WEC 47 has come and gone and it really blew me away. Here are a few of my post event thoughts on what I witnessed last night…
Ted Nugent has some magical power – My friend Phil actually turned to me as Benavidez walked to the cage and said he was going to win by choke. He may not know much about MMA, but he’s a huge Ted Nugent fan and he remembers what Randy Couture did at UFC 109. This was the second time in a month that a fighter used “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent as their entrance music and then proceeded to win via choke submission in the second round of their fight. Randy Couture won via rear naked choke over Mark Coleman and now Joseph Benavidez with his incredible guillotine against the heavily favored Miguel Torres. I fully expect the Nuge to be getting a huge revival in the MMA entrance department.
It’s a shame Jens Pulver’s career ended this way – Jens has been around forever, but mixed martial arts has only exploded in popularity in the past few years. The hardcore fans remember Jens for his amazing run as the first UFC lightweight champion and his career defining victory over BJ Penn but new fans of MMA have seen Jens go 1-7 over the past 3 1/2 years and have watched him lose via first round stoppage in his past four fights. I would have given anything to see Pulver string together one last run of W’s before calling it a career, but not all wishes come true. He sounded pretty intent on calling it quits when they interviewed him in the cage tonight.
Urijah Faber spoiled us – Last June in the main event of WEC 41, Urijah Faber fought 3+ rounds with two broken hands in a practically inhuman effort to win back his featherweight title from Mike Brown. The general consensus from some of my friends and from members of MMA message boards I frequent has been that Brian Bowles should have kept fighting after sustaining the broken hand. Broken hands hurt, and don’t forget that Bowles also busted the same hand in his last fight with Miguel Torres last August. He said he broke it on the first punch that connected with Cruz’s head so that means he probably fought some of the first and all of the 2nd round with a broken hand. Give the guy a break (no pun intended).
Scott Jorgensen is an animal – Scott Jorgensen gained a lot of fans with his victory over former title challenger Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 45 in December, but that didn’t earn him any favors in the WEC. Despite the big win, he was relegated to the undercard against Chad George who was riding a 6 fight win streak. How did Jorgensen respond? He stuffs George’s first takedown attempt and proceeds to slap on one of the most viscous guillotines I’ve ever seen to win in 31 seconds of the first round. Jorgensen literally used the cage as leverage for the choke and then started lifting George up in the air to make the guillotine even tighter. When Jorgensen let the choke go, George was already out cold. The fight got shown on the main broadcast and my friends and I were in absolute awe as we watched it enfold.
MMA’s unpredictability makes it great – Three heavily favored main card fighters were defeated by stoppage tonight (Torres, Bowles, Darabedyan). What’s the fun of watching something if you already know what’s going to happen? I expected a clinic by Miguel Torres, but instead I became a huge fan of Joseph Benavidez and his incredible confidence in himself. I was amazed by the comeback spirit of Bart Palaszewski as he looked for, and got an opening on the ground against the hot shot prospect in Karen Darabedyan. Lastly, you had to be impressed with the speed and tenacity of Dominick Cruz. He made the champ, Brian Bowles, look like he was moving in slow motion for much of that fight.
