Jun 7, 2009 - 10:32:12 PM by Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist
Alright folks, Jamie is giving you the play-by-play on this one, so I'll be throwing down some random thoughts along with star ratings during tonight's WEC show. There's not a clunker on the card tonight on paper, and I can't see how this won't turn into a great card. So let's get this party started.
We've got Kenny Florian in the booth tonight in Frank Mir's place, with Mir doubtless getting his training camp into full swing. Kenny should be pretty good in there, since he's gotten his reps doing MMA Live on espn.com.
JENS PULVER vs. JOSH GRISPI (Featherweight)
Grispi is an up and coming guy with some solid wins who hasn't faced elite competition yet, so this should be a good gauge for Pulver as to where he falls right now in the division. WEC wisely chooses against showing the fighter entrances in the interest of showing more meat and less filler, so that's always a good thing. Also, I'm just sayin' – Joe Martinez and Lupe Contreras are the best ring announcers around if you ask me. Buffer is a good personality and what have you, but as far as quality, I enjoy those two guys.
Another nice change from your typical Zuffa broadcast: pre-fight staredown for a non-main event fight. I like. Has WEC always done this? Not that I can remember.
ROUND ONE
Grispi crushes Pulver quickly, catching him with a big kick-punch combination. Pulver goes for the takedown and pulls a Robbie Lawler, leaving his head available for the guillotine. Grispi grabs it and it's over. Grispi looks like the kid that just beat his dad in armwrestling for the first time.
RESULT: Grispi by submission at 0:33 of round one.
STAR RATING: (**+) Not much to it. Quick, clean and decisive.
RAMIFICATIONS: Pulver is very emotional in the post-fight interview, and he announces his retirement. We'll see if it sticks. Pulver certainly doesn't have anything to prove, but he's still got some fight in him if he wants to stick around. As for Grispi, it's a huge win for him. He's looking at nine straight wins right now, and he can't be far from a title shot at Featherweight. I'd love to see a Grispi-Aldo fight if one of them isn't fighting for the strap in his next bout. I will say it again - watch out for Josh Grispi. This guy is as for real as they come.
We get an interview with Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres, and that's smart to sell that show when you know you've got a pretty sizeable audience on this one. Bowles will be a big underdog in that fight as Torres has a huge experience advantage, and also he has the advantage of being a bad, bad man.
DONALD CERRONE vs. JAMES KRAUSE (Lightweight)
Krause is a bit of an unknown commodity, but he knows how to sell a fight in the vignettes. Cerrone is obviously not to be trifled with, so this could be interesting.
ROUND ONE
Krause acquitted himself well for a while, but Cerrone was simply on another level. I got the feeling that he could have finished the fight a couple of times earlier in the round – he had a tight guillotine and turned it into (I believe) a D'arce choke, but instead of finishing he delivered a knee and broke it up. He certainly proved that his jiu jitsu is at least serviceable if not excellent (it's hard to say against a guy with little-known skills.) Cerrone looked fantastic.
RESULT: Cerrone by submission at 4:38 of round one.
STAR RATING: (***+) Excellent display of skill by Cerrone.
RAMIFICATIONS: As he said in the post-fight interview, Cerrone wants Jamie Varner. He's confident and he's ready to get the rematch, and that should be the next title defense we see out of "The Worm." Should be a good, and maybe great, fight. Krause should get another shot, because it sure must be tough making your cable TV debut on the main card against a guy like Cerrone.
SCOTT JORGENSEN vs. ANTONIO BANUELOS (Bantamweight)
Gotta love some prelim action.
ROUND ONE
Banuelos tagged him early with an overhand right (he does train out of The Pit after all) that hurt Jorgensen for most of the round. The momentum looked to be swinging slowly as the round wore on, but Banuelos probably did enough to take the first. Really nice fight so far. Jorgensen has done a good job of keeping Banuelos away, but Banuelos has been using his speed really well and taking advantage of good cardio.
ROUND TWO
Tough round to call. Both guys are showing really good chins and excellent cardio, being able to keep up this pace while getting hit with some clean shots. I'd probably give a very slight edge to Jorgensen for landing some clean shots, but I can definitely see giving it to Banuelos for the same reason. I think Jorgensen was a little more effective as Banuelos slowed down a bit.
ROUND THREE
Banuelos was sucking wind halfway through the round, and he took a lot more punishment in that round than he did the rest of the fight. In addition, Jorgensen had a couple of near-submissions, or at least quality submission attempts. I've got to give that one to Jorgensen, and pretty handily. It'll all depend on the second round. Great fight.
RESULT: Banuelos by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
STAR RATING: (****-)
RAMIFICATIONS: The fight was pretty evenly contested, and both guys are right smack dab in the middle of the bantamweight division, so Banuelos moves up a bit. Banuelos has looked good in his last couple of fights, and really so has Jorgensen. I'm not sure where either of them goes from here, other than on to another fight. I can't see them dropping Jorgensen at this point after such a close fight, so he should get another shot in the promotion.
