WEC 41 "Brown vs Faber II" 6/7/09 Re-Cap

WEC 41 “Brown vs. Faber II” 6/7/09
Sacramento, CA (Arco Arena)
Versus

This is a great weekend if you are a fan of Mixed Martial Arts. Last night Strikeforce put on an explosive show on Showtime with Brett Rogers, Nick Diaz and Jake Shields making loud statements with their actions. That being said, tonight is the show that I am looking forward to most of all, including next weeks UFC PPV. Tonight we get a re-match of the Top 2 Featherweight Fighters in the World as Mike Thomas Brown defends his championship against Urijah Faber. How often do you truly get to see the top 2 fighters in a weight class face off against each other? Also, in action tonight we will see Jens Pulver against Josh Grispi, Top Lightweight contender Donald Cerrone against James Krause and a fight between two more top Featherweight fighters in Jose Aldo and Cub Swanson. This should be an exciting night of fights. Todd Harris is the lead announcer and he is joined by K-Flo, Kenny Florian (who is filling in for Frank Mir). Is it just me or does Kenny Florian look a little like Ben Stiller?

Featherweight Fight- Jens Pulver (22-11-1) vs. Josh Grispi (12-1)

Jens is a former UFC Lightweight Champ who wins most of his fights by KO. Grispi is on an 8-fight win streak, he’s a versatile fighter with equal KOs to submissions. Jens has been destroyed in his last two fights. That being said, they were both against top featherweight fighters in Urijah Faber and Leonard Garcia. Pulver has to win this fight if he wants to stick around in WEC in a fighting capacity. Grispi has a 4” height and 4” reach advantage in this fight. The only fight I’ve seen of Grispi’s was his 50 second win over Micah Miller back in August of 2008.

R1- Grispi got a take down but got caught in a guillotine by Grispi and Pulver tapped out. This is the third straight fight in which Pulver has been finished in under two minutes. Great showing by Grispi. Pulver needs to hang up the gloves. This is the second fight I’ve seen Grispi in and neither one has lasted more than a minute.

Winner: Josh Grispi by Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 0:33

Post-fight Jens Pulver says that he is retiring as he says “I think I’m ending this where it started”. Then he says he’s not sure if he’s done yet.

The next WEC show will be August 9th when Miguel Angel Torres defends his championship against Brian Bowles. Craig Hummer is in the audience with both of the fighters. Bowles is 7-0 and is coming off an injury but says that it won’t be a problem. He says he thinks he matches up well with Torres. Torres says he is ready for the fight with Bowles and is leaning towards Faber in the fight tonight (but he seemed just to be saying that to suck up to Faber’s hometown crowd).

The camera pans the crowd to see who is in attendance. We see NHL star Jeremy Roenick, Keith Jardine, WEC Lightweight Champion Jamie Varner.

Lightweight Fight- Donald Cerrone (9-1) vs. James Krause (10-0)

Cerrone has experience as a professional kick boxer but has most of his wins by submission so he is a very versatile fighter. Krause has never been to a decision and tonight he will be making his WEC debut. Krause says his favorite technique is punching people in the face. Cerrone is coming off of a really good fight against Lightweight champion Jamie Varner that was stopped early due to an accidental foul by Cerrone. The fight went to the score cards due to the foul and Varner won. I had the fight 48-47 Varner but it was really even and Cerrone did a lot of damage to Varner. I really want to see a re-match so Varner needs to win this fight to make that happen. Krause has a 2” height and reach advantage in this fight.

R1- Cerrone hit a good body kick on Krause as he came in for a take down. Krause got a take down but Cerrone showed a very active guard and went for a submission and rolled into Krause’s guard. Krause ate a couple of punches but got out and back to his feet. Krause went for a take down but Cerrone grabbed a guillotine and then hit Krause with a knee before releasing. Cerrone caught Krause with a left hand and then a right that floored Krause. Cerrone followed him to the ground but Krause did a good job covering up and Cerrone ended up taking his back and he hit some punches and clamped on the Rear Naked Choke for the victory. Good fight and a really solid showing by Cerrone.

Winner: Donald Cerrone by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 4:38

Cerrone tells Varner he will fight him “anytime, any where”. Cerrone says that he knows taking this fight wasn’t the smartest move. Says he hopes that Jamie can get out of the “intensive care unit” in order to fight him. Jamie is of course in attendance tonight.

Bantamweight Fight- Scott Jorgensen vs. Antonio Banuelos

Jorgensen has a 3” reach advantage. Jorgensen’s last fight was in January and he tapped Frank Gomez in 1:09 of the first round by guillotine choke. This fight is from the pre-show so it should be a pretty quick one.

