by:  Jack Bratcher

I always enjoy the WEC events.  They run a tight ship over there with no frills; just good solid MMA action from some of the top talent in the world.

However, last night was strange.  Why in the world they chose not to air the Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone fight had me flabbergasted.   Even on the edited replay of the event they didn’t air it.

Of course it turned out to be the fight of the night.

Paulo Filho should be stripped of his belt.  His division, middleweight, has been folded into the UFC anyway but just to make a statement they should have stripped him for not making weight.

He was even given two extra months to prepare for this fight.

The Filho vs. Sonnen fight was definitely the let down of the evening.  First of all it is supposed to be a title fight and that didn’t happen due to the “champ’s” unprofessionalism.  So now you’re thinking, “alright Sonnen is pissed, this is going to be a war” and it turns out to be anything but.

We got to see Filho lay on his back not wanting to engage.  He seemed distracted and unmotivated to say the least.  Then Sonnen in the third round seems satisfied to coast into a decision instead of making Filho pay for the disrespect he showed.  This is a definite candidate for worst fight of the year.

Leonard Garcia was amazing.  He destroyed Jens Pulver to the point you have to question whether Pulver’s time is up in this game.  Pulver can’t make dents in the lightweight or featherweight divisions anymore.

The only reason for him to continue fighting professionally at this point would be to pay the bills.   But rather than to continue to tarnish his legacy, it may be better to transition into full time coaching.

I don’t think anyone other than Mike Thomas Brown himself imagined Urijah Faber would go down with a round one TKO.  Faber looked fast and slick and even made of rubber as Brown slammed him to the mat at one point only to watch the WEC poster boy bounce right back to his feet.

It was an aggressive fast-paced match that reached its boiling point quickly as Faber threw an impromptu backward elbow only to turn around and run straight into a big right punch from Brown that met his chin like a spear of destiny, clothes-lining the champ into mid-air and then flat on his back.

Brown then capitalized on the wounded champion with nonstop strikes until the referee had no choice but to save Faber from further injury.  It was a shocking yet exciting climax to one weird night.

Faber appeared to take the loss in stride. A friend of mine said Faber was due a loss and maybe that’s the best way to look at it. For certain people, especially professional competitors, there most probably will come a certain level of achievement when the only way you can get to the next level of excellence is to have another competitor prove to you beyond a doubt that you are not the best you can be.

2 thoughts on “WEC 36 – a word from the editor”
  1. I know faber fights unorthodox, but a back elbow was a awkard strike to throw in that situation. I guess when you fight like he does though it shouldn’t be unexpected.

  2. Faber is so creative and if that elbow would have hit Brown he could have done some serious damage and we wouldn’t even be talking about this. But…. it didn’t. I think this is only going to help Faber and motivate him to keep improving.

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