They do a great thing before this fight, in showing who the top five featherweights in the promotion are. It's hard to argue with Brown, Faber, Aldo, Garcia, and Fabiano. I don't know that I'd put Swanson at the top of the division at the moment – I don't think this fight is going to be as close as they're saying, but his is some kind of stacked division.
JOSE ALDO vs. CUB SWANSON (Featherweight)
ROUND ONE
I didn't even have time to type "Round One." Aldo just destroyed Swanson with a flying knee immediately after coming out from his corner. For some reason Mazagatti didn't stop the fight when Swanson went down and took two more punches in the fetal position, but it was over when Aldo went back in for more. The official time is eight seconds, but it could have been less. The replay shows that he actually caught Swanson with both knees! What?! That was unbelievable.
RESULT: Aldo by KO at 0:08 of round one.
STAR RATING: (***+) That's as good as you can get in eight seconds. That is a must-see knockout.
RAMIFICATIONS: If Aldo doesn't get a title shot after five straight brutal knockouts, there is no justice in the world. Swanson is a WEC mainstay, and rightfully so, and as such I don't see him going anywhere.
RONALDO PEREZ vs. SETH DIKUN (Bantamweight)
ROUND ONE
From having one underhook against the fence, Dikun grabs a beautiful flying triangle. Perez fights valiantly for almost a minute with the choke cinched in tight, but he has to tap.
RESULT: Dikun by submission at 2:31 of round one.
STAR RATING: (***+) Beautiful, must-see submission.
RAMIFICATIONS: Dikun redeems himself after losing in his WEC debut to Charlie Valencia. Perez, meanwhile, may have bought himself a ticket out of the promotion for the moment. The guy is all heart, but you've got to win to stay in, and he's been beaten handily in his two WEC fights.
MIKE CAMPBELL vs. ANTHONY PETTIS (Lightweight)
ROUND ONE
Campbell escapes about 45 submission attempts in the first minute and a half, but Pettis sinks in a triangle at about 1:30 that is way too tight to get out of.
RESULT: Pettis by submission at 1:49 of round one.
STAR RATING: (***-) Another really nice submission.
RAMIFICATIONS: It's hard to draw any concrete conclusions about Pettis at this point, but he looks like he's got some scary jiu jitsu. Campbell was certainly game, but he finds himself in the same camp as Rolando Perez before him, on the receiving end of two first round losses.
MIKE BROWN vs. URIJAH FABER (Featherweight Title Match)
Inexplicably, this broadcast does the best job of any Zuffa show I've seen at capturing the sound of a crowd reaction. Putting a mic on the crowd is a huge way to sell the importance of a fight, and WEC exploited that here. It would have been nice if the announcers had acknowledged the response, though. I do have to say, however, that Kenny Florian has been great tonight. No surprise there, given his TV experience to this point. Also, I love the entrance music. "California Love" for Faber, and "Simple Man" for Brown. This should be a great fight.
ROUND ONE
I'll say this much: the first round was riveting. The crowd is way into it, and the fighters are on point. I'd probably give a slight edge to Faber in that stanza, but it was certainly close. Great, great stuff so far.
ROUND TWO
Another spectacular round, and I'm giving a slight edge to Brown in that one. I don't even know how to sum this up without doing play-by-play. It's back and forth the whole time. Brown probably has the ground edge with his power advantage, but Faber is so fast that he gets the nod on the feet so far. The thing is that it can go either way both standing and on the mat. Fantastic fight so far.
ROUND THREE
I've put down my laptop so that I can sit on the edge of my seat. This is absolutely awesome. Faber may have a broken hand. Brown takes the third with ground control, and by landing enough shots to take it. Faber has taken the majority of the standing strikes, but Brown has done damage as well.
ROUND FOUR
Faber is starting to fade a bit as Brown picked him apart and hurt him a couple of times in that round. If he can't get the stoppage in the fifth, he may be out of luck.
ROUND FIVE
Another round for Brown. Faber is giving it all he's got, and he almost had a choke cinched, but the hands were too damaged to seal the deal.
RESULT: Brown by unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)
STAR RATING: (****+) Healthy hands for Faber would have made the fight even better, and as it stands it was still the fight of the year to date. I've seen 230 fights this year, and none of them topped this one.
RAMIFICATIONS: Brown solidifies his position as the world's best featherweight. Faber is the promotion's top draw, and he's still the number two featherweight in the world. So it's hard to say where he goes from here. I daresay that if he can string together a few wins, I wouldn't mind seeing a trilogy. In the meantime, Jose Aldo will provide a stiff challenge for Brown.
All in all, this was a phenomenal card. Seven fights in all, and each of them was entertaining. WEC continues to put on quality shows, with this being their best to date. The one thing that needs to be addressed, however, is the timing. Of course no one minds the show going two and a half hours, but when it's slated for only two, that duration can be a problem. The main thing is that every show is turning out like this. So why not just extend the slot to two and a half or three hours and be done with it? We are firmly in the age of DVR, and overrun is less acceptable than it ever has been. But again, if the only conceivable gripe with a show is that it was too long (and a weak play by play announcer, but whatever), that's not too shabby.
