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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC President Dana White is serving as promoter for next weekend's WEC 48 card, and with that the card is going to have more than a bit of a UFC feel to it. After it came out yesterday that Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg will be calling the action on the card, White today announced on his Twitter page that Spike TV will be airing preliminary card fights for the event, as the UFC has done for a number of events since last September.
According to a report from MMAJunkie.com, the two fights scheduled to air live on an hour long Spike TV broadcast are Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung and Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis.
Garcia steps back into the WEC cage quickly following a draw against George Roop at last month's WEC 47 event. He's just 1-2-1 in his last four fights and in desperate need of a victory. Jung is a 10-1 fighter that is coming off a victory at Sengoku Ninth Battle in 2009.
Karalexis is fighting for the first time in a year after a broken hand pushed him out of a scheduled November bout against Kamal Shalorus, and he'll be accompanied cageside by Minnesota Vikings' star Jared Allen, a training partner of his in the NFL's offseason.
Pettis rebounded from his first career loss with a "Knockout of the Night" performance last month against Danny Castillo. He's now 9-1 overall in his career, the sole loss a split decision to Bart Palaszewski at WEC 45.
WEC 48 airs live next Saturday on pay-per-view, headlined by the Featherweight Title bout between Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo.
Penick's Analysis: This is awesome news, and could help with a final push to bring this event more than 100,000 pay-per-view buys. Free fights are always welcome, and to give the Spike TV audience a couple of exciting lighter weight fights before the pay-per-view is nothing but a good idea. Hopefully we can get a couple more of these undercard bouts to air on the Spike special as well, should these end quickly.
RELATED STORY: WEC NEWS: Joe Rogan says he and Mike Goldberg are calling the action at WEC 48 on pay-per-view: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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