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 WEC will make its presence known in the Southwest on Wednesday night as they move into the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Three championship title fights will headline the card with Carlos Condit defending his title against Carlo Prater, a fighter who has once defeated Condit. Also on the line is the Lightweight title in which Rob McCullough will defend against former UFC prospect Jamie Varner. In the third title bout, Featherweights Chase Beebe and Miguel Torres will tangle for the title. Slated to make his WEC debut, Leonard Garcia will take on K-1 Hero’s veteran Hiroyuki Takaya to round out the top fights of the night. It looks to be a solid card full of excitement.

Carlo Prater vs. Carlos Condit
Welterweight Title Bout

One of the more exciting bouts of the night will be the main event featuring Prater vs. Condit. Prater is one of the only fighters to have defeated Condit, and it was in quick fashion via a triangle choke back in September of 2004. Condit went on to bigger and better things, defeating some very good talent on the road to winning the Welterweight title in the WEC. Prater continued to show some impressive skills, but never broke into a bigger promotion.

There are some interesting pieces to both their skillsets here that should prove to be advantageous to Condit. Prater is primarily a submission fighter who continues to be good on the ground. In his recent bouts however, he has shown a degradation of his finishing skills, taking many fights the distance and winning by decision. Carlos has only gone to decision once in his career, and it’s highly unlikely that it will happen again, so look for Condit to push the pace.

Condit and Prater are both very good on the ground, but Condit does have much better striking skills. He has the ability to finish, and should take out Prater. Prater, however, does have a good shot at defeating Condit since Prater is very tough to finish. I’ll look for this to head to the late rounds before ending.

Leland’s Prediction: Carlos Condit via TKO, 3rd round

Rob McCullough vs. Jamie Varner
Lightweight Title Bout

This is a fight that I think has fallen under the radar as far as upset possibilities go. Varner has a much better ground game than McCullough. In fact, McCullough really hasn’t had to prove his ground game in any of his recent fights. Varner, on the other hand, has a solid ground game that features some excellent wrestling skills that could prove to be tough for “Razor” to deal with.

The biggest difference here is McCullough’s standup. His striking is very good, and his Muay Thai credentials only further solidify his standing a great striker in the weight class. Can Jamie Varner avoid becoming another Richard Crunkilton? It’s tough to say, but we do know that McCullough will come out strong.

Another stat that sticks out is that McCullough has never been finished, and he has proven himself early in his career that he can withstand the ground game against other grapplers. Crunkilton was going to be that test for his ground game, but he was unable to get McCullough down.

There have been some good interviews with Varner suggesting that he has been training very hard, improving his grappling, and coming into this fight with a smart gameplan. For that, I’m going to go with Varner.

Leland’s Prediction: Jamie Varner via submission, 2nd round

Chase Beebe vs. Miguel Torres
Featherweight Title

Another fantastic matchup for the WEC will be the Chase Beebe vs. Miguel Torres clash. Beebe proved that he has fantastic submission defense when he nearly got kneebar’d by Rani Yahya, then survived multiple submission attempts throughout the fight while beating Yahya senseless. Beebe will come in with great wrestling, solid striking, and good ground and pound skills.

Torres is a formidable opponent due to his jiu-jitsu skills being so well-rounded. He’s also currently 20-1, but his knock could be said to be his strength of schedule. He hasn’t fought tough talent in his weight class, but then again, Beebe also hasn’t had a plethora of talent to take on either.

This seems to once again be a wrestler vs. a grappler matchup, the same style matchup that Yahya lost. Beebe has great submission defense, and he has never been finished. Torres has awesome submission ability and good technical striking. I’m going to go for the upset here.

Leland’s Prediction: Miguel Torres via submission, 3rd round