Jens Pulver vs. Urijah Faber

I love Jens Pulver. He’s definitely one of my favorite fighters for the mere fact that he’s a pure fighter and never makes excuses. He just puts up or shuts up. Unfortunately, he’s going to battle with a great fighter in Urijah Faber. The key factor in this bout will be whether Pulver can keep this fight on the feet. Faber’s takedowns are as explosive as you can get at 145 pounds, and I find it hard to believe that Pulver can simply stuff them at every encounter in the cage.

I’m also not convinced that Pulver’s training on the ground is going to be enough to stop his power on the ground. This fight could easily be ended in much of the same way that Penn ended his fight with Pulver.

Leland’s Prediction: Urijah Faber via submission, Round 2

Jeff Curran vs. Mike Brown

A lot of people are calling this an upset special, but few remember that Curran is one of the better jiu-jitsu guys in MMA today at his weight class. Although Faber was much quicker than Curran during their bout, I doubt Curran will allow that to happen once again. Brown has shown in the past that he’s susceptible to the submission, and he’s mostly a guy who tries to knock his opponents out. Curran doesn’t have bad standup at all, and he will likely spar with Brown until the opportunity to hit the floor presents itself.

This should be a decent war between these two veterans, but I’m going to pick the Jeff Curran due to his ground superiority over Brown.

Leland’s Prediction: Jeff Curran via unanimous decision

Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda

Maeda is probably best known for being “that guy” who got KO’d by “Krazy Horse” Bennett at Bushido 7 back in PRIDE’s days, but he’s made his way to the cage in WEC to fight one of the best grapplers at 135 in Miguel Torres. Maeda has some great power in his hands, and it’s evident that his kicks can also take opponents out as Charlie Valencia found out. Can he avoid Torres ground game? That’s the big question in this fight.

Torres is a monster on the ground. His length helps his guard stay high on his opponent’s back which allows him to transition to multiple submissions quickly and effectively. I can’t bet against a guy who can transition so smoothly.

Leland’s Prediction: Miguel Torres via submission, Round 1

Rob “Razor” McCullough vs. Kenneth “The Machine” Alexander

Alexander doesn’t stand much of a chance here, in my opinion. He doesn’t have the ground game to keep McCullough down, and his striking is average at best. McCullough should be able to stalk him and use his Muay Thai striking abilities to wear down Alexander. Leg kicks will be a big part of this bout early, and McCullough will likely throw some huge bombs that will eventually land.

Leland’s Prediction: Rob McCullough via TKO/KO, Round 1

Quick Picks

Charlie Valencia vs. Dominic Cruz: Evenly matched in this one, but Valencia has fought some tougher competition than Cruz. I also need to see another German suplex… with release from Valencia. Valencia via submission, Round 2

Mark Munoz vs. Chuck Grigsby: Tough to call considering Grigsby’s record recently is padded with subpar competition. Munoz is only 3-0, tough to judge his talent at this point in his career. I’ll lean toward Grigsby due to experience. Grigsby via TKO/KO, Round 1

Chase Beebe vs. Will Ribeiro: Chase has a decent chin and can likely avoid Ribeiro’s power, but it’s more likely that Beebe will put this to the ground quickly. Beebe via submission, Round 2

Jose Aldo vs. Alexandre Franca Nogueira: Nogueira makes his way to the States after fighting in Shooto for quite awhile. His first test in Aldo should be a decent warm-up bout, and I think his jiu-jitsu will be much better than what Aldo can fend off. Nogueira via submission, Round 1

Luis Sapo vs. Alex Serdyukov: Serdyukov had a solid win over Ryan Stonitsch in his last bout, but Sapo has fought some decent competition including a win over Daniel Acacio. His only loss is to current UFC fighter Yoshiyuki Yoshida, who is a monster in the cage. I’ll take Sapo. Sapo via TKO/KO, Round 2

Tim McKenzie vs. Jeremy Lang: While Lang boasts a 12-0 record, his strength of record is questionable considering he has a lot of wins over sub .500 fighters. I’ll take McKenzie based on his losses being to higher caliber opponents. McKenzie via TKO/KO, Round 1

Danny Castillo vs. Donald “Cowboy Cerrone: Cerrone was well on his way to getting some bigger matchups when he was busted for using diuretics. He’s tough, versatile on the ground, and should be able to avoid the striking game. Cerrone via submission, Round 1

The main card wasn’t all that unbelievable, but it did have some standout fights on it.

Crunkilton came out with a good combo and head kick to start it out, but McCullough countered with a barrage. McCullough landed a huge right that knocked Crunkilton down and then the onslaught continued. Crunkilton would scramble to his feet only to get rocked again and again. Mir was flabergasted at the fact Crunkilton was trying to stand with McCullough and literally was saying “What the hell is he doing?”. McCullough easily overpowered Crunkilton with his standup.

Chase Beebe vs. Rani Yahya delivered. Rani Yahya came out, and tangled with Beebe from the get go. A small exchange and Yahya shot the legs and got Beebe to the ground. As Beebe was trying to transition on top of Yahya, Rani grabbed Beebe’s leg as he tried to scramble to his feet and sunk in a great kneebar. Beebe was visibly in tremendous pain, but was able to slip out of it. Yahya continued to try submissions throughout the first round, mainly armbars, but failed to do so, but won the round. For the next four rounds, Beebe put on a wrestling clinic is stuffing Yahya’s ju-jitsu. Beebe was able to get Yahya’s back and sink hooks in for 3 out of the 4 remaining rounds and basically nibble away at Yahya with small jabs and choke attempts. Yahya became gassed in the 3rd, and barely hung on by the 5th round.

Stann vs. Billington was somewhat of a joke. Everyone expected Stann to come out and dominate, and that’s exactly what happened. He tagged Billington early and was able to just punch him down to the ground and win easily with some ground and pound. Stann’s size over Billington was incredible, and the reach advantage was just too much from the get go. It was clear Billington’s standup was much too slow, and allowed Stann to basically pick a spot and hit it.

Miguel Torres vs. Jeff Bedard went much as it was expected. Sherdog actually has Miguel Torres ranked thanks to Jordan Breen’s great knowledge of the low weight classes, and it was rumored Shooto was trying to obtain him. He came to the WEC, and dominated a ground and pound wrestler in Jeff Bedard. Bedard took Torres down early and Torres worked off his back, sinking in a triangle choke from the bottom easily.

Bryan Baker vs. Jesse Forbes wasn’t a bad fight. A lot of people did not know who Baker was, but he proved it tonight. Forbes came out with a straight punch that rocked Baker. Forbes went in for the kill, but Baker was able to fend off the attack and eventually outlast the assault. Baker was able to throw some big punches and land a few. The biggest advantage for Baker was his wrestling. He was able to dominate Forbes on the ground, and eventually sunk the hook in and flatten Forbes on his stomach, mounted on his back. He rained down a load of punches and the fight was over. Good win for Baker, keep an eye out.

Blas Avena vs. Joe Benoit, Benoit had Clay Guida in his corner and it immediately had me thinking this may last a while if it comes down to cardio, but Blas came out much like he did against Tiki, with pure adrenaline. Blas immediately grabbed Benoit’s head and sunk in a guillotine choke that ended the fight 29 seconds in.

Overall, not a bad fight card, but not unbelievably spectacular. Mir’s commentating wasn’t half bad, but in some of the fights, the action was happening so quickly, he couldn’t keep up, notably the Baker vs. Forbes fight. Mir’s sidekick was pretty horrible, saying some of the chokes were sunk in deep when they weren’t even in, but overall, his play by play wasn’t bad. That’s what Mir is there for, color commentary.

They announced the new WEC/Versus deal during a break as said above and had a good interview with Urijah Faber, Faber did mention he had heard Curran say he was going to knock him out, and Faber replied by stating that he didn’t think Curran had knocked anyone out… ever.

It's been a horrendous month for the Miletich family. Staph infection has pretty much ripped through the gym, and Jens Pulver ended up getting it. But.. he didn't secede to it, he just ended up rolling his knee during training and is now out for the WEC 30 main card. The WEC revealed some of the NEW main card fights along with some of the undercard fights for the evening. I'm hoping we can see a few undercard fights as well since some of them are intriguing. The remainder of the card looks like this: