WEC 48: Jose Aldo Vs. Urijah Faber Play By Play
Well, at least the open is different. No gladiators thankfully.
I blogged the prelims on Spike TV, which featured a crazy fight between Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung.
1. Anthony Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen
The striking in this one is so different than the Garcia/Jung fight. Very technical and solid. Banuelos threw the best shot of the round with a left hook that put him down. Otherwise, very competitive round.
What a round for Jorgensen. He was the better striker and was walking down Banuelos. He put him down with a straight right to the temple and Banuelos’ nose started bleeding like crazy. Banuelos sprang up at the end, but easily Jorgensen’s round.
Jorgensen put him down again and the bloody nose exploded again. He was working the choke late in the round, but Banuelos fought him. It wasn’t the most active fight, but both guys are just really good technically. Jorgensen is going to get the decision, but Banuelos was never say die.
Winner: Scott Jorgensen by unanimous decision
2. Shane Roller vs. Anthony Njokuani
Easy fight for Roller. He got Njokuani down, worked the body triangle and then the rear naked choke.
Winner: Shane Roller by way of 1st round submission
Poor Scott Coker. They just showed Jake Shields sitting next to Dana White with their arms around each other.
3. Manvel Gamburyan vs. Mike Brown
Wow. Gamburyan caught Brown with a short right hand and Brown buckled. He finished him with short rights on the ground.
Winner: Manvel Gamburyan by 1st round TKO
4. Brad Pickett vs. Demetrious Johnson
This is a fight from earlier in the prelims. Johnson was working his stand-up while Pickett wanted to go to the ground. Very competitive first round. Pickett with a great takedown, but Johnson looks good on his feet.
Really good round. Johnson is fast. He was getting in and out and peppering Pickett, but whenever they engaged, Pickett took him down. Johnson was able to continually get up, but the round ended with a nasty slam by Pickett.
Very good fight. Lots of back and forth, but I think Pickett takes the decision based on the takedowns.
Winner: Brad Pickett by unanimous decision
5. Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson
Cerrone took a knee that gave him a huge hematoma. Cerrone got a bit sloppy and Henderson locked in a tight guillotine much like he did with Varner and Cerrone quickly tapped. Pretty disappointing considering we were expecting another fight of the year.
Winner: Ben Henderson by way of 1st round submission
6. Brandon Visher vs. Tyler Toner
Toner nailed Visher with a kick and then punch that put him down. Visher was stunned as he was falling. And then Toner followed up with elbows on the ground for the victory. Visher
Winner: Tyler Toner by way of 1st round TKO
7. Urijah Faber vs. Jose Aldo
Of course, the crowd is going crazy for Faber. Aldo skipped out to Run This Town by Jay-Z, Kanye, and Rihanna. He thinks he’s going to run Sacramento?
Aldo didn’t look at Faber at the stare down.
Interesting first round. Best shot of the round was a big knee to the body by Aldo that knocked Faber down, but he got up quickly. Faber is in and out with his shots and he’s landed a couple, but the round was more of a feeling out process. Aldo is throwing everything with bad intentions. I’d probably give Aldo the round.
Aldo is picking him a part with leg kicks. He’s limping off his front leg. Dominating round for Aldo. Faber can’t get inside and is using a front kick to try to keep Aldo at bay, but it’s pretty useless.
Aldo is beating Urijah up with the leg kicks. Faber can’t do anything right now. Aldo beat him in every way imaginable. Not sure what’s holding Faber up. It’s probably not strong knee tendons.
Faber had to change stances because of his front leg being brutalized. Aldo then kicked the other leg and Faber went down. Aldo got the body lock and his back, but Faber somehow got up. Aldo got Faber down and crucifixed his arms and little brothered him for about the last two minutes. It was brutal. The referee let Faber survive.
The fifth round wasn’t much at all. Aldo stayed away and didn’t want to finish the fight for whatever reason. Kind of a downer to end the fight because he dominated Faber so much.
Winner: Jose Aldo by way of unanimous decision
Smooth Ben, aww yeah, that’s my man!!
Hahahaha. You were the only one who called it.
It’s nice to be right for once. 🙂
Great card with a horrible horrible ending. What the hell is it lately with Brazilian champs?
Ya, I wanted him to at least try to finish Faber. I thought the same thing with the Brazillian champs, but Aldo was 100x better than Silva here. He went after it.
I hope this isn’t the kind of champion Aldo is going to be. He was flash and excitement to get to the top. It would be a shame to see him become methodical and calculated now.
I have a feeling it’s more that he knew that if not for Faber, he wouldn’t have had this kind of opportunity and he didn’t want to finish Faber in his hometown. I don’t think it was like Silva, where he just decided to do things on his own terms. I think Aldo showed a little pity towards him near the end.