Alright, I’m a bit later than I had hoped to be, but I’m here.  And my first thought is this:  The WEC’s “opening credits”, so to speak, are WAY cooler than the UFC’s.  Seriously, it’s not even close.  It’s incredibly refreshing to see WEC coming from an actual venue (they’re in New Mexico) rather than from the freaking Hard Rock Café in Vegas.  Hopefully this keeps up.

The first fight is Antonio Banuelos vs. Manny Tapia, and Todd Harris says they like to “make it move”.  I have no idea what that means.  Banuelos has Chuck Liddell in his corner…I wonder if he likes to strike?

I remember Wade Keller talking at UFC 81 about how Joe Rogan kind of bigfoots Mike Goldberg (my personal opinion is that Goldberg simply has no presence), and we’re getting kind of the opposite here.  Todd Harris seems to have no intention of calling the action, as there are extended periods of silence before Frank Mir pipes up and says something relevant.  Seriously, at the beginning of the fight, there was nothing said until Banuelos landed a big shot and Harris said, “Nice.”  MMA is begging for real play-by-play guys.  Round one was great, and I’d give it to Banuelos by a small margin.

As a side note, Steve Mazagatti has warned two or three times about shots to the back of the head, but hasn’t stopped the fight.  I’m just sayin’.

Banuelos just hit a sweet backward elbow as he stood up in front of Tapia.  Very nice. 

You know you’ve got real fight fans in attendance when the fighters are clinching, and the front few rows are yelling, “Knees!” in concert with one of the fighters’ corners.  

Round three is coming up, and I’ve got it even.  Although Banuelos almost landed another cool-looking strike with a spinning heel kick.

The action slowed down in the third, but still a pretty good fight.  I’ve got it 29-28 for Tapia.  Mir thinks Tapia was dominant, but I think it was pretty close.  The judges agree (kind of), as we get 30-27 Tapia, 29-28 Banuelos, and 28-28.  I give the fight a (**+).

And now it looks like there’s a scoring issue as announcer Joe Martinez steps back into the ring.  Tapia takes it by majority decision.  How does that happen, that a judge’s score is turned in incorrectly?  Oh, well.

The real issue here is that they seriously need to get a new post-fight interviewer.  I like Mir as a color commentator, but he looks ridiculous in there standing next to a Bantamweight.  He towers over them.

Our next fight is probably the one I’m looking most forward to:  Chase Beebe vs. Miguel Torres.  Beebe is a scrapper, and Torres has got some serious skills. 

I think if Beebe had fought this fight last year and won, he’d have a decent bid at Fighter of the Year in my book.  Of course, I may be getting ahead of myself, because it’s definitely not a sure thing that he’ll win.  Although as Todd Harris just said, Beebe does have a lot of moxie.  (Seriously, moxie?  Who says moxie?)

Clay Guida is in Beebe’s corner, which is fitting given their styles.  Also, a quick note:  I’ve mentioned this before, but it drives me crazy when ring announcers describe the pounds that someone weighs.  Even talking about it sounds dumb.  Beebe weighed in at 135 solid pounds, while Torres weighs 135 ready pounds. 

As the fight starts, Torres is dominating the first round.  He’s landing the better strikes, especially when he landed a big knee to Beebe’s head.  He’s also totally neutralizing Beebe’s wrestling with his jiu-jitsu.  Beebe is working elbows, but nothing serious. 

In an incredible sequence, Torres transitioned into about four beautiful submission attempts, finally finishing Beebe with a really tight choke that resembled, as Frank Mir said, an upside-down rear naked choke.  Just fantastic.  And remember, Beebe is not easy to submit.  This is the same guy that fought off about 400 sub attempts from Rani Yahya in his last defense.  But Torres just looked spectacular here.  I give this one (***) just for the action and the flawless technique by Torres.  And the fact that Beebe survived as long as he did is nothing to sneeze at.

Next month we’ve got Doug Marshall vs. Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen vs. Paulo Filho II.  I’d love to see WEC put on events on a monthly basis.  But to me, they’re throwing Stann in for a title shot way too soon.  He’s looked good in his first few fights, but he’s not experienced enough for Marshall at this point.  They ought to bring some of the outclassed light heavyweight talent in the UFC down to the WEC to challenge Marshall, since the division is so deep in the UFC and so shallow here.

