WEC 36 : Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown – Play by Play

If you’re looking for Faber vs. Brown 2 at WEC 41, click here.

WEC is live tonight from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. This show seems to be quite low on the list of priorities for Zuffa at the moment, and has crept up without much of a promotional effort. I don’t expect this card to have anything like the level of success the Faber vs. Pulver card had, but on paper it should be a really good night of fights. The main event is the Featherweight title fight between Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown.

Photo courtesy of hardfortheyard.com

The big news coming in to this show is that middleweight champion Paulo Filho missed weight by 7 pounds. His fight with Chael Sonnen is now non title, and has been changed to a 3 round bout. The non title stipulation probably isn’t all that big of a deal, as the plan is to dissolve the WEC middleweight division after tonight anyway. There is only four fights scheduled for the live broadcast, but with only the one championship fight now, hopefully they will have time to show more action from the Stellar undercard.

Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck
These two guys are both undefeated in MMA and making their respective WEC debuts tonight. Osterneck came out to the new Guns N Roses single, Awesome.
Rosholt is an excellent wrestler, but his stand up is horrible. He spent much of the early part of the round walking face first into punches, and was rocked on a few different occasions. As the round wore on, he began to settle in to the fight, and was able to secure a couple of solid takedowns. Osterneck was very active off his back initially, but seemed to be tiring late in the round, allowing Rosholt to land some good ground and pound.

The second round picked up where the first left off – with Rosholt taking it to the ground and controlling the action. Osterneck worked for a Kimura, but Rosholt was able to shrug it off and pass to side control. Osterneck fought his way back to his feet, and starting throwing everything at his opponent. He connected cleanly over and over, but fatigue was kicking in and there wasn’t much weight behind the shots. Osterneck slipped while throwing a high kick, and ended up on the ground taking a pummeling. The shots from Rosholt didn’t look particularly damaging, but Osterneck was warned several times by the referee to improve his position. He was unable to do anything and the fight was eventually stopped.
Winner: Jake Rosholt (TKO: Round 2)

Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
Garcia stopped Pulver early in the first round. Garcia looked sharper, picking off Jens as he tried to close him down. A hard right hook caused Pulver to drop to his knees. Garcia pounced and unloaded with several punches, forcing the referee to step in.
Garcia asked for a shot at the winner of tonight’s main event.
Winner: Leonard Garcia (TKO: Round 1)

David Avellan vs. Aaron Simpson
This is a prelim. Again, its two undefeated fighters in their WEC debuts. Simpson landed a huge overhand right to the chin of Avellan, which caused the Knock out after just 18 seconds.
Winner: Aaron Simpson (KO: Round 1)

Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
This is being billed as a grudge match. This is a rematch with Filho having won the first encounter by submission. Chael felt hard done by because he was dominating the first fight up until the stoppage. He denies submitting, and believes the referee made a mistake in stopping the fight.
Sonnen also feels disrespected by Filho not making weight. He says it was his dream to be a world champion, and that was taken away from him by Filho’s lack of professionalism. He also spoke of how he had promised his dying father that he would win the championship, and that he couldn’t fulfill that promise now.

Lots of boos for Filho’s introduction.

Filho spent most of the round lying on his back with Sonnen standing over him, kicking at his legs and landing punches when possible. A couple of times Filho shot for submissions, but Chael was careful not to let himself get trapped again.

Filho wanted to drop to his back again in the second round, but this time Sonnen just stepped back and forced him to stand up. Filho tried jump guard, but Chael was having none of it. He slammed Filho hard on his back, and then stood right back up. On the feet, Sonnen outboxed Filho, scoring points with light jabs.

In the third round Filho looked gassed and did absolutely nothing. Sonnen continued to jab away for the duration of the round. Filho’s body language was not that of someone who wanted to be there. Awful fight, but a massive win for Sonnen. Sonnen takes it 30-27 on all cards.
Winner: Chael Sonnen (unanimous decision)

Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
Faber got destroyed in the first round. Mike Brown looked to clinch early and tried to work for a take down from there. Urijah did an excellent job of defending it. After they separate, Faber charged in with a standing elbow strike, Brown countered with a crushing right hook which dropped the champion. Brown unleashes some terrifying strikes from the champions back. The referee gave Faber plenty of time, but had no choice but to step in as Brown continued to unload. Huge upset.

Winner and new WEC featherweight champion: Mike Brown

It will be intersting to see if they will give Garcia the first shot at Brown now, or try do the Faber rematch instead.

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