R1- Banuelos hit a good right hand to start the fight. Jorgensen ties him up to try and gather himself. Banuelos got a take down up against the cage. Jorgensen gave up his back and was able to get back to his feet. Banuelos is really pushing the action. Jorgensen is clearly having trouble seeing as you can see him blinking hard when there is a slight break in the action. Both guys are freely throwing leather. Really good first round, I’ve got Banuelos taking it 10-9 but Jorgensen started to get his bearings back towards the end of the round.

R2- Banuelos is throwing a lot of punches at the start of this round. Jorgensen works a front headlock looking for a guillotine but couldn’t clamp it in place. Both guys trade punches at the two minute mark of the round. Jorgensen hit two good right hands but Banuelos took them and then clinched. Jorgensen looks like he’s started to get really comfortable and is starting to hit better strikes on Banuelos. Banuelos came back towards the end of the round but I think Jorgensen takes this round and I’ve got them 19-19 going into the final stanza. Really good fight so far.

R3- A ton of action to stat this round as Banuelos went for a take down but Jorgensen grabbed a guillotine and Banuelos sprawled out of it and the fighters got back to their feet. Jorgensen is starting to get his distance down and is walking Banuelos down in the ring. Banuelos has a cut that has been opened up on his right cheek and he seems to be slowing down a little here in the third. Jorgensen landed a really nice knee in the clinch. Both guys continue to really throw at one another. Jorgensen went for a choke but gave it up to take Banuelos back and then Jorgensen ends up in half guard and slugs it out with Banuelos and they sprawl and Banuelos survives another choke. Jorgensen took this round and I’ve got him winning the fight 29-28.

Great Fight. This is a Fight of the Year contender.

Judges score cards say: 29-28 Banuelos, 29-28 Jorgensen, and the deciding score card 29-28 for Banuelos. I’m guessing they gave him the second round.

Winner: Antonio Banuelos by Decision (Split)

Featherweight Fight- Jose Aldo (14-1) vs. Cub Swanson (13-2)

The winner of this fight could be in line for shot at the winner of tonight’s Featherweight Title Fight. Aldo was very impressive in his last fight in March as he overwhelmed Chris Mickle. Aldo also finished Rolando Perez in the first round back in January so he’s 2-0 this year with two first round finishes. Aldo is on a 7 fight win streak. Swanson has only lost 1 fight in the last 5 years and that was to Jens Pulver.

R1- Aldo hits a flying knee right out of the gate and this one is over immediately. Wow! Jose Aldo! How bout that finish Brett Rogers?

I think it’s pretty clear that Jose Aldo gets the next shot at the Featherweight title. Post-fight Aldo says he wants a title shot.

The final time of this fight was 8 seconds. Wow!

Winner: Jose Aldo by 0:08

Bantamweight Fight- Rolando Perez vs. Seth Dikun

Looks like Perez is moving down from Featherweight after his loss to Jose Aldo. In three fights Perez lasted the longest with Aldo so far this year as he lasted 4 minutes. Perez has a 3.5” reach advantage in this fight. This is a pre-show fight.

R1- Perez grabbed a Dikun kick and dumped him on the mat but he let him back up. Dikun pulled guard and grabbed a quick triangle. Perez slams him but Dikun holds onto the move. Perez finally has to tap but he held on for a really long time in the submission.

Winner: Seth Dikun by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 2:30

Lightweight Fight- Mike Campbell vs. Anthony Pettis

Looks like we are going to get our third pre-show fight. Campbell was undefeated before losing his first fight in January of this year to Danillo Villefort.

R1- Campbell caught a head kick but Pettis aggressively grabbed a guillotine but lost it when they fell to the mat. Pettis went for a n arm bar and Campbell beautifully rolled through it. Campbell got caught in a triangle and he had to tap. Campbell looked like he just made a big mistake and left himself open. Pettis looked really aggressive with his submissions, fought a good fight and took advantage of Campbell’s mistake.

