WEC definitely benefited from the free prelimary fights on Spike TV. I told my family who don’t follow MMA that much that, “Heyfree MMA is on Spike,” to which they replied “Why didn’t you just say UFC is on?” Leonard Garcia vs “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung lit it up with a great 3 round fight. Wild hay makers just laying it all out there for the world to see. I don’t agree with the decision but that happens some times, nothing we can do about it. Pettis vs. Karalexis was a fun affair ending with a nice Triangle Choke early in the second round.

The main PPV card didn’t slow the frenetic pace set by the Spike prelims. Scott Jorgenson avenged his loss against Antonio Banuelos in a fun 3 round decision. Shane Roller and Anthony Njokuani fought for what, in my opinion, could have possibly been the right to fight the winner of Henderson vs. Cerrone II. Roller was able to get in and use his wrestling to muscle Njokuani around eventually taking it to the ground, finding a Rear Naked Choke a little over half way through the 1st round. It was great hearing Mark Laimon frantically yell at Roller coded instructions like “Tyson Griffin” and “Florian vs. Gomi” using those names as comparisons to the situation Roller was in. Him and Kenny Florian’s brother, Keith Florian, have to be two of the loudest corner men in MMA .

Then we moved in to the top 3 bouts on the card starting with Brown vs. Gamburyan. This had possible Featherweight title implications written all over it but I don’t know why you would want to fight Aldo right now but its part of the job description right? Manny circled Brown for most of the fight until Brown got in close and Manny caught Brown with a nice short right hand that dropped him.  Manny is a thickly built fighter and it would be interesting to see if Aldo can chop away at him like he did Faber. Next we had the rematch of one of the fights of the year from 2009 as we saw Henderson vs. Cerrone II. I was expecting a great 5 round knock ‘em down, drag it out brawl like their first fight. Nope. Instead we saw Henderson grab a single leg, force Cerrone up against the cage then knee him there a little bit before putting him to the ground and getting a Guillotine choke in the first round. In my opinion his next opponent should be Shane Roller, who “BenHen” has already defeated so that could be fun to see. If anything, hearing Laimon shout
Modern Warfare 2 references will be a treat.

The main event was Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber for the WEC Featherweight title. If Faber was going to win I figured he was going to have to go in and use some wrestling and just try to control Aldo on the ground, maybe showing us Aldo’s ground game. That was not the case, we had Aldo kicking Faber’s legs out from under him for all five rounds, seeing Aldo thoroughly dominate the final three rounds, eventually leading to a Unanimous Decision win for Aldo over hometown favourite Faber.

WEC 48 delivered like the WEC always does. Other than the Garcia vs. Jung decision there is nothing that people should legitimately complain about. Man its been a long month of MMA and this has been the best show of the month for sure.

You can follow Mike MaZZacane on Twitter @MaZZacreMMA

MAIN CARD

Featherweight Championship bout: Jose Aldo (c) vs. Urijah Faber

Jose Aldo def. Urijah Faber via Unanimous Decision (49-45, 49-45, 50-45) to retain the WEC Featherweight Championship

Lightweight Championship bout: Ben Henderson (c) vs. Donald Cerrone

Ben Henderson def. Donald Cerrone via Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 1:57 of Round 1 to retain the WEC Lightweight Championship

Featherweight bout: Mike Brown vs. Manvel Gamburyan

Manvel Gamburyan def. Mike Brown via KO (Punches) at 2:22 in Round 1

Lightweight bout: Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller

Shane Roller def. Anthony Njokuani via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 3:21 in Round 1

Bantamweight bout: Antonio Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen

Scott Jorgensen def. Antonio Banuelos via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Preliminary Card

Featherweight bout: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung

Leonard Garcia def. Chan Sung Jung via Split Decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

Lightweight bout: Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis

Anthony Pettis def. Alex Karalexis via Submission (Triangle Choke) at 1:35 of Round 2

Bantamweight bout: Brad Pickett vs. Demetrious Johnson

Pickett def. Johnson via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Anthony Morrison

Chad Mendes def. Anthony Morrison via Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:13 of Round 1

Bantamweight bout: Takeya Mizugaki vs. Rani Yahya

Mizugaki def.Yahya via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Feathweight bout: Brandon Visher vs. Tyler Toner

Toner def. Visher via TKO (elbows) at 2:36 of Round 1

In an interview held yesterday, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) general manager Reed Harris announced the upcoming WEC 48 to be held on April 24 at ARCO Arena in Sacramento, CA will be the organization’s first PPV event. Along with the PPV announcement, Harris announced three big fights that will take place on the five-bout main event card: WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo vs former champ and local favorite Urijah Faber, a rematch of last year’s super fight between Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone, and former champ Mike Brown vs UFC transfer Manny Gamburyan.

Also discussed in the interview was the reasoning behind the $44.99 price tag. “We talked about pay-per-view last year and actually had Dana White (UFC President) and Lorenzo Fertitta’s (UFC Owner) blessing.” Harris said. “But we decided to wait because we really wanted a card and main-event fight that reflected the WEC. And I wanted it to be a fight that people definitely wanted to see. I think we have that.”

Still, how does a WEC fight card, as star-studded as it may be, warrant a comparable price point to the UFC’s $49.99 per event mark? Harris explained the final decision came from the executives at UFC, WEC’s parent company. “The decision as far as pricing came from Lorenzo and Dana,” Harris said. “They felt our product is every bit as good as the UFC’s since we’re actually part of the UFC, and they felt the value is there.” Harris went on to say, “We always hear that our cards never disappoint. So we felt it should be similarly, especially with a card of this magnitude.”

Nearly lost in this huge announcement was Harris explanation that not every WEC event, going forward, is going to be on PPV. While it’s parent company, UFC, holds one and sometimes two events per month at a price tag of $49.99, the WEC only plans to move one or two “major” shows per year to PPV. The organization will still hold the bulk of their events on the Versus cable channel free of charge. It should be noted the WEC has seven contractual events with Versus channel in 2010, which includes WEC 47 held on March 6th.

One or two PPV events per year doesn’t sound bad, at first. But timing of the events is key. In months where the UFC holds two PPV events, will loyal UFC PPV-paying customers be willing to shell out $44.99 for a third event?

“I’d just ask the fans to support us,” Harris said. “Get 10 friends together, buy the event, and I promise you, you’ll be satisfied. If you know the WEC, you know what you can expect.”

Is that a money-back guarantee, Mr. Harris?