[Soulrise]

Having WEC on Sunday evenings always sucks for me because I generally visit my family and have dinner with them on Sunday so I miss the first portion of the card. I wasn't able to tune in until right before the co-main events came on and I'm too lazy to look up the results for the other fights. Well, too lazy to copy and paste them in this thread

Benson Henderson submits Jamie Varner in R3 with a guillotine choke. I scored the first two rounds for Varner although the action really wasn't all that heavy. I had Henderson winning the 3rd round as he landed several hard body kicks. He eventually caught Varner in the guillotine about halfway through the round.

Urijah Faber submits Raphael Assuncao in R3 with a rear naked choke. The first round was pretty even and could've gone either way, Faber definitely won the second round and was able to finish Assuncao off in the 3rd. Impressive showing for Faber. They brought Jose Aldo to the ring during the post fight interviews and it looks like WEC will get it's wish with the fight that everyone wants to see.

[miscmisc]

I liked Deividas Taurosevicius vs. Mackens Semerzier.

Well, I said that partly because I wanted to spell their awesome names, but that fight was pretty cool.

[Paul T]

i liked Jansen rs Shalorus - what they lacked in boxing skills they made up for with bad intentions
:-)

Brown and Morrison was over very fast.

[perchdogg]

I thought Taurosevicius looked really good in his fight, I'd actually like to see him against Mike Brown next if Brown is temporarily out of the title picture because of Faber taking on Junior Aldo. Taurosevicius vs. Manny Gamburyan would also be another smart match to make now, though it has some potential to be pretty boring.

Shalorus' boxing (if you can even call it that) was just ugly. Fairly fun fight to watch and he seems extremely physically dominant at 155 pounds, but does this guy even have a boxing coach.

Nice showing for Urijah Faber, I think he's still undersold by a lot of hardcore fans. That will only continue when he meets Junior Aldo as I think Aldo tears him up, but Urijah's ability to scramble makes it at least a fight where we could see some new folds in Aldo's game. Also cool to see Aldo speaking some English in the post-fight confrontation; I personally don't need the foreign fighters speaking English, but it seems that a lot of fans do, and Ed Soares seems to make it a point now among his Brazilian clients that they be able to give at least some quotes in English (Machida, Anderson, now Junior).

Henderson must have some nasty guillotine choke; I'm interested in seeing his progression as a fighter. Varner seemed unable to effectively figure out Henderson's distancing in this fight and had to opt to clinch a bunch of times when he probably would have preferred to stay in punching range. I'd like to see Njokuani step in against Cowboy or Varner next.

[heckyl]

WAR BENDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MZN]

What struck me was basically the last thing that was sad. Varner made a remark: "I came to fight, Henderson came to grapple".

I can shove such a comment aside cuz I guess it is post fight bitterness but somehow it stuck with me as being... eh well... stupid...

[heckyl]

Originally Posted by MZN

What struck me was basically the last thing that was sad. Varner made a remark: "I came to fight, Henderson came to grapple".

I can shove such a comment aside cuz I guess it is post fight bitterness but somehow it stuck with me as being... eh well... stupid...

throw in that Ben has 1 takedown attempt, which failed. the rest of the fight? standing and in the clinch. varner went for a guillotine in the first round which failed, but looked like it could have been close at first.

yeah, stupid.

[EckY]

Varner comes off bad every time he opens his mouth.

Was a decent event overall but didnt live up to previous WEC events.

[heckyl]

Originally Posted by EckY

Varner comes off bad every time he opens his mouth.

even when just taking in a breath, or taking a drink out of a glass. its a big problem for him.

[Newman]

Originally Posted by perchdogg

I thought Taurosevicius looked really good in his fight, I'd actually like to see him against Mike Brown next if Brown is temporarily out of the title picture because of Faber taking on Junior Aldo. Taurosevicius vs. Manny Gamburyan would also be another smart match to make now, though it has some potential to be pretty boring.

Ha, I actually thought Gamburyan/Brown would be the best thing to do next. Not that Taurosevicius didn't look good or anything. Maybe throw him in there with Leonard Garcia next?

Originally Posted by perchdogg

Nice showing for Urijah Faber, I think he's still undersold by a lot of hardcore fans. That will only continue when he meets Junior Aldo as I think Aldo tears him up, but Urijah's ability to scramble makes it at least a fight where we could see some new folds in Aldo's game. Also cool to see Aldo speaking some English in the post-fight confrontation; I personally don't need the foreign fighters speaking English, but it seems that a lot of fans do, and Ed Soares seems to make it a point now among his Brazilian clients that they be able to give at least some quotes in English (Machida, Anderson, now Junior).

I've been saying for months now that Faber is a far more difficult match for Aldo than Brown was. It's not that Faber is a better fighter than Brown, more that both guys are fantastic but styles make fights and Faber's speed and scrambling game matched up badly with Brown. Against Aldo though who has basically used his own speed to run through everyone, I wonder how he'll do when he's faced with Urijah who is probably just as fast and will bring the fight to him. Though to be fair, from all the sources, Aldo's grappling is far better than his striking (!) so who knows?

[perchdogg]

Originally Posted by Newman

Ha, I actually thought Gamburyan/Brown would be the best thing to do next. Not that Taurosevicius didn't look good or anything. Maybe throw him in there with Leonard Garcia next?



I've been saying for months now that Faber is a far more difficult match for Aldo than Brown was. It's not that Faber is a better fighter than Brown, more that both guys are fantastic but styles make fights and Faber's speed and scrambling game matched up badly with Brown. Against Aldo though who has basically used his own speed to run through everyone, I wonder how he'll do when he's faced with Urijah who is probably just as fast and will bring the fight to him. Though to be fair, from all the sources, Aldo's grappling is far better than his striking (!) so who knows?

We could also do Taurosevicius against Raphael Assuncao next, Mark Hominick, LC Davis, etc. The division isn't necessarily stacked in that for all we know there may still be just a few truly elite fighters, but there is plenty of fleshing out to do.

I'm not ready to say Faber is a lot more 'difficult' for Aldo than Brown was, but he does present some new challenges to Aldo, particularly in the speed and scrambling department. Because of these, I think he may have a better chance of getting Aldo to the floor, but Aldo's takedown defense is outstanding imo.

I still think Aldo wins pretty handily, but it may take Faber show us Aldo's ground game; that's what the makes the fight pretty intriguing to me. Add on top of that that Aldo looks like he may be the type of virtuoso that's fun to watch no matter who you throw him in with ala Anderson Silva, and I'm really looking forward to this bout.

[slash]

WEC was great, as always.

Urijah did a good job against Raphael, but i doubt he can do anything to Aldo. His stand-up is more based on his speed, and he throws just one punch at a time, very little combinations, he could do that against Assuncao, but Aldo will punish him. He needs to make that a wrestling match, take Aldo down and work from there. Can he do that? I doubt.

Henderson fought nicely, i'd like to see him setting up those kicks with some punches, he has great left kick, but he doesn't set it up. And Varner went for a takedown, got caught in a choke as a result of failed takedown, and he complains about Henderson grappling?

[Niclas]

The post fight complaining about how he (varner) came to box (thats what he said right?) and henders to kick / grapple was extremely weird and retarded considering how the fight went and just, well, just the statement alone in an MMA fight. Im guess he was just really upset with losing and blurted out some shit. Oh well. Good card as always.