC 39′s Brown vs. Garcia title scrap next month.

In other important WEC featherweight news, exciting up-and-comer Jose Aldo — who has scored three straight TKO victories while in the WEC, including a first-round ownage of Rolando Perez at WEC 38 — will return to the cage after just a five-week layoff, taking on Chris Mickle at WEC 39. Mickle is a former lightweight who has compiled a 26-11-1 record (with an impressive 22 wins by submission) while fighting in various midwestern promotions including Extreme Challenge and Midwest Cage Championships. You can expect the winner of this one to immediately enter the WEC’s 145-pound title hunt.

(Welcome to the WEC, fellas.)

From a new press release on WEC.tv:

So that’s it — Condit and Larson are gone, and they’ve taken the 170-pound division with them. And it’s only a matter of time before the WEC completes its differentiation from the UFC, axes the lightweight class, and sends Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone up to the big leagues. But while it’s good to see the WEC adding divisions to make up for the ones they cut, you’d think a women’s division (or two) would come before a horse-jockey division. It kind of bothers me when women’s MMA is roadblocked due to a perceived lack of depth, then Zuffa installs a new men’s division where the #1-ranked fighter doesn’t even have ten wins yet, and the #8 fighter has won four of his ten fights. (And of course, how many American MMA fans out of 100 would be able to pick them out of a lineup?) Does this make any sense from a marketing perspective?

And the idea of 125-pound men fighting — doesn’t that seem kind of, I don’t know, unnatural to you? All your talk about their speed and endless gas tanks will seem beside the point when Frank Mir enters the cage and asks them to take us through the fight. Either the flyweights are going to have to stand on a step-ladder to reach the mic, or Mir is going to talk to these boys on his knees…

(F*ckin’ boo him.)

WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner may have won a grueling title defense against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone on Sunday — but between his injuries, the fan reaction, and his bank account, he isn’t exactly feeling like a winner right now. During an appearance on Sherdog’s "Beatdown" radio show yesterday, Varner rattled off the laundry list of ouchies that he left the cage with last weekend:

During that fifth round, Cerrone was able to score his first takedown of the night, then kneed Varner in the face when the champ was trying to get up. Varner’s knees — just barely — were touching the mat. Referee Josh Rosenthal halted the action and called the illegal blow unintentional, but Varner couldn’t continue, claiming that he couldn’t see. The fight went to the scorecards, and the crowd erupted in boos. Needless to say, the idea that some fans think Varner faked his injury to get out of finishing the last couple minutes of the fight doesn’t sit well with him:

Multiple sources are reporting that the upcoming welterweight title match between WEC champ Carlos "Natural Born Killer" Condit and top contender Brock Larson — scheduled for WEC 39 on March 1st — has been canceled, with Condit on the verge of moving to the UFC. Though Five Ounces of Pain first reported the news, their claim that the Condit/Larson bout was scrapped due to an injury sustained by Larson is being refuted by MMA Weekly, who says that Condit was the one who first dropped out of the Corpus Christi WEC show due to a sprained wrist.

At any rate, it seems the UFC has decided that this might be a good time to bring Condit up to the big leagues; Condit is on an eight-fight win streak and hasn’t lost since June 2006. The current rumor is that he’ll be facing Martin Kampmann at UFC Fight Night 18 (April 1st, Nashville), and it’s been speculated that this is the first step towards the elimination of the WEC’s welterweight division; the WEC discontinued its middleweight and light-heavyweight classes late last year, with the UFC signing standout fighters Brian Stann, Steve Cantwell, and Chael Sonnen.

In other UFC news…

— Replacing the injured Amir Sadollah against Nick Catone at UFC Fight Night 17 (February 7th, Tampa) will be UFC newbie Derek "The Gentleman" Downey, a Utah-based fighter who has built up a 10-3 record fighting in regional promotions. Nine of his 10 wins have come by first-round stoppage.

— Houston Alexander is getting another chance to prove himself after taking his third-straight first-round loss to Eric Schafer last September. The Assassin will be returning at UFC 98 (May 23rd, Las Vegas) against Andre Gusmao, the former IFL standout who dropped a decision to Jon Jones in his Octagon debut at UFC 87.

(Jens Pulver finds himself in an all-too-familiar spot against Urijah Faber at WEC 38. Photo courtesy of WEC.tv.)

From JensPulver.com via MMA Mania:

Sucks to hear a legend like Pulver come face-to-face with the end of the line. But to me, Pulver’s loss to Urijah Faber on Sunday didn’t prove much — we already knew he couldn’t hang with the California Kid. Any fighter needs to do some serious re-evaluation after taking three straight losses, but the WEC can at least partially be blamed for Pulver’s last one. They’re the ones who booked him against Faber (again) after he was already on a two-fight skid, and didn’t let him postpone the match to March even though he was dealing with a new baby and the death of a close friend.

