(Props: YouTube.com/Heavy)

— If you thought last night’s WEC main event wasn’t as close as the judges scored it, Dominick Cruz would respectfully agree with you. As the reigning bantamweight champ said after his fight with Joseph Benavidez (skip to the 2:59 mark above): 

"In my humble opinion, I thought I won all the rounds…I think that the crowd has a big part to play in the judges’ opinion sometimes. Also, he caught me with a real slick knee up against the cage that made me bleed real bad. I would assume the blood could have swayed the judges a little as well."

Benavidez was also surprised that one of the judges saw it his way: "I figured I didn’t do enough to win, but I wasn’t watching the fight, so when the judge did say my name it was quite a surprise. I was like "wow, could this happen? Is this, like, the work of God or something?" For the record, FightMetric gave every round to Cruz for outpointing Benavidez in striking (103-46 total) and takedowns (5-0 total).

— $10,000 performance bonuses were handed out to the following fighters…
Knockout of the Night: Newcomer Maciej Jewtuszko for using a spinning back elbow and a pair of nasty uppercuts to wreck Anthony Njokuani in 96 seconds.
Submission of the Night: Anthony Pettis for finishing Shane Roller via triangle choke with just nine seconds left in the fight, after wearing Roller down with his impressively-flashy striking attacks. (How ’bout that capoeira head kick in round one?)
Fight of the Night: Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett for their 15-minute smash-up which went all over the cage and didn’t slow down for one second. Round two was easily one of the best MMA rounds of 2010.


— The total disclosed payroll was $261,500, which was distributed like so…

Dominick Cruz: $22,000 (includes $11,000 win bonus)
def. Joseph Benavidez: $17,500

Anthony Pettis: $22,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus, $10,000 Submission of the Night bonus)
def. Shane Roller: $16,000

Chad Mendes: $11,000 (includes $5,500 win bonus)
def. Cub Swanson: $11,000

Scott Jorgensen: $35,000 (includes $12,500 win bonus, $10,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Brad Pickett: $15,000 (includes $10,000 Fight of the Night bonus)

Bart Palaszewski: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Zach Micklewright: $3,000

Javier Vazquez: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Mackens Semerzier: $4,000

Maciej Jewtuszko: $16,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus, $10,000 Knockout of the Night bonus)
def. Anthony Njokuani: $7,000

Ricardo Lamas: $14,000 (includes $7,000 win bonus)
def. Dave Jansen: $4,000

Fredson Paixao: $6,000 (includes $3,000 win bonus)
def. Bryan Caraway: $4,000

Danny Castillo: $19,000 (includes $9,500 win bonus)
def. Dustin Poirier: $3,000

— No, you didn’t hallucinate that cameo by Dana White. The Baldfather stopped by during the broadcast to announce that Phoenix, Arizona, had won the AMP Energy "Hometown Takedown Contest," in which fans voted to select where the WEC would hold an upcoming event. Phoenix beat out 29 other cities (including co-finalists Milwaukee and Nashville), and will host an event on December 16th at the Jobing.com Arena in suburban Glendale, home of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Neither the UFC nor WEC has ever held a fight card in Arizona. Because WEC lightweight champ Ben Henderson hails from Arizona, it’s rumored that Henderson will defend his title at the event, possibly against Anthony Pettis.

— Earning CagePotato’s inaugural Hater Awards are the following villains and losers from WEC 50:
Chad Mendes, whose lay-and-pray antics against Cub Swanson helped produce the only dull fight of the night. Yeah, he won, but still.
Mackens Semerzier, who’s now on a two-fight losing streak after his stunning upset of Wagnney Fabiano last October. One-hit wonder?
Stephan Bonnar, whose obvious bias for Dominick Cruz reached Mir/Torres levels of broadcast nuthuggery.
The Las Vegas fans, whose obvious bias against Dominick Cruz provided an aggravating soundtrack of boos after the main event.

— And finally, here’s a picture of WEC ring girl Brittney Palmer from Tuesday’s weigh-ins, courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com: