WEC 48 Aldo vs Faber !!!!

WEC 48 - Aldo vs Faber , April 24, 2010, Arco Arena, Sacramento, California, United States


This is an amazing card, probably the best of the year, & I really hope everyone watches. I have yet to see a WEC event that disapoints.

WEC Featherweight Champion JOSE ALDO VS. URIJAH FABER - Aldo is a beast & as much as I like Faber I think he gets lit up. Aldo by TKO, rd. 1. If it doesn't end early, the styles of these 2 elite featherweights will make for a great battle.


WEC Lightweight Champion BENSON HENDERSON VS. DONALD CERRONE - These guys had a great fight the first time and I'm expecting more of the same. This time, I think Cerrone will win the judges scorecards. Cerrone by decision.

MIKE BROWN VS. MANNY GAMBURYAN - Gamburyan is tough so he'll stay in the fight but he'll lose every round. Brown by decision

ANTHONY NJOKUANI VS. SHANE ROLLER - This is a very tough pick. Njokuani has the much better stand up and tons of power in his hands and feet, but Roller is a much better wrestler. Roller's coach, Marc Laimon spends tons of time watching video on his opponents & I'm sure he will have a good gameplan for Roller to get it to the ground, where he can beat up or sub Njokuani. Would I be surprised if Roller gets his clock cleaned? No, but the safe pick is Roller by submission, rd. 1.

ANTONIO BANUELOS VS. SCOTT JORGENSEN - I scored the first fight in favor of Jorgensen and thought he got screwed out of the decision. This time around I don't think it'll be that close. Jorgensen has gotten steadily better, while Banuelos has remained pretty much the same fighter. Jorgensen by submission, rd. 2 and look for him to move into a title shot if he impresses.

LEONARD GARCIA VS. CHAN SUNG JUNG - Don't expect any great technique, this is gonna be a wild crazy fight filled with windmill punches galore. I'm taking 'the Korean Zombie' by entertaining decision.

ALEX KARALEXIS VS. ANTHONY PETTIS - Pettis might actually kick Karalexis' head clean off his body. Pettis by KO, rd. 1.

DEMETRIOUS JOHNSON VS. BRAD PICKETT - This is a great fight. While Pickett is a tough dude, I feel like Johnson has the more rounded game. Johnson by decision.

CHAD MENDES VS. ANTHONY MORRISON - Mendes is gonna take Morrison down and sub him & he's gonna look a lot better than his last performance. Mendes by submission, rd. 1.

TAKEYA MIZUGAKI VS. RANI YAHYA - I'll take Mizugaki to beat up Rani on the feet, get some takedowns, and stay out of submission trouble. Yahya gets tired pretty quick and I think he's gonna get hurt. Mizugaki TKO, rd. 2.

TYLER TONER VS. BRANDON VISHER - This is another very tough to call. Toner has some great striking and if this stays on the feet we'll be in for a treat. I have to take Visher, simply because of Toner's lack of takedown defence. Toner by decision.

WEC 44: Brown vs Aldo - Results

I'm pretty happy to see that I picked the upset Aldo TKO round 2 & went 8-2 in my picks. Jose Aldo is a beast & I look forward to him defending his 145lb title. Not sure what his next fight will be but I know he'll be fighting Urijah Faber if 'the California Kid' can get by Assuncao in January. I also look forward to seeing how Mike Brown recovers & moves forward from losing his title & how he plans to improve to get it back.

Jose Aldo def. Mike Thomas Brown, by TKO (Punches), rd 2

Manny Gamburyan def. Leonard Garcia by Decision, (Unanimous)

Karen Darabedyan def. Rob McCullough by Decision (Split)

Shane Roller def. Danny Castillo, by Submission (Rear-Naked Choke), rd 3

Kamal Shalorus def. Will Kerr, by TKO (Punches), rd 1

L.C. Davis def. Diego Nunes, by Decision (Unanimous)

Cub Swanson def. John Franchi, by Submission (Guillotine Choke), rd. 3

Antonio Banuelos def. Kenji Osawa, by Decision (Unanimous)

Ricardo Lamas def. James Krause, by Decision (Unanimous)

Frank Gomez def. Seth Dikun, by Decision (Unanimous)

WEC 44 - Picks

While not super excited about this whole card, I am very very eager to see one of the best featherweight match ups ever with rising star Jose Aldo vs Champ Mike Brown. here's my picks,

WEC 44 - Brown vs. Aldo - November 18, 2009 - Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas

WEC Featherweight Championship
Mike Thomas Brown (No. 1 FW, No. 5 PFP) vs. Jose Aldo (No. 6 FW) - I love this fight!!!! I am gonna go with the upset & take Aldo. Brown is such a strong, well rounded Champ but my gut says to go with the explosive momentum of Aldo. Aldo has been tearing guys apart in the division & we've barely seen his Jiu Jitsu game. I really don't care who wins I just want to see a great fight. Aldo by TKO, rd 2.

Leonard Garcia (No. 5 FW) vs. Manny Gamburyan - Gamburyan by Decision
“Razor” Rob McCullough vs. Karen Darabedyan - Darabedyan by Decision
Danny Castillo vs. Shane Roller - Castillo, TKO, rd. 2
Kamal Shalorus vs. Will Kerr - I don't know much about either fighter but what I have heard is that Shalorus is the better fighter so I'll take Shalorus by Decision.
Diego Nunes vs. L.C. Davis - Nunes by Decision
Cub Swanson vs. John Franchi - Swanson by Decision
Antonio Banuelos vs. Kenji Osawa - Banuelos by Decision
Ricardo Lamas vs. James Krause - Lamas by TKO, rd. 3
Seth Dikun vs. Frank Gomez - Gomez, sub rd.2

Crazy Weekend of MMA action!!!!

