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:
Some very interesting fights on this card. I won't go too in-depth with these fights as they don't mean a whole lot as far as contendership goes right now. Some of the names are definitely familiar, but some won't be. Blas Avena came off a big win over Tiki Ghosn at WEC 29, and he's right back in there for WEC 30, interesting fight. Sergio Gomez was featured on TapouT! for an episode airing on Versus in which they followed his pre-fight and post-fight against Marcus Hicks. Jesse Forbes fought Matt Hamill in his only loss at the TUF Finale 3. That's just a few facts for anyone not recognizing some of these names.
Breakdown of WEC 30
Stann has been training with Dan Henderson and Randy Couture from time to time. I've read that he is shifting to Xtreme Couture to train. That's a promising sign for Brian Stann. He owns a 4-0 record, all wins by TKO. If he's in training with great wrestlers such as Henderson and Couture, look for a ground and pound clinic. He also has fairly good standup. Jeremiah is a straight boxing and grappling fighter. He has about half his wins via submission and half via KO/TKO. He is the Revolition Cage Fighting Champion, and is considered a force on the ground. If he can outmaneuver Stann, he may be able to pull off a chokeout. I'm going to have to take Stann in this fight however. He has superior training, and I look to see a lot of improvement from him in this fight.
John Alessio (19-10) vs. Marcelo Brito (6-1)
Alessio is well known for his bout with Carlos Condit back at WEC: Condit vs Alessio. He's known for some good ju-jitsu skills along with some straight knockout power to boot. He's coming off a win over Alex Serdyukov at WEC 28, and has fought a few bouts in the UFC, namely against Thiago Alves, Diego Sanchez, and Pat Miletich. He has also fought UFC fighters Jonathan Goulet and Jason Black, all fights resulting in a loss. He's going to be going against another ju-jitsu fighter out of Brazil in Marcelo Brito. I haven't really seen much out of this guy other than his hero is listed as Homer Simpson, come on, that itself deserves a win. I will say this, Marcelo has one video out on Youtube, of his camp in Brazil. It's a rundown shithole. And there is one thing about guys training out of rundown shitholes, they have nothing to lose. Look for this to be possibly an upset fight. Alessio is susceptible to submissions, but Brito uses a lot of Muay Thai. It may not be good for Brito to stand with Alessio's knockout power. I'm going to say Alessio has this one, but look for a possible upset.
A fight that looks to be pretty damn unintriguing. McCall is a ju-jitsu fighter, at least from the looks of his camp, Next Generation. It looks like McCall has some power, whereas Wheeler is strictly a submission fighter and by the look of his photo, one weak standup fighter. Wheeler trains out of Carlos Condit's camp, but Condit's camp really lacks any unbelievable talent, except for Carlos. My gut says McCall's power is going to take Wheeler, but I really have no idea on this fight. Wheeler seems to have the submission skills, but he has fought pretty much only guys who were fighting their first fight. McCall has at least fought some veterans fighters. McCall by TKO/KO.
Forbes is barely more popular than Bryan Baker, and that's only because he got killed by Matt Hamill at TUF Finale 3. Forbes hasn't fought anybody worth a damn since. Forbes seems to be the wrestler and Baker is a striking fighter with some type of wrestling ability. Forbes looks to definitely have better ground skills. Forbes by ground and pound or choke.
You may love Gomez from watching Tapout! on Versus, but Cerrone is a ju-jitsu wrecker. He's won all of his fight via submission, and Gomez basically had the Hicks fight on lockdown until he was caught in a submission. I think Cerrone will take this one in the same manner.
This one, I'm undecided. Kevin Knabjan is out of Hellhouse, Clay Guida's training camp, and if he's out of there, he has unbelievable cardio. But Blas came out with a vengeance against Tiki, and Kevin has one fight on his record that is almost similar. He was straight beatdown in about 30 seconds by Brock Larson, so I'm wondering if Blas can overwhelm him out the gate. I'm going to take Knabjan, just because I want to see some Guida love rolling into UFC 74.
That sums up my final breakdown of the WEC 30 card. These analysises are short and sweet, and not very in-depth, but most of these guys are out to prove they can fight and deserve the shots at titles and a UFC contract later on. I think once we see these guys get more fights in, we'll have a better feel as to how these guys will perform later.