Next we’ve got Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Leonard Garcia.  We know about Garcia, who can go all night, and Takaya’s last fight in Shooto was a barnburner, so this should be good.

I like how Garcia looks at 145.  He’s a good size for this weight class. 

Garcia blasted Takaya with a straight right hand that put him on his back, then finished it with a big uppercut as Takaya was down.  I’m actually pretty surprised that it was that quick.  Takaya is a quality fighter, so I’m expecting to see him back.  He looked a little out of sorts here, so he may need some time to get used to the cage.  He certainly didn’t get much time here, as it’s over in less than two minutes.  Nice ending to a fight with a lot of solid kicks.  I’ll give it (**).

We get a nice little feature on Albuquerque, since this is where Greg Jackson’s camp is based.  That is some kind of camp with the fighters there.  GSP, Keith Jardine, Leonard Garcia, Rashad Evans, and on and on.

Next up we’ve got Rob McCullough defending the lightweight title against Jamie Varner.  Interesting fight, as Razor Rob hits like a freight train, and Varner is pretty good on the ground for the most part, though he can hold his own on the feet.  Let’s not forget that he hung tough with Hermes Franca into the third round before he got caught and submitted.  Should be a good fight.

Okay, the adjectives before the pounds is getting ridiculous.  Varner weighed in at “a ready 155 solid pounds”, while McCullough was “an official 155 solid and ready pounds.”  Nice staredown before the fight gets started, though.

Varner is really taking it to the champ in the first.  He set up his first takedown beautifully with strikes, and he is relentlessly trying to get McCullough to the ground, but Razor Rob keeps sprawling and getting back up.  Nice back and forth action. 

With the first round winding down, it looks like Varner will likely take the round, but he may be out of gas.  He’s pushed the pace the whole round, and even landed some pretty solid shots, but he McCullough never flinched.  Varner could be in trouble here.

With the second round underway, it seems that McCullough may also be a bit winded.  Varner is content to pick McCullough apart on the feet; winning on points even if McCullough’s chin is extremely solid.  McCullough is not doing anything at all, and the crowd is letting him have it. 

As the second round ends, McCullough lands a nice kick, but he lost that round by a mile.

McCullough wakes up in the beginning of the third, cracking Varner with a big right hand to the jaw.  In a weird sequence, Varner is able to escape and…(wait for it)…call a timeout to get his mouthpiece back.  No, seriously.  Mazagatti totally allowed Varner to call timeout. 

After the timeout, Varner comes out in a big way, landing some nice body shots.  McCullough is letting the round slip away, languishing in inactivity.  And as I wrote that, Varner just crushed McCullough with a straight right that floors him.  He stands back up and Varner puts him back down with a combination.  Up comes McCullough again, and Varner puts him back down immediately, for good this time, with another straight right hand.  Very, very impressive performance by Varner throughout the fight.  I joke about the timeout, and it certainly was a bit odd, but Varner was out of trouble by the time he was able to stop the action temporarily. 

Varner calls McCullough a “tough motherf***er.”  Gotta love live TV.  I was really impressed by Varner here.  I had him hanging with McCullough for a couple of rounds, but I figured Razor Rob would end up getting the knockout.  Man, was I wrong.  I’m looking forward to seeing Varner again.  I give this fight a solid (***).  Great finishing sequence.

So two title fights and two title changes.  One more title fight left, and it’s up next.

Prater comes out to catcalls, since he’s fighting the hometown guy.  Condit, sneer and all, makes his way to the cage with Rage Against the Machine appropriately playing in the background.  Condit has a great look, which is to say he looks like a murderer at fight time.  He also looks like he’s been locked in a cell for a week with no food.

Well, that was a quick and pretty simple fight.  Prater got a hip toss takedown, but Condit got him into half guard and it was only a matter of time before he sunk in a guillotine choke that forced Prater to tap.  Nice performance by Condit in avenging a loss, but not much to the fight itself.  I give it (**). 

Well, that’s it for this card.  I enjoyed the event quite a bit, as I always do with the WEC events.  It made the card that much better that it took place in a real venue.  It makes the organization feel much more legitimate when you have fighters that don’t have to enter the arena through the double doors that serve as an exit for patrons.  So definitely a good card.  Probably not quite as good as some of the other ones as far as fight quality, but still enjoyable.  If you haven’t seen WEC yet, do what you can to see it.