My thoughts on Saturdays UFC 101 in Philly, & Sunday nights WEC 42 in Vegas & my terrible picks.

BJ Penn defeats Kenny Florian by rear naked choke in 4th round.

I thought Penn showed maturity on Saturday in his dominate stoppage of Kenny Florian. Penn paced himself and nullified all of Florians offence throughout the fight and when the opportunity was there he went in for the kill. If Penn always shows up to defend his lightweight title looking as good as he did Saturday night in Philadelphia I don't see anyone beating him, & considering lightweight is the UFC's most talent rich division, that's saying something.

My pick was for Florian to win, it was a bad pick. Deep down I really wanted to see Kenny win but in my heart I knew he would come out on the losing end.
Anderson Silva defeats Forrest Griffin by TKO in the first round.

Along with everyone else, I pictured this fight being a little competitive and boy was I wrong. I'm not sure what Griffins game plan was (or if he had one) and why he didn't clinch up and try to take the fight to the ground. Silva absolutely dummied the Ultimate Fighter winner with quick hands and Roy Jones-esque head movement. Check out the numbers at Fight Metrics & you can see how ridiculous Silva made a top 5 Light Heavyweight look. Silva's head movement was almost art, letting Forrest connect on 1 of 35 head strikes thrown.
Ricardo Almeida defeats Kendall Grove by decision.

This fight was not exciting. I won't be in a hurry to watch this fight again.

Johny Hendricks defeats Amir Sadollah by TKO in the first round.

I've no doubt that Hendricks was going to win this fight but Dan Miragliotta's terrible early stoppage never gave us a chance to find out if Amir could've defended himself. Another, in a series of recent bad stoppages.

Kurt Pellegrino defeats Josh Neer by decision.

Another boring fight that I scored a draw. Pellegrino did practically nothing in 3 rounds of sitting in Neer's guard. Neer, while active, couldn't put together anything in the way of submission from the bottom.

Aaron Riley defeats Shane Nelson by decision.

This is what should've happened in March. Nelson is not a UFC caliber fighter & was given chances because he is a BJ Penn guy & Ultimate Fighter 8 cast member.


George Sotiropoulos defeats George Roop by submission (Kimura) in the second round.

Roop is another Ultimate Fighter 8 cast member that doesn't belong in the UFC.




I haven't watched any of the untelevised fights so I will just give a rundown of the results.

Jesse Lennox defeats Danillo Villefort by TKO (cut) in the third round.

Matt Riddle defeats Dan Cramer by decision.

Alessio Sakara defeats Thales Leites by decision.

John Howard defeats Tamdan McCrory by decision.





Sunday, WEC 42 : Torres vs Bowles


Brian Bowles defeats Miguel Torres by KO in the first.

This was easily the biggest upset of the year. Bowles has a solid chin and hits hard. I'd really like to see a rematch, which will most likely happen sooner than later in the same fashion as the Mike Brown/Urijah Faber series. I'm still a little shocked seeing Torres on the losing end of such a brutal knockout. I am very excited about the bantamweight division, getting to see Bowles defend his new belt, & Torres work his way back to title contention.

Dominick Cruz defeats Joseph Benavidez by decision (Unanimous).

This was a great fight! You can't ever say that Benavidez doesn't come out swinging & go full throttle. Cruz out wrestled him and used his reach very well. I can't remember the last time I got to see a 30-27 fight be so competitive. Cruz is the first guy to make Benavidez look too small for the bantamweight division. I think everyone was expecting a Torres/Benavidez title fight after this card but I am just as excited for a Bowles/Cruz match up for the bantamweight strap.

Danny Castillo defeats Ricardo Lamas by TKO in the second round.

I picked Lamas to win & he was winning.....until he got knocked out.

Takeya Mizugaki defeats Jeff Curran by decision (Split).

This is the second fight on this card that I picked right but only because of poor judging. It was a split decision in favour of Takeya. I scored it 29-28 Curran. I don't think anyone will argue that Muzugaki took round 1 and Curran round 3. I thought it was pretty clear that round 2 belonged to Curran as well. Curran landed as many, if not more clean, effective strikes from his back, as well as a decent guillotine attempt. I'll take the win because I did so poorly with my picks this weekend, but I don't feel like the right guy won. That being said, I think a Muzugaki/Benavidez match up would be incredible.

Leonard Garcia defeats Jameel Massouh by decision (Split).

I took Garcia to win & he did, but I think it was another of many poor decisions this weekend. I was surprised that Massouh made it out of round 1 with his head still on his shoulders. Massouh recovered well and almost knocked out Garcia with a D'Arce choke in the 2nd. In the 3rd Garcia threw a ton of big power shots trying to end it. The only problem was he landed almost none of them. Massouh hit many more clean punches and body kicks and should've won 29-28.

a rundown of the untelevised fights,

Cole Province defeats Fredson Paixao by decision (Unanimous).

Shane Roller defeats Marcus Hicks by decision (Unanimous)

Ed Ratcliff defeats Phil Cardella by decision (Unanimous)

Rani Yahya defeats John Hosman by submission (North-South Choke)

Diego Nunes defeats Rafael Dias by decision (Unanimous)

L.C. Davis defeats Javier Vazquez by decision (Split).

Overall, I did terribly in my picks, going 11 for 22 (UFC 101, 6 out of 11 & WEC 42, 5 out of 11).

Bad judging aside, WEC was a great exciting card.

UFC 101 had 3 really interesting fights, but other than Penn reaffirming his Lightweight dominance & Silva's dismantling of Griffin, was not the most memorable card.