WEC 41: Faber Vs. Brown II Play By Play
With Frank Mir in training for his upcoming fight at UFC 100, Kenny Florian is joining the announce team for tonight’s show.
Josh Grispi Vs. Jens Pulver
Jens has been on a 3 fight losing streak, and has lost 5 of his last 6. He needs a win tonight to remain relevant by any stretch of the imagination. Grispi is 12-1 with a lot of early submissions. Let’s see if Jens can keep it standing.
Round 1: Both guys come out swinging and kicking. Jens goes for the takedown and Grispi catches him with a deep guillotine. Jens holds on for about 20 seconds and taps.
Grispi by way of another first round submission.
Understandably, Jens is very upset. He says this will probably be his last fight. Crowd gives him a great ovation.
There’s some Brian Bowles versus Miguel Torres hype for their fight on Aug 9. Both guys are interviewed at ringside. Not much to it.
Jeremy Roenick, Keith Jardine, and Jamie Varner are at ringside.
Donald Cerrone Vs. James Krause
Two tall 55’ers in this one. The Cowboy is 9-1 with 1 no contest and Krause is 10-0.
Round 1: Cerrone swinging and Krause shooting and being denied a couple times early before he finally gets him down. Cerrone with an omaplata. Krause out and into another one. Krause rolls and Cerrone ends up on top. Krause working a couple submissions with no luck, but they end up on the feet as a result. Cerrone gets a standing guillotine and then lands a big knee to the face. Cerrone lands a straight right and puts Krause on his ass. He jumps on him, but can’t decide if he wants to pound him or go for a submission. Eventually he decides to go for the submission and sinks in the rear naked choke. Krause taps.
Donald “The Cowboy†Cerrone by first round submission. Good fast paced fight.
Scott Jorgensen Vs. Antonio Banuelos
Round 1: Jorgensen gets hit with a big punch early, and then gets taken down and pinned against the cage. Banuelos lands a few shots before Jorgensen gets it back standing. Jorgensen may have been poked, he seems to be blinking his right eye a lot. Both guys trading a few shots, but Banuelos is landing the better shots and more often. Good action for most of the round. Banuelos takes round 1.
Round 2: Jorgensen’s eye looks like hell. He doesn’t seem to have an answer for Banuelos’ punches. Jorgensen tried a half hearted take down which didn’t work. Jorgensen lands a couple good punches and Banuelos responds with a few of his own. Jorgensen is clinching and trying to get inside Banuelos’ range. Jorgensen looks pissed and is constantly moving forward. Closer round, but I’d still give it to Banuelos.
Round 3 starts off with both guys throwing hard. Jorgensen gets a choke off a Banuelos takedown attempt, but Banuelos out easily. Banulos looks to be tiring a bit and Jorgensen continues to walk him down. Banuelos bleeding under the left eye. Big knee by Jorgensen. Jorgensen with a choke, Banuelos out, Jorgensen on Banuelos’ back going for another choke. Back to the feet. Jorgensen’s round. Great fight. I can see it going either way, it depends on how the judges saw the second round, which was pretty close.
29-28 Jorgensen , 29-28 Banuelos, 29-28 Banuelos. Banuelos by split decision
Jose Aldo Vs. Cub Swanson
Swanson is 12-2, with his last loss coming a couple fights ago at the hands of Jens Pulver via a very quick guillotine submission. Jose Also is 14-1 and on a 7 fight win streak.
Round 1: Aldo came out at the bell and hit a flying knee to Swanson’s eye. Swanson went down holding his eye and Aldo pounced on him. Ref stopped it. Aldo by TKO about 5 seconds into the match. Should have the official time in a minute.
Official time was 8 seconds
Rolando Perez Vs. Seth Dikun
Round 1: Dikum jumped into the air, grabbed Perez in a triangle and pulled it to the ground. Perez tried a slam with no luck. Dikum held him in the triangle for about 90 seconds before Perez tapped.
Seth Dikum by first round submission.
Mike Campbell Vs. Anthony Pettis
Round 1: Pettis grabs a choke standing, a triangle on the ground, an arm lock, holy shit that was a nice set of transitions, to an arm bar to a triangle. Campbell taps. That action was so fast that I may have it out of order or may have missed something. Wow!
Anthony Pettis by first round submission.
Mike Brown Vs. Urijah Faber
Brown took the belt off Faber in November. Each has won one fight since that time. Brown disposed of Leonard Garcia quite handily and Faber took out Jens Pulver for a second time. This fight has been highly anticipated.
The FGB’ers are split on who takes this one. We have 3 Faber by decision, 1 Faber by TKO and one Mike Brown by TKO. The odd man out is the same guy who picked Shields to win last night. You’ll have to look at the predictions if you want to know who it was, but I can tell you this, it wasn’t me.
The first boo’s I’ve heard all night accompany Brown’s walk to the ring. Tough gig to fight the company’s poster boy in his hometown.
Round 1: Both guys a bit tentative, feeling each other out. Brown drives Faber to the cage. Back in the center, Faber landing a few kicks. Faber looks confident. Brown bleeding from the eye. Faber with a guillotine. Brown out and on Faber’s back. On their feet. Brown smothering him standing on the cage and landing knees to the head and body. Back to the center. Faber stuns Brown for a second, Brown grabs a choke, Brown controlling Faber on the ground. Good round. Urijah pushed the pace, but Brown landed the better shots and controlled where the fight went. I’d give it to Brown.
Round 2: Bit of a slow start. Brown’s corner did a good job with his eye. Faber busier, but not really landing much. Brown takes him down and is controlling. Landing a few shots and looking for a guillotine. Faber back up, but pinned against the fence and Brown has his back. Back on the ground with Brown on top after escaping guillotine attempt. Back up and clinched against the cage. A few shots by each guy toward the end of the round. Pretty much the same as the last round and once again, I’d give the round to Brown.
Round 3: Faber getting a little wild. Lands a nice elbow on Brown. Brown has him down and in a choke, lets it go and takes Faber’s back. Faber up. Faber doing more than Brown on the feet. Faber on top and Brown grabs a heel hook. Back up. Urijah not throwing his right hand and Kenny thinks it may be broken. Faber did more that round. I think Faber takes round 3.
Round 4: Brown starts the round dirty boxing. Slowing pace a bit. Staying on the feet and landing a few shots, no real combos or flurries or exchanges. Brown is landing heavy to the body of Faber. Faber is visibly in pain with his hand. He just let out an “ow†and shook it out. Brown is landing fairly often and is doing more damage. I’d call it for Brown.
Round 5: I think Faber needs to finish to win. Urijah seems to be looking to clinch and take it down. He finally gets it. Brown has his back. Standing again. Brown flips Faber and drops him on his dome. Back on the feet. Brown with another takedown. Back up and Brown is kneeing against the fence and controlling the clinch. Faber had a choke that looked bad for Brown, had to let it go possibly due to the hand. Brown not letting up and Faber isn’t doing enough to end the fight. Brown takes him down and gets his back again. Faber gets Brown’s back. The fight goes the distance. Close round 5, first thought is that Brown did enough to take it. I have it 4 rounds to one for Brown, 49-46.
49-46, 49-46, 48-47. Mike Brown by unanimous decision.
Brown gives the standard post fight interview. Says he hopes Faber gets back into the top mix soon so that they can fight again. Faber shows his hand, which is quite swollen, and says he broke it half way through round 1. Apologizes and says he’ll be back.
A great night of fights.
Nice job Jim. It was a very fun card.