Between the two losses to Faber, Pulver got wrecked by Leonard Garcia, who may become the WEC’s next 145-pound champion. But in his first fight in the WEC, he choked out the very-respectable Cub Swanson in 35 seconds. Has Pulver really deteriorated that much in the last two years, or did he just run into Garcia on a good night, and Faber on any night? Why pack it in when you’re still skilled enough to beat good fighters (though not great ones), and when fans still love to watch you compete? Or is there no point when you know you’ll never be a champion again?

(Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly; gif courtesy of the UG.)

Former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber was able to score a victory over Jens Pulver for the second time last night at WEC 38 — and in 23 minutes and 26 seconds less than it took in their first meeting last June. Their co-headlining bout started fast and physical, with Pulver tossing Faber to the ground after a high kick attempt. But it wasn’t long before Faber drilled a vicious left hook to Lil’ Evil’s ribs, doubling over the former UFC champ and backing him up. Faber seized the opportunity and fired off punches until Pulver hit the ground, then followed Pulver to the mat and set up a fight-ending choke. The win earned the California Kid a $7,500 Submission of the Night bonus.

Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone also got some extra cash for the evening’s Fight of the Night, in which Varner defended his lightweight title and gave Cowboy the first loss of his career. Though Cerrone was the aggressor for most of the fight, and won many of the striking exchanges — thanks in large part to the long reach of his left high kick — Varner was able to take the challenger down at will, and inflicted major damage with his ground-and-pound. In the middle of round three, a punch from Varner opened a cut near Cerrone’s left eye that clearly inhibited his vision; his right eye was already swelling shut from previous abuse.

In the fifth round, Cerrone scored a successful takedown of his own, but made the mistake of bouncing a knee strike off Varner’s head while the champ was still kneeling. The action was immediately halted, and was never restarted, as a seemingly agonized Varner told doctors that he couldn’t see, and shouted "fuck!" more times than I’ve ever heard on basic cable. The fight went to the scorecards, where two judges saw it for Varner, and one judge (possibly blind himself) called it for Cerrone. The crowd booed Varner; distraught about how the fight ended, he told the fans "fuckin’ boo me, I’m better than that," and promised Cerrone a rematch as soon as he was cleared by the athletic commission.

(Torres poses with victim Yoshiro Maeda after their epic battle last June. Photo courtesy of koolpaw.)

#1 bantamweight /#5 pound-for-pound fighter Miguel Torres will reportedly make his next title defense at WEC 40, which will be held April 5th in Chicago; the venue will be announced soon. Unsurprisingly, his opponent will be Brian Bowles (7-0, all wins by stoppage), who clinched his #1 contender status last month by choking out Will Ribeiro at WEC 37 — the same event where Torres retained his bantamweight strap by beating the tar out of Manny Tapia. Ferocious local support should be behind Torres, who lives and trains in East Chicago, Indiana, and made his name by competing in small shows in the area. WEC 40 will also feature another bantamweight match between undefeated Joseph Benavidez and Jeff Curran, who is dropping a weight class after taking consecutive losses at featherweight to Urijah Faber and Mike Brown. The winner of the Torres/Bowles fight will likely take on the winner of the Benavidez/Curran fight in a title scrap later this year.

Remember, WEC 38 goes down this Sunday, headlined by Varner/Cerrone and Faber/Pulver II, and WEC 39 is scheduled for March 1st, featuring Mike Brown vs. Leonard Garcia and Carlos Condit vs. Brock Larson.

In other important non-UFC matchup news…

(Varner on Cerrone: "If he goes toe to toe with me, he’s a dead man.")

Though it’s being swallowed in the collective hype of UFC 93, UFC 94, and Affliction: Day of Reckoning, the WEC is holding their next event this coming Sunday (1/25) at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego, CA. For once, Urijah Faber‘s fight won’t be the most interesting one on the card. Sure, his three-round rematch with Jens Pulver will be a must-see for California Kid/Lil’ Evil fans, but the real heat is behind the lightweight championship main event, in which defending champ Jamie Varner looks to make his second belt-defense against Donald Cerrone, the undefeated Greg Jackson-product who was one-half of WEC 36′s best fight. You can watch the action live on Versus beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT; the full lineup is below…

MAIN CARD
Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone (for lightweight championship)
Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver (FW)
Danillo Villefort vs. Mike Campbell (WW)
Jose Aldo vs. Rolando Perez (FW)

UNDERCARD
Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Njokuani (LW)
Edgar Garcia vs. Hiromitsu Miura (WW)
Dominick Cruz vs. Ian McCall (FW)
Scott Jorgenson vs. Frank Gomez (BW)
Blas Avena vs. Jesse Lennox (WW)
Charlie Valencia vs. Seth Dikun (BW)

Related: WEC 39 goes down March 1st in Corpus Christi, Texas, featuring the featherweight championship bout between Mike Brown and Leonard Garcia, and a welterweight title scrap between Carlos Condit and Brock Larson.

Even though it never made it onto the broadcast of WEC 36 — a gross oversight that actually led to people getting demoted — the lightweight war between "Razor" Rob McCullough and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone still managed to make it onto many MMA pundits’ fights-of-the-year lists. But unless you caught the WEC’s "Best of 2008" special last month, this may be the first time you’ll see it in its entirety. Part one is above, and part two is after the jump; major props to MMA Scraps.

The tone is set in the first round round as McCullough drops the much-taller Cerrone with punches twice, but Cowboy manages to keep his shit together, score a knockdown of his own, then pounce on Razor and nail him with some heavy ground-and-pound. A bloodied and mouthpiece-less McCullough reverses the position, but finds himself knocked to the mat two more times before the bell rings. And that’s just the first five minutes. Enjoy… 

(Mamoru Yamaguchi and Shinichi Kojima: America is not ready.)

With their middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions officially closed down, the WEC is planning to add a new division to further differentiate themselves from their big brothers in the UFC. No, not women (at least not yet). According to MMA Weekly, you’ll soon be seeing 125-pound flyweights battling under the WEC banner: 

Quick, name three flyweight fighters. If you can do it, you’re probably a die-hard Shooto fan, since that’s where most of the top 125-pounders compete. And you can be sure that the WEC will be poaching a lot of talent from the Japanese organization. But Bloody Elbow believes that the WEC will be building their new division around Henry Cejudo, the 21-year-old American freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal in Beijing last summer competing at 121 pounds. Cejudo has been training at a boxing gym in his hometown of Phoenix, and was briefly rumored as an opponent for Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto at Fields Dynamite!! 2008. The upside with Cejudo is that he’s already something of a national hero, and can actually speak English — and therefore would be a lot easier to market than some of the other flyweight talent the WEC might bring aboard.

No matchups for the WEC’s March event have been officially announced, though a welterweight title fight between Carlos Condit and Brock Larson has been rumored.

#5: Affliction: Banned, 7/19/08

(Photo courtesy of Sherdog)

Sure, the pacing was a little shaky, and the picture quality for the pay-per-view broadcast was kind of dark, and apparently some of you don’t think that Megadeth’s Rust in Peace is one of the most kickass records ever released. But you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Affliction’s debut MMA show gave us a supernova of heavyweight star power, featuring Fedor Emelianenko’s 36-second destruction of Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski’s beatdown of Ben Rothwell, and Josh Barnett’s redemptive KO of Pedro Rizzo; elsewhere on the card, we got to see Matt Lindland, Babalu Sobral, Vitor Belfort and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in action. The organization has since turned into a bit of a shit-show, but with Banned, they gave us nearly everything we could have hoped for.

#4: UFC 87: Seek and Destroy, 8/9/08

(Photo courtesy of ESPN)

The UFC’s visit to Minneapolis proved the following…
— Brock Lesnar is an absolute beast. His takedowns can’t be stopped, and his punches tend to break facial bones. He will mock you after he beats you.
— Kenny Florian is a fantastic fighter, and worthy of a title shot; Roger Huerta maybe had a little more hype than substance.
— Demian Maia is one of the most talented submission specialists in MMA, in any organization, in any weight class. His choke-out of Jason MacDonald gave him his third-consecutive Submission of the Night bonus.
— Ben Saunders might actually be a contender one day.
— Jon Jones is athletic and explosive. I’m sorry, but the clichés are true sometimes.
— Jon Fitch is one tough son-of-a-bitch.
— If you’re fighting Georges St. Pierre, tough ain’t enough.

Terrible news from WEC.tv:

Ribeiro (10-2) last fought two weeks ago at WEC 37, where he was submitted in the third round by Brian Bowles; before that, he won his WEC debut with a split-decision victory over former bantamweight champ Chase Beebe at WEC 34. Tatame reports that Ribeiro may have lost "encephalic mass" (part of his brain) after the accident. Thoughts, prayers, whatever it is you do…

(‘You like what you see, yes?’)

It’s time again to raid our forums and answer your deepest questions.  This time around, we cover everything from fighter rankings to how to get into Affliction: Day of Reckoning on the cheap.  You shiftless no-accounts. 

If you have a question of your own head on over to the official Ask the Potato thread and we’ll deal with you in turn. 

