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
A long anticipated lightweight rematch between Jamie Varner and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone may finally come to fruition, as Sherdog.com reports the bout is being targeted for the WEC 51 card in September.
The two met in January of 2009 at WEC 38 for Varner's Lightweight Championship, and the fight ended in controversy in the fifth round when Cerrone threw a knee when Varner was on a knee that grazed him. Varner suffered an eye injury and was unable to continue, sending the fight to the judges scorecards.
Varner had been winning the fight up until that point, and earned the unanimous decision from the judges to retain his title. He suffered a number of injuries in the fight, however, that kept him out of action until January of this year.
He would have faced Cerrone, but "The Cowboy" lost to Benson Henderson in an Interim Lightweight Championship bout. Varner was subsequently submitted by Henderson, who went on to defeat Cerrone a second time this April.
Varner got back into action last month, controversy again abounding as the judges scored a split draw in his fight against Kamal Shalorus. He sustained multiple low blows in the bout, and the draw meant neither of the fighters would be next in line for a title shot.
WEC 51 will be headlined by a Featherweight Championship bout between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan.
Penick's Analysis: This is a fight fans have been waiting to see for a longtime. The first fight really kicked off the hate train on Varner, and he's never really recovered his image. But even his most ardent detractors felt some sympathy for him in the fight with Shalorus. With both sharing losses to Henderson this year, this should be a good rematch. However, should Cerrone lose this bout, it will have to spell a long talked about drop to featherweight.
RELATED STORY: WEC NEWS: Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan set for Featherweight Championship clash in WEC 51 main event: [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...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP