THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Two featherweight bouts are heading to the WEC 50 card this August, already gaining steam as one of the better WEC cards in recent memory, as Javier Vasquez will meet Mackens Semerzier and Chad Mendes will face Cub Swanson on the night's preliminary card.
The Vasquez vs. Semerzier bout was reported by MMAJunkie.com this morning, while multiple outlets reported the Mendes vs. Swanson bout earlier this week.
Vasquez suffered back to back split decision losses upon his entrance to the WEC to LC Davis and Deividas Taurosevicius before rebounding with a submission victory over Jens Pulver in March.
Semerzier burst onto the WEC scene with perhaps the biggest upset of 2009 when he submitted Waggney Fabiano in the first round by triangle choke. He then suffered his first loss in his last appearance, dropping a decision to Taurosevicius.
Mendes has started his career with seven straight wins, including two in the WEC on consecutive events this year, defeating Erik Koch in March by decision before submitting Anthony Morrision in April.
Swanson rebounded from an eight second loss to current WEC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo last June by submitting John Franci in the third round of their bout at WEC 44 last November.
Penick's Analysis: This card is really one of the strongest the WEC has put together in a long time. It will be hard to match the excitement from last weekend's WEC 49 card, but they've got much bigger names and some very good match-ups to the point where it could very much rival what that card brought. This is a stacked card and will be right in line with the "must see" nature of the events Zuffa is putting on in August.
RELATED STORY: WEC NEWS: Scott Jorgensen vs. Brad Pickett coming to WEC 50 in August: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...