Last time Affliction: Banned had a barn burning sale on tickets the day of the event, As someone who lives under an hour from the Honda center and a fan of seeing Fedor live at least once, would you suggest buying a ticket now or wait till the day of in hopes the box office drops prices again? – Hussdawg22

Don’t you dare buy a ticket now, Hussdawg.  I realize I shouldn’t say that, and I’m not helping Affliction’s cause any, but dammit, as your unofficial MMA-related financial advisor I simply cannot recommend that purchase.  

For one thing, you don’t even know for sure if that show will happen on that date.  With the Mosley-Margarito bout in the same region on the same night, and with all Affliction’s troubles, they may reschedule it or drop it altogether.  Anything’s possible with them. 

But more importantly, that event will not sell out.  You will still be able to get a ticket on fight day, and it’s a very good bet that you’ll be able to get a good seat cheap.  You don’t want to be the jerk who pays $250 to sit next to some dudes from Cal State Fullerton who paid thirty bucks a pop.

After seeing Torres tear through another "number 1 contender", what does the B&B Potato Entrapment Company think of level of competition in the WEC’s bantamweight division? Is it on par with the UFC’s welter or middle weight division and Torres is just THAT damn good or is it more along the lines of the UFC’s lightweight division where most of the weight division’s talent is in Japan?  — Geriatric Peon

(‘Yeah, we’re buds now.  So can I borrow $10,000?’ Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle’s WEC 37 Aftermath gallery.)

Payouts for WEC 37 are now public, and thankfully no one dropped below the dreaded $2,000 hard deck, though Danny Martinez walked right to the edge and looked over.  What he saw was poverty.  And he saw that it was not good, and this displeased him.

What’s interesting to note is that of the ten bouts at WEC 37, the betting favorite won all ten.  In seven of those bouts, the favorite made more in show money than his opponent.  Just some fun little trivia for you.  And now, the figures:  

Miguel Torres: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
Manny Tapia: $6,000
Wagnney Fabiano: $22,000 (includes $11,000 win bonus)
Akitoshi Tamura: $6,000
Brian Bowles: $23,500(includes $8,000 win bonus and $7,500 Submission of the Night bonus)
Will Ribeiro: $4,000
Joseph Benavidez: $17,000 (includes $8,500 win bonus)
Danny Martinez: $2,000
Johny Hendricks: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
Justin Haskins: $3,000
Mark Munoz: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
Ricardo Barros: $3,000
Diego Nunes: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
Cole Province: $3,000
Bart Palaszewski: $15,500 (includes $4,000 win bonus and $7,500 KO of the Night bonus)
Alex Karalexis: $8,000
Cub Swanson: $17,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus and $7,500 Fight of the Night bonus)
Hiroyuki Takaya: $12,500 (includes $7,500 Fight of the Night bonus)
Shane Roller: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
Mike Budnik: $4,000

Thoughts…

(Props to smoogy; Tapia somehow felt this was an early-stoppage.)

Due to the lengthy main card fights and care-free pacing of last night’s WEC show — yes, we get it, there’s going to be another Punisher movie, and Urijah Faber has no fear — we didn’t get to see any undercard scraps. Which is unfortunate, since two of them were worthy enough to produce end-of-night bonuses. First, the full results:

MAIN CARD
Miguel Torres def. Manny Tapia via TKO, 3:04 of round 2
Wagnney Fabiano def. Akitoshi Tamura via submission (arm triangle), 4:48 of round 3
Brian Bowles def. Will Ribeiro via submission (guillotine choke), 1:11 of round 3
Joseph Benavidez def. Danny Martinez via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)

UNDERCARD
Johny Hendricks def. Justin Haskins via TKO, 4:07 of round 2
Mark Munoz def. Ricardo Barros via TKO, 2:26 of round 1
Diego Nunes def. Cole Province via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bart Palaszewski def. Alex Karalexis via TKO, 3:49 of round 2
Cub Swanson def. Hiroyuki Takaya via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Shane Roller def. Mike Budnik via submission (guillotine choke), 1:01 of round 1

$7,500 bonuses were handed out to the following fighters:

— Featherweights Cub Swanson and Hiroyuki Takaya for their three-round throwdown that stood out as the Fight of the Night.
— IFL vet Bart Palazewski for knocking out TUF 1 alum Alex Karalexis.
— Brian Bowles for his guillotine choke over Will Ribeiro.

Spend it wisely, men. A few morning-after thoughts on the event past the jump…

("No, I hate you more!" Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Miguel Torres aims to make his second bantamweight belt defense against the undefeated Manny Tapia, Brian Bowles and Will Ribeiro scrap for the chance to take on the winner, and top featherweights Wagnney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura make their WEC debuts. Not too shabby a night for sub-lightweight MMA, if you ask us. Hit that "Read More" link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest updates from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.