WEC: Aldo vs. Faber Prelims Re-Cap

WEC: Aldo vs. Faber Prelims
Arco Arena
Sacramento, California
April 24, 2010
Spike TV

Tonight is the "biggest fight in Featherweight history" between current champion Jose Aldo and former champion Urijah Faber and to hype the first ever WEC PPV we get a free hour of fights on Spike TV! The UFC has taken over the WEC airwaves as Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are the announcers for this show. Bruce Buffer is also doing the ring announcing tonight. Leonard Garcia of UFC fame and Alex Karalexis from TUF 1 will be on the prelims.

Lightweight Fight- Alexis Karalexis (10-4) vs. Anthony Pettis (8-1)

Pettis has a huge 6" reach advantage and also has a 2" height advantage.

R1- Pettis hit an incredible kick early and Karalexis clinched to survive. It almost looked like a Superman Kick (Rogan later called it a Switch Kick). In March of 2009 Pettis hit a highlight reel head kick to beat Danny Castillo. Pettis is big time with his feet. Karalexis caught a kick and took Pettis down but Pettis got back to his feet mid-way through the round. Pettis caught a Karalexis leg kick and landed a good straight right. Pettis is the much better striker in this fight. Karalexis looking to brawl and get the fight to the ground. Pettis just landed a couple of really nice leg kicks and Karalexis looks like he's favoring them a bit. Pettis continues to land kicks and Karalexis has to change his stance. Pettis 10-9.

R2- Karalexis rushed in and got an early take down but Pettis quickly got back to his feet. Karalexis completed another take down one minute into the round. Pettis has a very active guard and he trapped Karalexis in a triangle and landed a couple of strikes and Karalexis tapped out. Good showing by Pettis, he showed tonight that he was a superior striker to his opponent and also showed the ability to finish the fight once it went to the ground and even better showed the ability to finish from the bottom.

Winner: Anthony Pettis by Submission (Triangle Choke) R2 1:35

Featherweight Fight- Chad Mendes (6-0) vs. Anthony Morrison

This one pops on without any Bruce Buffer so it was taped earlier. Goldberg says Mendes is the hometown kid and has lots of hype behind him. Mendes has a background has a college wrestler.

R1- Mendes came in early with some strikes and landed a few. Mendes shot in and got a take down at the two minute mark of the round. Mendes grabbed a guillotine and Morrison tapped out. Impressive showing by Mendes.

Winner: Chad Mendes by Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 2:13

Joe Rogan interviews Kimbo Slice via Satelitte about his May 8th fight against Matt Mitrione. Kimbo = Ratings.

Featherweight Fight- Leonard Garcia (17-5-1) vs. Chan Sung Jung (10-1)

Chan Sung Jung fought in the Sengoku Featherweight tournament where he beat Shintaro Ishiwatari by Rear Naked Choke in the first round and then lost to Masanori Kanehara in the second round in a close decision loss. If you are a fan of MMA then you should know who Leonard Garcia is, if you don't then go run and google his fight with Roger Huerta and then come back and read the rest of this re-cap. Garcia last fought at WEC 44 where he lost a close decision to Manvel Gamburyan and before that he beat Jameel Massouh by split decision at WEC 42. Jung has a 2.5" reach but Garcia has a 3" height advantage. Jung's nickname is the "Korean Zombie". Garcia has Yoda in his corner for the fight.

R1- GREAT exchange around the one minute mark of this fight with both guys just throwing bombs and crazy haymakers.
Crowd going nuts. Jung throwing some good knees. Jung landed a good left hand that floored Garcia. Jung on top with some short elbows but Garcia clinches onto him looking for a submission but Jung fought him off and landed some more Ground and Pound. Garcia got back to his feet with one minute left in the round. Garcia still throwing haymakers but coming up empty and Jung is landing some jabs. Jung landed a head kick but didn't have anything behind it and Garcia smiled and wagged his tongue at Jung and then landed a right hand. Jung continues to land punches and knees. Great first round, one of the best first rounds of this year. Jung 10-9. This fight is a great way to sell a Pay-Per View.

"This place is going bananas"- Joe Rogan
"This just chaos"- Joe Rogan
"Every punch Garcia throws is like a 90 mile per hour fast ball"- Joe Rogan

R2- Jung lands another head kick to start off the round and then landed some strikes. Both guys throwing BOMBS again and Garcia finally finds a home for one of his and Jung went down to his knees. Garcia hit him with another right as he was getting back to his feet. Garcia missed a spinning back fist and then Jung tried one and missed as well. REALLY FUN fight right now. A ton of action so far in this round and we are only a minute into this round. Crowd is going nuts for this prelim bout just wait til Faber hits the cage. Garcia tried a back kick and left himself open and Jung landed some good strikes. Jung jumped on Garcia's back and took him down. Looks like he's looking for a Rear Naked Choke. Jung locked in a body triangle but Garcia was able to break that and get back onto his feet with two minutes still left in the round. Really good defense by Garcia. Jung lands some good knees and gets Garcia up against the cage and is just pelting him with strikes. Garcia lost his mouthpiece but they quickly picked it up and he put it back in with no rinse and they are back at it. Garcia hit a good right uppercut. They show Urijah in the back cheering as he watches the fight. To me this was a 10-10 round but you have to go one way or the other so I'll give it to Jung because he landed more strikes and had Garcia in more dangerous positions. So i've got it Jung 20-18.

"This is a Rocky movie"- Joe Rogan
"This place is deafening"- Joe Rogan
"This might be the craziest fight we've ever seen"- Joe Rogan

R3- Garcia lands some early leg kicks. Both guys have slowed down a bit. Garcia misses with a spinning back kick. Jung missed with a spinning back fist but got Garcia off balance and landed some strikes. Jung got Garcia with his back to the cage and landed several good strikes. Garcia just showing an iron chin tonight. Garcia missed a kick and Jung looked at Garcia and yelled a Korean War Cry at him and charged forward. Man this is a great fight. Both guys swing for the fences at the end but nobody connects. GREAT FIGHT. I've got Jung 30-27.

Judges score cards: 29-28 Garcia, 29-28 Jung, 29-28 Garcia

One of the best fights of the year so far but a poor decision by the judges. Let me go know and delete Jung's name from the winner list and replace it with Garcia before you get down that far to read it.

Winner: Leonard Garcia by Decision (Split)

Joe Rogan and Dana White sell the PPV as we go off the air and head to PPV.