Winner: Anthony Pettis by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 1:49

WEC Featherweight Championship: Mike Brown (21-4) vs. Urijah Faber (22-2)

This is a re-match from their original title fight back in November where Urijah lost his first fight in 3 years to Mike Brown. Brown finished that fight in under three minutes when Urijah went for an elbow and Brown caught him with a big clean punch and then followed it up with some big Ground and Pound for the TKO stoppage. Faber made a mistake and got caught in a weird position and Brown really capitalized. It will be interesting to see if Brown can make it two in a row over Faber. Since that fight Brown showed that his win over Urijah was not a fluke when he beat Leonard Garcia in just under 2 minutes. Since his fight with Brown, Urijah also looked very impressive by tapping out Jens Pulver in under 2 minutes in January. Brown is coming into this fight on a 9 fight win streak. Urijah comes to the ring and gets a really big ovation in his hometown. When the lights dim for Brown’s music the crowd gives him a chorus of boos. The graphics on my TV tell us that Brown is a jiu jitsu brown belt with a wrestling base and he wins the majority of his fights by submission (see: Garcia, Leonard). Brown trains with American Top Team.

This should be fun as we have the top 2 Featherweight fights in the world in one ring ready to do battle. Have I mentioned that there is a huge crowd here at Arco Arena tonight to watch this fight? They shake hands and embrace before the fight as the fans are really hyped for this fight.

R1- The fans are just nuts for this fight early. Huge “Faber” chant in the first minute of the round as they clinched and then pulled apart. Urijah hit a nice kick to the head but it didn’t seem to faze Brown. Brown went for a take down and Urijah grabbed a guillotine but Brown easily broke it. Brown his cut around his eye but he has Urijah’s back but Urijah gets back to his feet and gets back to a straight clinch and hits Brown with some knees. Faber hit a big right hand that broke Brown to a knee but Brown kicked and got a trip and he got Urijah down. Brown went for a submission but Urijah sprawled out of it but Brown is still in a dominant position. Really good first round with the crowd going nuts. This was a very close round that was very even. I think Urijah took it 10-9 but it was really a coin flip.

R2- Brown hit a couple of good shots in the first minute but Urijah moved away. Brown got a take down and looked for submissions but Urijah got back to his feet. Brown kept Urijah’s back and hit him with some good punches from behind and then wrestled Urijah back to the ground. Urijah grabbed a guillotine but Brown quickly escape the submission. Urijah got a good reversal but Brown quickly got Urijah back to his feet. Brown took this round and I’ve got it even on my score card at 19-19.

R3- Urijah went for an elbow and Brown tried to grab him in a guillotine but Brown eventually gave it up. Brown took Urijah’s back and pelted him with punches from behind until Urijah got back to his feet. Urijah hit a knee but Brown shrugged it off. Urijah landed a good elbow/knee combo. Brown went for a take down and Urijah sprawled out and briefly took Brown down but Brown tried for a leg submission and Urijah spun out. Kenny Florian seems to think that Urijah might have broken his right hand and that’s why he’s not punching with that hand but going for elbows. This round could have gone either way. It felt like Brown controlled where the fight went but that Faber landed better strikes. I think Brown takes this round and is up 29-28. This round and the first round were really toss ups. KFlo says he also has the fight 29-28 Brown at this point.

They showed footage of the corner with Urijah telling his corner that he broke his hand.

R4- Urijah is pretty much just throwing elbows now and Brown seems to be starting to connect with some strikes. Urijah landed a good knee. This round was basically even but I felt that Brown did slightly more damage to take the fight into the final round up 39-37. Really good fight so far but Urijah’s offense really seems to have been limited by his right hand injury.

R5- Brown got a take down but couldn’t do anything with it and Urijah got back to his feet. KFlo points out that with his broken hand Urijah cannot secure a guillotine choke. Urijah briefly grabbed a guillotine but Brown picked him up and dumped him on the mat. Urijah quickly gets back to his feet with two minutes and thirty seconds left in the fight. Brown got another take down with two minutes left in the fight. Urijah grabbed a choke with a minute and a half but he couldn’t keep it locked in. Brown got a take down with half a minute left in the round. Urijah hit a spinning elbow but couldn’t capitalize. Great Fight. I’ve got Urijah taking that round as he came closer to finishing what was a fairly even round.

I’ve got the fight scored Brown 48 Faber 47. Great fight, it’s unfortunate that Faber broke his hand but that was clearly a weapon that he needed to win this fight.

Judges score cards say: 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 in favor of Mike Brown.

Winner and still champion: Mike Thomas Brown by Decision (Unanimous)

Post-Fight Brown gives it up for Urijah and actually breaks down when discussing his team. Urijah says he hurt both his hands and broke his right hand in the first round. Says he would love to get back in there and get another title shot.

This was a great show. Two great fights in Brown/Faber and Jorgensen/Banuelos. We had Jose Aldo finishing a fight in 8 seconds! Josh Grispi finished Jens Pulver in 33 seconds. Top Contender Donald Cerrone looked good in his fight. This was a show that you did not want to miss.