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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief -Welcome to another night of MMA action, covered here on MMATorch.com. Tonight we've got the WEC returning to live action on Versus with four bouts, three of which are WEC Title fights.
Todd Harris opens the show and he brings in Frank Mir to quickly run down the card.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT ONE: Brian Bowles vs. Damacio Page (Bantamweight Fight)
PREFIGHT: We start with our stereotypical sit-down interviews with the fighters, with Bowles talking about using Page's aggression against him, and Page talking his game.
ROUND ONE: They both come out firing, but neither connects. Page slips up going for a kick and pulls guard as Bowles dropped down with a punch. Bowles lands a couple of good elbows and a hard drop down punch from the top. Bowles had a tight choke in, but Page pulls out of it and ends up on top of Bowles. Page drops down with a hard shot and then stands up, letting Bowles back to his feet. Page ducks a punch and goes for a kick which misses. Good punching exchanges here. They're both looking for the knockout shot, and neither of them are connecting with much. Page tries to pick up Bowles, but Bowles locks on a guillotine. Page tries to throw his body down to get out of it, but he's stuck, and as he falls back he taps, but the ref didn't see it. He did however step right in and call for the end of the fight.
WINNER: Bowles via Submission at 3:30 of the first round
[Commercial Break]
STAR RATING: (**+) That round had a little bit of everything. Some good stand up exchanges, some good ground work, and an excellent submission victory by Bowles.
POST FIGHT: Bowles ran down the victory, and said he's ready for the after party and the VIP.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT TWO: Jamie Varner vs. Marcus Hicks (Lightweight Championship Fight)
PREFIGHT: Mir and Harris run down highlights of the fighters before the interview video package. Varner doesn't think Hicks will last through the first round, and Hicks says if they go to the ground, Varner's psychologically out of it.
ROUND ONE: Hicks comes in to press early. Varner hits Hicks with a few knees in the clinch, but then gets picked up and dropped. Hicks takes Varner down again, and tries to get the choke in, but Varner gets out. Hicks once again picks Varner up and drops him, but Varner gets right back up. Varner landed a couple of huge knees to the Head of Hicks. Varner smells the blodd and just unloads shots on Hicks, who does a good job of holding on and getting back to his feet. Varner lands a couple more knees and goes back to the punches and and finally drops him with a great right hook on the button.
WINNER: Varner via TKO at 2:08 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (**+) Another good one round of action. Both fights were not long enough to garner a higher rating, but both have been exciting for what they've presented. Hicks and Varner were full throttle out of the gate, and Hicks had Varner in trouble early, almost hooking on the guillotine and also slamming him a couple of times. Varner, however, showed absolute dominance in the stand up game, and gained the real advantage with two knees right to the jaw of Hicks, and it was only a matter of time from there. Good stuff from Varner, but with only two fights left for the show, they've got a lot of time to fill here.
[Commercial Break]
POST FIGHT: Varner gave Hicks some props for the fight. He said he trained for three months against that "damn guillotine," as he put it. Varner said he's ready for any challenger for his belt.
-We get another advertisement for the Contender: Muay Thai, and they run down the rest of the card. Ok, we've got at least three more fights, so scratch that earlier thought.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT THREE: Brock Larson vs. Carlo Prater (Welterweight fight)
PREFIGHT: Straight to the sit-downs. It feels like every other interview here, very generic with both guys.
ROUND ONE: Feeling out process early on, with Prater throwing a high kick. Suddenly, Larson just explodes with a flurry, drops Prater, lands a few more shots, and that's your fight, folks. On the replay, the knockout shot was the first exploding punch that got through and the rest was overkill.
WINNER: Larson via TKO at :37 of the first round.
STAR RATING: (*+) Another quick first round with another decisive victory, although there wasn't much else to this fight outside of the exploding knockout flurry. Prater didn't even see what hit him there.
[Commercial Break]
POSTFIGHT: Brock said he hopes he's next in line for a title shot after the Welterweight Title fight tonight.
[Commercial Break]
-We get a preview video for WEC's next live show on September 10th featuring Urijah Faber returning to action with a Featherweight Title defense against Mike Brown.
-Faber is cageside for an interview, and he tells Harris he's ready to impose his will and he can't wait to put on a show in Florida.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT FOUR: Brian Stann vs. Steve Cantwell (Light Heavyweight Championship Fight)
PREFIGHT: Another set of highlights, and another interview video package. Stann says he's going to put Cantwell behind him forever.
ROUND ONE: Quick flurry of punches from both guys, and they start the feeling out process. Cantwell caught Stann nicely in the face with a shot. Stann connects on a good lef kick. Cantwell connects with a punch, and there is a huge flurry with both guys landing a ton of shots. They move it to the clinch on the cage. Stann's got a cut on the cheek. Cantwell lands an elbow out of the clinch. They go back to stand up here. Superman punch from Cantwell and he connects on a few more shots before they clinch again. Another nice elbow in the clinch from Cantwell. Stann lands a couple shots of his own. Hard body kick by Cantwell. Cantwell goes for a knee to the head, but he slips. Stann pounces and drops down with four or five shots, but Cantwell does a nice job of rolling out, and he eventually gets back to his feet before the round ends.
Penick's Scorecard: Cantwell 10-9. Well, we get our first full round of the night, and that was quite the exciting round. Cantwell is out to prove something here tonight and he landed a ton of shots in that round. Stann got some shots at the end, but that was only due to the slip by Cantwell.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND TWO: Stann unintentionally hits Cantwell low and we get a short delay. Cantwell's ready to go and they go back to the feeling out portion of their stand-up game. Cantwell is pushing the action here, and he's connecting on a good amount. Huge body shot by Cantwell, and he lands another shot before they clinch again. Cantwell backs off from the cage. Stann presses and they exchange punches again. Cantwell shoots, but Stann holds strong with a sprawl. Cantwell pushes Stann back to the cage. He lands a knee, and then threw a bunch of punches before landing another hard shot. Cantwell stuns Stann with a shot here, and he's coming in for the kill. Stann is holding his own, but Cantwell keeps throwing punches until Stann falls face first to the ground, and WEC has a new Light Heavyweight Champion.
WINNER: Cantwell via TKO at 4:01 of the second round.
STAR RATING:(***) Good fight. Stann did not look like a Champion here, and Cantwell just absolutely took him apart in the stand up game through two rounds. That was a great second round and Cantwell kept on pressing until he stunned Stann, and then he went in and stayed relentless until he finished him off.
[Commercial Break]
POSTFIGHT: Cantwell says his plan is to continue to chew up 205 pounders. Stann gives no excuses, and he's very classy in giving Cantwell his due and taking this loss.
[Commercial Break]
FIGHT FIVE: Micah Miller vs. Josh Grispi (Featherweight Fight)
PREFIGHT: Great line from the 19 year old Grispi, "Yao Ming's tall, and I could still kick his ass."
ROUND ONE: Grispi drops Miller with an inside leg kick right off the bat, but he lets him get back up. Grispi is pressing with kicks here. Miller comes in, but Grispi ducks and and drops Miller with a shot, and he drops down a couple of shots before Herb Dean stops it. Either Miller was out for a second and didn't realize it, or that was an early stoppage, as he gets back up quickly and doesn't understand why the fight is over. It looked like he maybe could've been given a bit more time to show some defense, but he was dropped with the first punch and didn't really defend against the follow up punches, so I understand Dean's stoppage of this fight.
WINNER: Grispi via TKO at :50 of the first round.
STAR RATING:(*+) Decent fight, and on replay it really did look like Miller was knocked cold for a split second, but nevertheless he was out, and that was a good stoppage from Dean. Another in a long night of short fights.
[Commercial Break]
POSTFIGHT: Grispi goes through what he saw, which was that Miller was knocked out with the first punch on the ground, and that's what it looked like on replay. The kid's got a bright future, with twelve victories at 19 years of age.
[Commercial Break]
-Seriously, the creators of "Disaster Movie" need to be taken care of. Their movies all look awful, and this one looks to be worse than any of them. Seriously, stop going to watch these movies people, they'll stop being given money.
