Archive for the 'WEC' Category

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By Marc Staehling

With the recent confirmation of the North American Debuts of Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim, and Japan’s Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 84, I thought it would be appropriate to take a glance at last few years of international(Asian) acquisitions made by the UFC and WEC.

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Manny Tapia Vs. Antonio Banuelos

135! You better push the pace. These guys are the size of women. Just saying. Tapia is from Chino like Ryan from the OC. He is, therefore, hard. Banuelos is from Chuck Liddell’s camp and Chuck and Hackleman are in his corner.

This is like the quintessence of POWPOWPOW. Brock Lesnar is as big as both of these guys combined. This is a slick little fight. Banuelos wins the first round by the narrowest of margins.

Put my kid to bed during Round 2. Sang Wheels on the Bus and Old McDonald.
Manuelos is getting tired and Tapia is frustrating him by avoiding his takedowns.

Split Draw. I can live with that as both guys had their moments. Good fight.

Score correction. Apparently Tapia was the actual winner. Screwjob finish. How much you wanna bet Cecil Peoples had some Cheeto residue on his scoring card?

WEC BANTAMWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT:
CHASE BEEBE VS. MIGUEL TORRES

Title fight between the best woman sized men in North America! They talk to Urijah Faber. Gay fighter or gayest fighter? One guy is giving the other guy a valentine’s gift, what the hell? Kind of your classic wrestler v. BJJ matchup. Torres needs a sub to win. Beebe is wearing a shirt with skulls on it. Bold choice. The ring announcer is awesome. Beebe doesn’t have one loss, he has one taste of defeat.

This is like watching insects fight. Torres is in an open guard with Praying Mantis legs. Torres is an angry dude even in victory. He has hella ne waza. Torres wins with an Anaconda choke that he somehow turns into a SUPER guillotine. He’s one to watch!

FEATHERWEIGHT BOUT:
HIROYUKI TAKAYA VS. LEONARD GARCIA

Takaya’s nickname is Evil Fist. That is awesome. This should be a real good fight. Garcia destroys him with leg kicks and then drops him with a straight right. Garcia is so happy to be at his natural weight.

WEC LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT:
ROB MCCULLOUGH VS. JAMIE VARNER

Razor Rob has great hands. Varner is a good wrestler, but isn’t much of a submission guy. I see this lasting a bit and Rob eventually catching him with something. Varner is wearing headphones to the ring. Isn’t that his music playing? Is he listening to Tony Robbins?

Varner takes the first round, winning the standup and scoring several takedowns. He looks gassed though, so the fight could get ugly for him next round.

Varner wins the second round too. Not much happening and the crowd is turning.

Just as I say that, they go balls to the wall. Varner gets hurt by a left hook but manages to recover with the help of a convenient timeout to recover his mouthpiece. Then Varner murders him and Mazzagatti lets Rob take a beating before finally stopping the fight. Mazzagatti is so terrible. Someone will die as he watches awestruck.

WEC WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT:
CARLOS CONDIT VS. CARLO PRATER

Carlos Condit is maybe Zuffa’s 9th best WW. Prater holds a win over Condit and is supposedly Brazillian. I don’t see it or hear it. I call bullshit. Prater comes out to Rush’s Tom Sawyer. He should be automatically awarded the first round on the strength of song selection. Condit appears to have his parents in his corner. The announcer asks the crowd if they are ready. I would say they are. Very ready.

Prater scores with a beautiful judo throw but then has to defend, defend, defend. Carlos ends it early with a tight guillotine. OK, Condit is Zuffa’s 7th best WW. We see his Dad and it is not the guy from his corner. Who is the other old man? I must know.

Great show. Show of the Year so far!

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By Lee Casebolt

A couple of weeks ago, I finished the second in a pair of articles regarding upcoming title fights and why you should care about them.  Leaving aside my horrible underestimation of one Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for just a moment, you’ll note that I left out all three of tonight’s WEC title fights.  No, I didn’t forget.  I’m just not sure you should care. Read the rest of this entry »