FIGHT SIX: Carlos Condit vs. Hiromitsu Miura (Welterweight Championship Fight)
PREFIGHT: It's time for your main event of the evening. Miura says he's going to show the WEC fans what a knockout really looks like.
ROUND ONE: After a feeling out early, Miura goes in for a punch, but gets caught in the face. Condit went for a knee, but Miura countered with a great judo throw. Miura let Condit up, and came in with a great trip up sweep to toss Condit back to the ground. Both men avoid contact from the other, but then Miura gets clocked. Condit's got a great position here on the ground, with Miura's arm caught in a crucifix. Condit went for an armbar, but Miura quickly got away from it and got another judo throw takedown on Condit.
Penick's Scorecard: Wow, tough round to score. Miura had three or four takedowns, with a few of them being beautiful judo displays, but Condit did a ton of damage with striking. I think the edge for that round slightly goes to Miura 10-9.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND TWO: Miura slips early and Condit tries to take advantage. Miura lands a hard up kick. Condit tries to drop down with a bomb, but doesn't get it through. He passes nicely into half guard. Miura's doing a good job of defending here, and he's not taking much abuse if any. Miura almost gets out of that position, but Condit gets it back into a full mount. Miura gave up his back, and Condit almost held on for an armbar, but Miura pulled out of it and he ends up in Condit's guard. The ref stands them back up. Miura went for another Judo throw, but missed and Condit got his back. Condit ended up back on top.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Condit. Another good round, with some good ground work from both guys, and a very, very close shot at a submission for Condit.
[Commercial Break]
ROUND THREE: They struggle attempting to throw each other and they take it to the ground, where Condit almost gets a guillotine locked in. He can't get it, but he ends up in mount. Condit lands some more elbows from this position, but then suddenly Miura rolls out of it and ends up on top. Miura lands a couple of shots. Miura unloads some really hard, uncontested shots from the guard. Miura postures up and lands a bunch of shots, and as they both get to their feet, Condit lands a knee and Miura somehow ends up on the ground. Condit again gets the mount and starts throwing punches again. Miura's taking a ton of punishment here. He gives up his back and Condit goes for a choke. Great job by Miura to survive that round.
Penick's Scorecard: 10-9 Condit. Give Miura credit for surviving there, as he was taking a ton of shots with Condit mounted on him, and he smartly decided to fight off a choke from his back instead of taking those shots.
ROUND FOUR: Miura lands some hard shots in a flurry. Condit sprawls as Miura is landing a ton of blows. Miura went for a choke but didn't get it, and then as Condit goes for one, Miura nicely sweeps to the top. Miura lands a ton of shots. Condit went for a knee bar, but Miura was able to get out of it. The ref stands them up after no action for a bit. Both guys are swinging for the fences and Condit ends up back in the mount position as the go to the ground. Miura with a great reversal out of that mount. Miura starts raining down punches again, but Condit tries to defend and slow down the shots. Miura lets Condit get up, and as he goes for the knockout shot and misses, he gets caught with a knee to the head. Condit starts throwing shots to the head as Miura tries to hold on to his ankle. Miura had nothing left in the tank to defend and the ref comes in and stops it.
WINNER: Condit via TKO at 4:43 of the fourth round.
STAR RATING:(****-) That was a hell of a Title fight. They both gave it everything they had through almost four full rounds, and they kept it interesting the whole way. Miura was very impressive early with his Judo, and held his own in the stand-up game, but it wasn't enough to get through the Champ. Carlos Condit defended his belt nicely, and absolutely deserved that win. Good fight and a good cap to the night.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was another good show from WEC. Not quite as good as the June 1st show, but still it had plenty of action and some really good showings from some fighters. The only complaint was the fact that there wasn't a lot of fighting on the 2 1/2 hour show outside of the main event, with a lot of fights ending early. Granted, there were some good highlights in that, but it made the first two hours of the show drag considerably. That being said, another good show with some good highlight victories for some, and a very satisfying main event.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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